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At the end of January 2023, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) returned a real treasure to Belgium: a medieval charter bearing the seal of the Count of Flanders Philippe d'Alsace, formerly kept in the abbey of Messines (West Flanders), which had disappeared at the beginning of the First World War. A look back at the tribulations of this archival document, the restitution of which is the result of a fruitful collaboration between the PraME Centre of UNamur, the General Archives of the Kingdom and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In January 2023, Professor Romain Houssa of UNamur led a Belgian delegation to formulate a new ARES Institutional Support (IS) programme at the University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC) in Benin. This multidisciplinary research and innovation support programme aims to strengthen scientific collaboration between FWB researchers and Benin as well as other countries in the West African region, notably Togo, Niger and Burkina Faso.

The Department of Art History and Archaeology of UNamur is participating for the first time in an experimental archaeology project, within the framework of a doctoral thesis on the production of glass in the Roman period. Conducted in partnership with Malagne, the Rochefort archaeopark, the Specularia project aims to gain a better understanding of the reality of the gestures and techniques of Gallo-Roman craftsmen and to scientifically validate hypotheses that are still debated today. To carry out this experiment, the Department of Art History and Archaeology is launching its first participatory funding.

With its expertise in the field of geology and biodiversity conservation, the UNamur is one of the partners of the new Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse National Park designated by the Walloon Government. Alongside the other actors and promoters of the project, the UNamur will make its knowledge and experience available to enhance and preserve this exceptional natural heritage!

In the summer of 2022, we set out to discover the UNamur Qualified researchers who were awarded funding by the FNRS in 2022. We met Vincent Jacquet, a member of the Department of Political Science and the Transitions Institute. His research focuses on citizen participation and its impact on solving the crisis of democracy.

To restore an old book correctly, it is essential to know the secrets of its manufacture and the reasons for its deterioration. Thanks to the King Baudouin Foundation's Jean-Jacques Comhaire Fund, the restoration workshop of the Moretus Plantin University Library has launched a new research project on parchment bindings in the Southern Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries. The aim is to gain a better understanding in order to improve conservation.

From 17 April 2023, UNamur will host two prestigious international Francqui Chairs. Professor Timoteo Carletti (Department of Mathematics - naXys Institute) will host Professor Ginestra Bianconi, one of the leading experts on networks and high-order structures. Professor Romain Houssa (Faculty of Economics, Social Sciences and Management - DeFiPP Institute) will welcome Professor Karel Mertens, an expert in macroeconomics.

This is a first at the UNamur: a team of archaeologists will soon be testing an experimental protocol to reproduce the process of shaping glass in Roman times. Entitled Specularia (Latin for "glass"), this project has the support of several associations and companies, including AGC Glass Europe.

Karel Mertens is a renowned researcher who has done outstanding work in the field of macroeconomics. He is staying in Belgium for three months to take part in the activities of the International Francqui Chair organized by the Department of Economics of the UNamur, in collaboration with KU Leuven, UAntwerp, Ghent University, UCLouvain, and the National Bank of Belgium. Interview.

The documentary produced as part of the experimental archaeology research project, "Specularia", wins an award at an American festival, organized by the University of Pittsburgh and the University of South Carolina!

On 15 and 16 July, as part of the Gallo-Roman Rendezvous, the Specularia research project, run by the University of Namur and the Malagne Archaeopark, will be put through its paces in Malagne. This unique and exceptional experiment will give visitors a hands-on opportunity to discover what experimental archaeology is all about and to witness the different stages in the production of Roman window glass. This life-size experiment is part of the second phase of the Spécularia research project led by Géraldine Frère, a doctoral researcher in archaeology at the Institut Patrimoines, Transmissions, Héritages (PaTHs).

Since 2019, the Federal Science Policy (BELSPO) has been funding FED-tWIN research programmes, run jointly by Federal Scientific Establishments and universities throughout Belgium. UNamur has been awarded two of them. One for the PraME research centre dedicated to the study of medieval writing practices and linked to the PaTHs Institute.