Established in 1933, the Francqui Chairs aim to promote exchanges between universities and highlight academic excellence. Each year, Belgian universities invite professors from other institutions to deliver a series of approximately ten hours of lectures, preceded by an inaugural lecture open to a wider audience. 

This year, KU Leuven has chosen to invite Catherine Guirkinger, a professor of economics at the University of Namur. “What interests me is how arrangements within couples and families are reshaped when the world around them changes, and how these changes affect each of their members.” “Her research, conducted primarily in sub-Saharan Africa but also in Europe, combines field surveys, experiments, and historical data.” 

The Francqui Chair will begin with an inaugural lecture titled “Economic Change and the Family: Adjustment and Resistance,” followed by three more technical courses designed for master’s and doctoral students. Catherine Guirkinger will demonstrate how economic changes, laws, or social norms can influence decisions made within households. “We cannot ignore what happens within the family: all policy is, in a way, filtered through it,” she emphasizes. 

She will draw in particular on her research on divorce, domestic violence, decision-making within couples, and the influence of the economic environment on families. These courses will also provide an opportunity to engage with students already involved in research. “You can go deeper with an audience like this,” Catherine Guirkinger notes. “It’s always very stimulating.”  

This Francqui Chair also builds on an existing relationship between UNamur and KU Leuven. Economists from both universities have collaborated, in particular, on an EOS (Excellence of Science) project, the joint research program of the FNRS and the FWO. Catherine Guirkinger has very fond memories of that experience: “This program led to very fruitful scientific exchanges. This chair is a wonderful opportunity to build on them.” 

Her presence in Leuven will thus provide a new opportunity to exchange ideas, share research conducted in Namur, and further the collaboration between the two institutions. Congratulations to Catherine Guirkinger on this prestigious honor! 

E-government, e-participation, algorithmic governance, and artificial intelligence: the IFIP EGOV International Conference brings together researchers studying digital transformations in the public sector and their implications for citizens and government agencies. UNamur was particularly well represented at the conference this year, with four papers and three posters presented. 

Simon Dechamps, a doctoral student in management at UNamur and a member of the MINDIT center, received the 2026 Best Paper Award for his article “From the Modern Citizen to Citizens as Multiplicities: Citizen-Centricity as a Sign of a New Episteme?”His work examines how government agencies seek to better tailor their digital services to citizens’ needs. 

Based on fourteen interviews conducted within Belgian public administrations, Simon Dechamps demonstrates that it is difficult to speak of the “citizen” as a single, uniform profile. Needs vary greatly from one person to another, and public services must therefore take this diversity into account. His work thus highlights the need to better equip public officials to tailor services to different user profiles.

Lisa Dewulf, a doctoral student at the UNamur School of Management and a member of the MINDIT center and the NaDI institute, received the Best Poster Award for “Do Fictional Representations of AI in Government Relate to Citizens’ Perceptions?” 

Her research focuses on representations of digital technologies in fiction and how these representations can influence our perception of such technologies. Her work is part of the ARC Di-Fic project, which explores, among other things, the use of films, TV series, and video games in digital citizenship education. Her poster presents a typology of representations of artificial intelligence in the government sector based on three dimensions: the level of governance, the type of AI depicted, and its role in the narrative. 

The goal is to better understand how fiction helps shape collective imaginaries surrounding artificial intelligence, as it plays an increasingly significant role in government agencies. The jury particularly praised the practical relevance of the work and its contribution to research on AI and digital government. 

Mahougnon Sedjro Eudes Adiba, a doctoral student at UNamur in the MINDIT–NaDI program, had his article selected as one of the three most innovative research contributions out of nearly 200 submissions. His work focuses on the accessibility of public data and, more specifically, on how citizens search for information on open data portals, such as that of the City of Namur. 

His study analyzes how users actually navigate these platforms. By examining their interaction patterns, the research aims to better understand how citizens go about finding public information, with the ultimate goal of designing portals that are simpler, more intuitive, and better suited to their actual needs. 

