Launched in 2010 by NARILIS (Namur Research Institute for Life Sciences), the “student-researcher” program is based on a simple yet ambitious idea: to enable motivated students to immerse themselves in research starting in their undergraduate years. The goal is not necessarily to train future academics, but to push students out of their comfort zones, to develop their ability to learn independently, and to tackle complex subjects methodically and autonomously. These are valuable skills, regardless of the career path they choose.

Today, this educational model is gaining traction beyond the NARILIS Institute. At the UNamur Law Faculty, Donaciene Quoirin tried the experiment last year as part of writing a scientific article alongside Géraldine Mathieu, a professor of family and juvenile law, and Bee Marique, a lawyer and teaching assistant. Her mission? To give children a voice. This year, she has joined Lisa Salmon in the CAPACITI project, focused on children’s rights, in collaboration with researcher Manon Brulard.

CAPACITI is a research project aimed at engaging children in learning about and advocating for their rights. Far from being a desk-bound endeavor, it involves going directly to meet with children—particularly in schools—to hear their voices and understand how they perceive their rights.

The students were therefore tasked with designing fun educational tools, leading workshops with classes, taking notes, and facilitating activities. 

“For example, we created a little game called ‘Agree, Disagree,’ using signs, and a picture game to match a right with its illustration… These are practical tools we developed in collaboration with Manon Brulard,” explains Donaciene.

Lisa, for her part, focused on developing a board game inspired by Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit, while actively participating in on-site activities. 

More recently, they have also contributed to in-depth research on the procedures for hearing children under Belgian law. This work will enable the creation of fun fact sheets for children to answer all their questions about how hearings before a judge take place.

What strikes Donaciene and Lisa is not only the intellectual depth of the project, but the human reality it reveals. During the workshops in schools, the children open up with disarming ease, sometimes on very sensitive topics. 

“We’ve been here for two hours, and they’re coming up to us to talk about very personal things. I found that pretty impressive,” Donaciene says.

Lisa, for her part, was struck by the way the children sometimes look at one another: “What struck me is that even among themselves, they can judge each other. Children trying to speak, not very sure of themselves, facing a group that judges…”

On the issue of rights themselves, the conclusion is clear: children know little, or misunderstand, their practical implications. “They’re for them and they’re essential, but they don’t know much about them,” Lisa sums up. Donaciene, for her part, observes two types: those who know they have rights but feel they aren’t respected much in the face of parental authority, and those who’ve never heard of them.

What makes this educational program particularly unique is also the nature of the relationship between the researcher and the students. Manon Brulard, the project’s principal investigator, is only three years older than Donaciene and Lisa. This closeness fosters a genuine, horizontal dynamic of collaboration, far removed from the traditional mentor-mentee model.

“I really want to treat them as full-fledged researchers. I give them meaningful tasks—tasks that will have a tangible impact. I don’t want to ask them to do work that no one will read,” Manon insists.

For her, working with student researchers also breaks the isolation inherent in research: “Research is a very solitary endeavor. Being able to discuss things after the sessions, to share ideas, is extremely enriching.”

The inclusion of the student-researcher status in the curriculum is no small matter. While Donaciene initially contributed on a volunteer basis as a student-researcher to the drafting of a scientific article, student participation in the CAPACITI project is now recognized as part of their legal internship, earning them 4 credits.

But beyond the credits, it is the experience itself that matters most. Donaciene puts it bluntly: seeing research from the inside, from its inception to its concrete outcomes, has opened her eyes to the profession of research. Lisa, for her part, regrets that the program is still not well-known enough: “If I hadn’t taken the Youth Law track, I would never have known this role existed.”

Both hope to continue the adventure next year and perhaps, one day, make research their career. Provided, they point out with clarity, that the criteria for entering an academic career do not close doors to students who are already rich in concrete and valuable experience.

Led by Professors Nathalie Burnay (sociology) and Michel Ajzen (management) from the Faculty of Economics, Management, and Communication (EMCP) at Sciences Po, University of Namur, this interdisciplinary project aims to conceptualize the ethics of care—“taking care” in French—within organizations and the conditions for its implementation to promote sustainability in the workplace. 

“For several years now, we have been witnessing a profound transformation of work, accompanied not only by a deterioration in working conditions but also by a search for meaning. More and more workers, whether skilled or unskilled, are no longer content with just a job: they are looking for work that is meaningful and suits them. " - Nathalie Burnay, Professor at the EMCP Faculty and researcher at the Transitions Institute.

In light of this observation, the pair of researchers explores the idea of care as a driver of sustainability in the workplace—that is, the living and working conditions that enable individuals to sustainably commit to a long-term professional career.

“The ethics of care is an emerging concept in management, sometimes overused under the term ‘benevolence.’ Our goal is to take a critical and rigorous look at this concept, drawing on the literature and empirical data.” — Michel Ajzen, Professor of Organizational and Innovation Management.

The SUScare project will span five years and will be structured around several phases: 

1. A review of the scientific literature to better understand the concept of sustainable work in a changing world;
2. A quantitative assessment to measure the current state of work sustainability in Belgian companies; 
3. In-depth interviews to understand how workers and managers perceive the issue of care in the workplace;
4. A case study to examine the conditions under which care can become a pillar of sustainability at work.

