Research institut

Institute of Life, Earth and Environment

Welcome to ILEE, the Institute of Life, Earth and Environment at the University of Namur, committed to addressing pressing environmental issues.We bring together a team of experts from diverse backgrounds and disciplines to work collaboratively using innovative technologies and rigorous scientific methods to make meaningful contributions to the field of environmental science. 

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Research institut

Namur Institute for Complex Systems

The naXys institute specializes in the analysis of complex systems, whether in astronomy and dynamic cosmology, mathematical biology, optimization in optics, economic complexity or the study of the stability and robustness of these systems.

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Article

Two new projects in framework of the BEWARE Fellowships programme

Thanks to the BEWARE Fellowships programme, the University of Namur will welcome two new post-doctoral students. Within the research institutes naXys and NaDI and in collaboration with the companies CISEO and SAVICS, they will contribute to the development of two projects. The first aims to design an intelligent robot for the pharmaceutical industry, and the second, a secure system for sharing decentralized data.
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Article

From the Namur snail to the Galapagos snail, there is only one step!

An international team of researchers, including Prof Frederik De Laender, from the University of Namur, publish in Nature Communications. The editor highlights that the authors use theoretical models and field data to show how eco-evolutionary processes can force species to develop more similar characteristic traits in more species-rich communities to avoid competition. Which goes against what we intuitively perceive.
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Article

Geologists discover that pterosaurs had feathers

A pterosaur from Brazil that preserved melanosomes in its feathers provides insight into the function of primitive feathers. An international team of palaeontologists and geologists, including UNamur (Dr Aude Cincotta and Prof. Johan Yans), has demonstrated that pterosaurs, the flying cousins of dinosaurs, had feathers and were able to control their colour.
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Article

Fluorescence: shedding light on transparent wings of insects

In a new study published in February 2023 in the Journal of Luminescence, an international group of scientists led by Sébastien Mouchet from UNamur, reported the previously unknown fluorescence properties of transparent insect wings. This research highlights the valuable information that can be obtained from advanced optical characterisation techniques.
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Article

BABots: a European bio-robotics project led by UNamur researchers

The design and analysis of the individual and collective behaviour of small biological vermiform robots: this is the objective of BABots, an ambitious interdisciplinary research project led by the University of Namur and conducted by a consortium of seven European partners. This project could lead to multiple and promising solutions in the field of agriculture, bio-industry or even industry and medicine.
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Article

A quality research environment through the Namur Research College

At the beginning of each academic year, the Board of Trustees grants Namur Research College (NARC) Fellowship status to researchers who demonstrate a high level of research achievement and who have recently received a prestigious award or funding. A look back at the fellowship of Professor Frederik De Laender.
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Event

XVIII International Workshop on Artificial Life and Environmental Computation WIVACE 2024

The workshop provides a forum for the discussion of new research directions and applications in Artificial Life, Evolutionary Computation and in related fields, where different disciplines and research areas could effectively meet. It was first held in 2007 in Sampieri (Ragusa), as the incorporation of two separate workshops (WIVA and GSICE).
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Article

Synthetic choirs | A choir of robots created at the UNamur

A choir of robots sounds like science fiction! Yet it is a reality at the University of Namur. In the robotics laboratory of the Faculty of Computer Science, researchers from the naXys institute, led by professors Elio Tuci and Timoteo Carletti, some members of TRAKK, some artists and external partners collaborated on the "Synthetic Choirs" project.
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Article

Pollution and health of marine ecosystems | A publication that challenges current knowledge

Dr. Sébastien Mouchet, a researcher at UNamur and member of the NISM and ILEE Institutes, has just published the results of research focusing on the effects of pollution on coral reef fish in MDPI-Optics. The findings of the international, multidisciplinary team lead to crucial conclusions with implications for the health of marine ecosystems.
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Article

ERGA, a "European Reference Genome Atlas" to preserve biodiversity

At a time when around a fifth of Europe's 200,000 species are threatened with extinction, researchers from the University of Namur are taking part in a pan-European consortium to act fast and together to generate high-quality genome resources on a large scale.
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