With seven presentations, two awards, and one nomination, EGOV 2026 highlights the diversity of research conducted at UNamur on digital transformation, public services, and citizenship. This is also a wonderful recognition for the MINDIT center, to which several of these researchers are affiliated. Congratulations to all the researchers who contributed to the work presented at this year’s conference! 

Juliette Crespin-Boucaud, a microeconomist, works at the intersection of development economics, household economics, and economic history. In 2021, she earned her Ph.D. from the Paris School of Economics. She then pursued several multidisciplinary research projects, first at the London School of Economics and later at the Barcelona Institute of International Studies. This background has shaped her current approach, which emphasizes dialogue with other social sciences, particularly political science, sociology, and demography.

In TranmId, Juliette seeks to understand how social identities (ethnic, national, religious, or linguistic) are formed, acquired, and passed down from one generation to the next. In other words: How do parents’ choices shape their children’s social identities?
The project focuses primarily on marriages, since the choice of a partner influences the possible identities of the children born of that union. Parents’ affiliations, languages, or religions can open up different paths of transmission: a single heritage, multiple combined heritages, or identities that are reshaped over generations.
But transmission does not stop at birth. It continues through very concrete decisions: Which language to speak at home? Which school should you enroll your children in? What priority should be given to a national language, a mother tongue or a language spoken within the family circle, religion, or educational opportunities? Development economics helps connect these individual decisions to broader contexts: available resources, public policies, history, social norms, and family aspirations.

One component of the project, funded by the International Growth Centre, focuses specifically on Mozambique, where parents’ language and educational choices provide a concrete example of this transmission. Indeed, in this country marked by significant linguistic diversity, the choice of an educational program, a language of instruction, or the language spoken at home contributes to the formation of children’s sense of identity. These decisions depend on practical constraints such as available financial resources, the languages known or spoken by parents, and accessible schools, but they are also directly linked to the aspirations parents have for their children: giving them the best opportunities for the future, preserving a family language, or maintaining a cultural identity.

To understand these choices, Juliette observes families’ behaviors as clues. What language do they speak at home? What program (bilingual or not) do they prefer for their children? 
To study how parents shape their children’s “identity background,” the survey focuses on both parents’ practices and their expectations and preferences. To measure the latter, the survey asks parents
to estimate the benefits of both types of programs. For example: Out of 10 children in the bilingual/unilingual program, how many will speak Portuguese by the end of elementary school?
— to consider hypothetical scenarios in which the language spoken at home, the parents’ occupation, and the child’s gender vary. For example: Which program will parents who are farmers and do not speak Portuguese at home prefer for their daughter?
This information is then compared with families’ actual practices: languages spoken at home, programs attended, etc.
 

Ethnic, national, or linguistic identities are not merely categories inherited once and for all. They are also shaped by everyday choices: getting married, speaking a language at home, enrolling a child in school, or choosing one form of learning over another.

Through this research, Juliette Crespin-Boucaud shows that education is not merely a place for acquiring knowledge. It is also a space for transmission, negotiation, and planning for the future. Amid family heritage, national identity, and social opportunities, language thus becomes a common thread for understanding how families shape the identities of future generations.

Outreach and Accessibility: Aline Wilmet - Confluent des Savoirs

Service marketing appealed to me because it directly touches people’s real lives: seeking medical care, learning, getting around, accessing public services, interacting with technology, or receiving support in times of vulnerability. Unlike product marketing, which focuses more on tangible goods, service marketing is concerned with experiences that are often intangible, subjective, and deeply human.

This field allows us to analyze what defines the quality of an experience: human or digital interactions, trust, emotions, the co-creation of value, as well as issues of social justice, ethics, inclusion, and dignity. The same experience can be perceived differently depending on the individual, their resources, their situation, and the context of their interaction. This is precisely what makes this field of research complex, fascinating, and essential. 

What motivates me today is understanding how organizations and institutions can design services that are not only effective or innovative, but also fairer, more humane, and more responsible. For me, service marketing is a tool for transforming people’s experiences and contributing, in very concrete ways, to people’s well-being and to a more inclusive society.