To carry out this work, Nathalie Burnay and Michel Ajzen will be supported by a multidisciplinary team consisting of two doctoral students—one in sociology and the other in management—as well as a postdoctoral researcher in the social sciences. 

The results of this research will take the form of a white paper for managers and a workshop with human resources professionals.

Since joining the Transitions Research Institute in 2024, the V&S; Center has strengthened its interdisciplinary approach. While law remains its foundation, dialogue with other disciplines (philosophy, history, political science, geography, etc.) is essential. “Law is indispensable for structuring society, but it often comes too late. It must be informed by sociological, anthropological, or medical analyses to truly drive change in norms,” emphasizes Stéphanie Wattier.

This openness allows the 47 researchers at the V&S; Center to better grasp the complexity of the phenomena they study and avoid a purely normative approach. It also fosters fruitful collaborations with external partners: grassroots organizations, NGOs, public institutions, judges, lawyers, and policymakers. These ongoing exchanges fuel research and strengthen its societal impact.

Each year, the Center organizes a conference centered on a unifying theme, chosen based on contemporary societal issues. These gatherings serve as key opportunities for dialogue among researchers and practitioners in the field. They often lead to the publication of collective works, designed as tools for reflection and action.

To mark its tenth anniversary, the Center organized a conference dedicated to a subject that is both sensitive and essential: “Combating Sexual Violence.” This choice came naturally. “Many of us were working, directly or indirectly, on this issue. And despite its prevalence, sexual violence is still under-addressed in legal scholarship,” explains the Center’s co-director.

The anniversary symposium brought together legal professionals, specialized organizations (“Breaking the Silence” and “Lawyers Victims Assistance”), researchers from other disciplines, judges, attorneys, and institutional representatives. This diversity reflects the Center’s philosophy: bringing together different perspectives to better understand and take action. Discussions focused on a legal analysis of sexual violence experienced by various groups, including children, the elderly, people with disabilities, and victims of armed conflict; but also on the settings where it occurs, whether in the family, online, or within institutions such as the Catholic Church, higher education, or the medical field.

This work resulted in a collective volume published by Larcier, titled “Combattre les violences sexuelles.” The choice of title is no accident. “We wanted to adopt a clearly committed stance. The role of legal doctrine is not only to describe the law, but also to shed light on phenomena that have been silenced or trivialized for too long,” explain Stéphanie Wattier and Géraldine Mathieu, coordinators of the book and co-directors of the Center.

The publication highlights two major findings: women and children remain the primary victims of sexual violence, and the law, while indispensable, remains insufficient on its own. The contributions underscore the difficulties related to evidence, compensation for physical and psychological harm, as well as the limitations of an exclusively criminal justice response.

Through the Center’s conferences and publications—whether addressing gender-based violence from a legal perspective or the rights of intersex people—a common thread emerges: the conviction that prevention is essential. “Punishment isn’t enough. We need to act upstream—raise awareness, educate, and change mindsets. The law can support these changes, but it can’t do everything,” insists Stéphanie Wattier.

It is precisely this interplay between the law, on-the-ground realities, and prevention that has been the strength of the Center for Vulnerabilities and Societies for the past ten years. By giving a voice to victims, frontline workers, and researchers, it helps to change norms, practices, and, gradually, society itself. After ten years of existence, the Center continues to pursue its mission: to put the law at the service of people, so that it becomes a true lever for protection, recognition, and social transformation.

Entitled ACAPARES, this research project aims to analyze career extension through the lens of workers' life trajectories and the inequalities they face. In collaboration with geographer Thierry Eggerickx from UCLouvain, Nathalie Burnay seeks to better understand the obstacles and limitations to extending careers, as encouraged by public authorities.

In concrete terms, this project, which runs from 2026 to 2030, will focus on three complementary areas: 

• The first component will analyze the social stereotypes that weigh on workers over the age of 50. To do this, the team will draw on a large-scale quantitative survey, modeled on the 2004 CAPA survey, which was also supervised by Nathalie Burnay. The objective? To compare the evolution of these representations of older workers in the same context and based on the same protocol. This is a completely new approach!
• The second part will focus on the health of older workers. Using quantitative data, it will look at how the health of workers—particularly those with long-term illnesses—affects whether they continue or stop working at the end of their careers.
• Finally, the third part will examine the influence of professional activity on healthy life expectancy. Periods of unemployment, inactivity, or more difficult working conditions will thus be scrutinized by researchers.

To carry out this research, Jean-Paul Sanderson (postdoctoral demographer) recently joined UNamur.

The analysis of life trajectories from a work perspective is a recurring theme in Nathalie Burnay's research. She approaches these issues through an analysis of social policies, changing working conditions, and normative transformations in the contemporary world. In 2023, she obtained F.R.S-FNRS funding for the BRIDGE-EXT project, which focuses on post-retirement work through a comparative study of different welfare state systems. Nathalie Burnay has also just obtained ARC (Actions de Recherche Concertées) funding with Michel Ajzen (EMCP Faculty) for the "SUSCARE" project, which focuses on changes in work and the conditions for its sustainability, both for workers and managers.