After winning the prestigious "Best Research Paper Award" at the SERVSIG conference by the American Marketing Association in 2024 for her thesis paper, Floriane Goosse, a researcher at the NaDI-CeRCLe research center, is among the two winners of the ServCollab Scholarship 2025, an international doctoral scholarship awarded by an American organization dedicated to promoting scientific research with high societal impact.

No fewer than 37 doctoral students from universities around the world were in the running to receive this scholarship. Two researchers were chosen after an in-depth selection process: Griffin Colaizzi, a PhD student in psychology at Northeastern University (USA), and Floriane Goosse, a PhD student at UNamur within NaDI-CeRCLE.

New technologies to empower people with disabilities

Supervised by Professors Wafa Hammedi (UNamur) and Dominik Mahr (Maastricht University), Floriane Goosse's thesis explores how new technologies, such as intelligent voice assistants, can empower people with disabilities, particularly the visually impaired, and thus significantly improve their well-being.

A high-potential project that convinced the members of the ServCollab jury, made up of eminent researchers in the field. The jury was particularly impressed by the young researcher's methodological rigor and praised her alignment with the principles of Transformative Service Research as well as her deep determination to create a tangible impact on the lives of so-called vulnerable people.

Triple recognition for Floriane Goosse

Floriane Goosse also took part in the 19th International Research Symposium on Service Excellence in Management (QUIS19), the bi-annual benchmark conference in service management, held in Rome in early June. On this occasion, his research once again distinguished itself by winning the prize for best research with societal impact, awarded by the conference's scientific committee. This prestigious international recognition crowns a rigorous and deeply committed body of work. Three major recognitions in less than a year, saluting both the scientific excellence and the strong societal impact of a particularly promising piece of research.

Video games are no longer just a pastime: they've become an object of study in their own right. And Fanny Barnabé is one of its leading figures at UNamur. Trained as a literary scholar, she turned to Game Studies to better understand the complex fictional universes that have always fascinated her. "It was because of video games that I studied literature," she confides with a smile. Today, she's interested in a fast-growing phenomenon: the broadcasting of live video game games on platforms like Twitch.

Fanny Barnabé's work doesn't stop at Twitch. She has also studied in-game storytelling, tutorials, or even players' creative practices, such as fan fiction or "machinimas" (films made within games themselves).

And this terrain is changing fast. Very fast. "Video games have gone from a niche hobby to a mass phenomenon. Today, over 90% of young people play," she points out. This popularity is accompanied by an economic transformation: in the context of platform capitalism, the practice of gaming tends to become profitable, monetized, professionalized. "We've gone from the game you buy once, to the "game as a service" model, and to streaming, where professional streamers somehow convert their gaming experience into advertising revenue."

For Fanny Barnabé, it's hard to predict how the world of video games will evolve in the future. "It's becoming very difficult to talk about video games as a single object, so diverse are the practices," she explains. Between mobile games like Candy Crush, e-sport competitions or collaborative online adventures, the uses are multiple and reflect the complexity of our digital society.

This diversity is part of a broader context: that of platform capitalism. "Gaming, which was originally a leisure practice, is now integrated into profit-making logics," observes the researcher. Streaming, in particular, illustrates this transformation: gaming is becoming a productive, income-generating activity, sometimes even a profession in its own right.

Whether it concerns linguistics, economics, politics, sustainable development, law, history, educational sciences, literature or translation, research in the humanities and social sciences is as eclectic as it is rich and essential for tackling society's challenges. Of UNamur's eleven research institutes, seven are directly involved in SHS research. While there is a high degree of complementarity in these areas of research, better pooling of resources, sharing and easier access to certain services, resources and support will help to sustain and strengthen the excellence of SHS research at UNamur. It is with this in mind that the SHS impulse platform has just been created.

• Axis 1 - Support for the acquisition of databases, documentary resources and software
• Axis 2 - Subsidy for cutting-edge training in the use of specialized methods
• Axis 3 - Funding access to the SMCS "Support en Méthodologie et Calcul Statistique" platform at UCLouvain, thanks to an inter-university partnership.
• Axis 4 - Setting up an SHS space, containing a laboratory for running experiments and shared work tools promoting exchanges between researchers.

This initiative, launched in January 2025, addresses the specific challenges faced by SHS researchers. The long-term aim is to sustain and expand the services. "We will also hire a researcher expert in methodological analysis in SHS who will be able to inform innovative methodologies and frame the methodological design of research projects," emphasizes Sandrine Biémar, vice-dean of UNamur's Faculty of Education and Training Sciences, a member of the IRDENA institute and the SHS Impulse management committee. "The wish is also to support networking between SHS researchers at UNamur and to be a lever for setting up interdisciplinary projects," adds Sandrine Biémar.

The platform's management team is made up of representatives of the university's various SHS institutes, and ensures efficient management of resources. The platform's impact will be assessed during its initial phase (2025-2027), enabling strategies for its sustainability and development to be defined.

"For 5 years, I'll be part of the Collegium of the Royal Academy of Belgium, and also of the "Technology and Society" class. My participation will enable me to contribute my vision and interdisciplinary expertise on digital transformation. During this mandate, I will be able to participate in the Academy's various work concerning its knowledge dissemination events such as its colloquia or scientific valorization (prizes, competitions, grants)", explains Anthony Simonofski.

One of the missions he hopes to accomplish as part of his mandate is to exchange on digital issues through an interdisciplinary approach. "Today's digital challenges require an interdisciplinary approach, combining IT, managerial, legal, sociological perspectives and much more. The 'Technology and Society' class will enable these exchanges to elaborate constructive reflections for a harmonious integration of digital in our society," he emphasizes. He will also make his expertise in digital transformation available. "It presents a whole series of new challenges such as inclusion, adoption or the necessary participation of citizens. So I'd like to make my research in this area available, and perhaps even encourage the Academy itself to enter into a more participatory approach towards citizens via digital channels," Anthony Simonofski points out.

Author of the podcast "Pop-Code" about digital education, which he is producing with his colleague Benoit Vanderose (Faculté informatique- UNamur), Anthony SIMONOFSKI also defends the concept of art as a vehicle for popularizing science. "At the Collegium, I want to work to make digital research accessible and engaging, by initiating collaborative projects that combine scientific rigor and artistic innovation to reach a wider and more diverse audience." Finally, by becoming a member of the Collegium, Anthony Simonofski will ensure representation of UNamur's expertise on digital, notably by relaying the interdisciplinary vision of the Namur Digital Institute and the EMCP Faculty.

Incidentally, I also hope to represent UNamur there," Olivier Sartenaer points out. "Integrating the Collegium is a nice recognition of my work. Secondly, it will enable me to meet a lot of interesting people and, together, to cross-fertilize our expertise to reflect on major societal issues at our monthly sessions. I'll be able to present and discuss my work, and also discover the work of Belgian scientific colleagues. Finally, it will enable me to take advantage of some of the Academy's support (access to premises, publications, networks, etc.) to organize events, or disseminate my work".