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In 1996, the European Union created the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), a set of prestigious and competitive grants designed to fund research. Thanks to her, the PROSTAMET project got underway on January 1, an ambitious program focused on training PhD students and discovering new therapeutic avenues against prostate cancer, in which UNamur is participating.

At UNamur's NARILIS Institute, the 'Stress and AGEing' (SAGE) research group, led by Professor Florence Chainiaux, is seeking to understand the biological processes involved in ageing, focusing on the interconnection between exposure to stress and cellular senescence.

Catherine Michaux, a qualified FNRS researcher, is a partner in the European MSCA-Doctoral Network PROSTAMET project. The special feature of this project is that it funds both research and the training of 9 doctoral students within a network of multidisciplinary experts.

More info coming soon! More info on the NARILIS website

A multidisciplinary research team from the University of Namur (UNamur) and the UCL Namur University Hospital (Godinne campus) has just published a study in the journal Acta Neuropathologica that sheds light on some of the mysteries surrounding the origin of the pain experienced by patients with long COVID. Their findings suggest that these painful symptoms may be mediated by an autoimmune response. In other words: patients produce antibodies that attack their own neurons—those responsible for pain perception and deep body sensation, located along the spine. These highly promising results represent a major scientific breakthrough that opens new avenues for better understanding the disease and, ultimately, developing a treatment targeting the painful symptoms of long COVID.

NHNAI - New Humanism at the time of Neurosciences and Artificial Intelligence

Colloques 14/11/2024 | The Emergence of ConsciousnessInterdisciplinary colloquium organized by ESPHIN (UNamur's Espace Philosophique), with the collaboration of the Centre Universitaire Notre-Dame de la Paix (cUNDP), the Louvain Institute of Biomolecular Science and Technology,and Louvai4evolution (UCLouvain).This free colloquium is aimed at:Specialists, students or PhD students from various disciplines: neuroscience, biology, anthropology, medicine, psychology, philosophy, ethics, computer science, robotics, mathematics, ...People with a passion for interdisciplinarity;Humanists and the curious.Location : Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, rue Grafé 1, Local L22Learn more Ecology of life" seminars It's obvious to anyone paying attention to the paths taken by a growing number of 21st century thinkers: these paths lead to the living! Whether it's called "ecophilosophy", "ecoanthropology", "ecosophy" or "ecopolitics", this way of thinking about the living is occupying a growing place not only in the media and publications of all kinds, but also in concrete actions in a variety of fields.Fashion? Ephemeral trend? Collateral effect of "transitionism" tinged with ambient catastrophism? A new attempt at ecological rebellion? The seminars to which we invite you are intended to be a meeting place - an ecosystem - at the heart of which we will resonate with founding texts of this current that integrates nature, environment, milieu, human and non-human, and straddles the worn-out dualisms of our modern tradition. In other words, we propose to read together some key texts by authors who have attempted to draw lessons from their authentic encounters with other living beings.Program 2024-2025 | At the Roots of the HumanOn December 13 2024 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm (intervention, discussions and convivial moment). Quentin HIERNAUX will introduce plant philosophy and tell us about Humboldt's "Tableau physique des Andes" and his equinoctial geography of plants.On February 28, 2025 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm (intervention, discussions and convivial moment), Jean-Baptiste VUILLEROD will address the following theme: Naturphilosophie du végétal : Goethe, Schelling, Humboldt.OnApril 11, 2025from 2:00 to 4:00 pm (intervention, discussions and convivial moment), Roland CAZALIS will share his biologist's point of view on the plant world.Introducing the subjectIf we were to take stock of the history of mankind, one trend would certainly stand out: that of a utilitarian relationship with the non-human that continues to grow, and consequently that of a widening gap between the human and the rest.Humanity, however, has its roots in a living environment that cultivates many other relationships than those we currently privilege, which are dominated by instrumental rationality. Sounding out these forgotten relational universes, without which it is increasingly difficult to think about the human, is one aim of this seminar, which this year will invite you to encounter the plant.Last year we turned our attention to the communal dimension of living things, starting with the work of Aldo Leopold. In particular, the American forester challenged us with a question from which we should never stray: "just what and whom do we love?". His answer, in the middle of the last century, already confirmed the trend evoked above: "Certainly not the soils, which we allow to be scavenged towards the estuaries. Certainly not the waters, which we assume have no other function than to power turbines, carry barges and carry away garbage. Certainly not plants, whose entire communities we exterminate without batting an eyelid. Certainly not the animals, from which we have already extirpated many of the largest and most magnificent species.". In the face of this lack of consideration for what is not us, the earth ethic proposed by Leopold "modifies the role of homo sapiens, who, from conqueror of the earth-community, becomes a full member and citizen of it". It is thus an ethic that "implies respect for other members as well as for the community as such", and "man is ultimately only a member of a biotic team" ("The Ethics of the Earth", in Almanac of a Sand County).To help us rediscover this vital sense of community, this year we'll turn to plant lifestyles: those living things that maintain intimate relationships with light, air, water and everything we call "soil". How can we let ourselves be instructed by the plants without which we could not exist? "By making possible the world of which they are part and content, plants destroy the topological hierarchy that seems to reign in the cosmos. They demonstrate that life is a breaking of the asymmetry between container and content. When there is life, philosopher Emanuele Coccia continues, the container lies within the content (and is therefore contained by it) and vice versa. The paradigm of this reciprocal imbrication is what the ancients already called breath (pneuma). To blow, to breathe, means in effect to have this experience: that which contains us, the air, becomes contained within us and, conversely, that which was contained within us becomes that which contains us." (The Life of Plants).The Tableau Physique (1807) by Alexander von Humboldt:

Board members President: Nicolas Monseu-Van CleemputVice-president: Marie d'Udekem-GeversPhilosophy department representative: Laura RizzerioScience-Philosophies-Society Department representative: Geoffroy de BrabanterAssociate member representative: Bertrand HespelSecretariat: Vénonique OroseWebsite manager: Nathanaël Laurent See all members

The TineaDiag project is a research project run by UNamur and ULiège with funding from the SPW Research Win²WAL program. It tackles dermatophytoses, skin infections responsible for ringworm, which can affect both humans and animals. The aim? To identify, in dermatophytes, precise cellular markers in order to detect them with sensitivity and certainty, and thus identify infections caused by antifungal-resistant strains.

Non-exhaustive overview of publications by institute members.

Image Arcadie - Anthropocene, History, Utopias Image cBUN - Centre for Bioethics View content Image cUNDP - Centre Universitaire Notre-Dame de paix View content Image SPiN - Science & Philosophy in Namur

The F.R.S.-FNRS has just published the results of its various 2024 calls. Equipment calls, research credits and projects, FRIA doctoral grants and Mandant d'Impulsion Scientifique (MIS), there are many instruments to support fundamental research. Find out more about UNamur's results.