These questions are at the heart of my work. From this perspective, services are not reduced to a simple transaction but are situated within an ecosystem involving multiple stakeholders. For me, inclusion and equity are not abstract concepts: they prompt us to ask who is left out of certain services, who faces greater difficulties in being heard, understood, or served with dignity, and how to design interactions that strengthen autonomy rather than creating new forms of exclusion. My goal as a researcher is to address these issues and propose concrete recommendations in close collaboration with all stakeholders. In my view, academic research has a responsibility to engage with important societal issues and to help make the service system more inclusive and respectful of people’s dignity.

I also advocate for management research that is more open, more inclusive, and truly connected to the realities of the world. All too often, our field remains dominated by a Europe–United States lens, which leaves other contexts, other voices, and other experiences in the shadows. However, to remain relevant, management science must better integrate the diversity of human, social, cultural, and geographic realities. This commitment is not merely an intellectual conviction; it translates into concrete actions. For example, through the NEXSER program—an ambitious initiative supported by the European Union via Erasmus+—we have built a network of excellence with partners from the Global South. These collaborations—fueled by research stays, scholarly exchanges, and joint research projects—enable us to broaden our perspectives, challenge our established frameworks, and produce research that is more grounded, more accurate, and more useful. Whether through my institutional responsibilities, my international collaborations, or my engagement within my scientific community, I strive to contribute to academic ecosystems where scientific excellence, societal impact, and personal fulfillment advance hand in hand. For me, research without borders is also research that opens doors.

It is a true honor, and this recognition touches me deeply. This appointment serves as a reminder that academic impact is not measured solely by publications, but also by the ability to teach, support, and help others grow. It recognizes a central aspect of my academic identity: mentoring. 

I am convinced that supporting the next generation of researchers means shaping the future of research and society. It is essential, demanding work—yet often unseen. Helping young researchers find their voice in a highly competitive and demanding academic world, gain confidence, feel validated, and develop high-quality, meaningful research is, for me, just as important as conducting research myself. In a way, it means guiding them as they learn a demanding profession. This commitment is reflected in my participation in committees, thesis defense panels, and large-scale mentoring programs at the national and international levels.  When supervising my own doctoral students, I try to encourage them to nurture their passion for scientific research, to develop an academic mindset, to believe in their contributions, and to conduct research that transcends their individual trajectories to be of real benefit to society. For me, mentoring is not limited to the acquisition of scientific or methodological skills. It also involves passing on values that are fundamental to the academic world: integrity, rigor, responsibility, intellectual openness, respect for others… as well as a commitment to producing research that is useful, robust, and capable of meeting the highest scientific standards.

This nomination also holds special significance for me, as it comes from people I deeply respect, both in Belgium and elsewhere. The fact that senior colleagues and young researchers took the initiative to submit this nomination without my knowledge makes this recognition even more valuable and deeply personal. I sincerely enjoy interacting with young researchers. These interactions give great meaning to my academic mission. I enjoy taking the time to mentor them—whether they’re my Ph.D. students or not—with a level of expectation that I hope is always supportive. As I often tell them: “Small details make a big difference.” I am therefore deeply moved to see this long-term effort recognized by my peers.

My approach as a teacher aligns with the one I advocate as a researcher: helping students push themselves while bringing theoretical concepts to life. This approach shifts them from a mindset of simply absorbing content to one of active engagement. In this social innovation lab led by a highly dynamic team of instructors, students step into the role of “change makers” to develop solutions to pressing societal issues related to the Sustainable Development Goals, such as poverty, disability, and so on. We strive to bring them as close as possible to the issue at hand so they can shift their perspectives and better understand the realities experienced by others.  In this way, they learn to connect concepts to human realities, collaborate, experiment, take responsibility for their choices, and reflect on the consequences of their actions. We use innovative and immersive teaching methods. For example, we recently developed virtual reality scenarios that allow students to experience the daily life of a visually impaired person. In addition to stimulating their capacity for innovation, this course fosters their empathy—an essential quality for future leaders. I strongly believe in an educational approach that produces not only good students, but also citizens and future professionals capable of considering the impact of their actions. I am convinced that better training for our managers today contributes to building a better, fairer society that is more attentive to everyone.