The "Credits & Projects" call resulted in 12 grants for ambitious new projects. These include two "equipment" grants, eight "research credits (CDR)" grants and two "research projects (PDR)" grants, including one in collaboration with ULB. The FRIA doctoral research support call will fund eleven doctoral scholarships, and the FRESH call, three.

Two prestigious Mandat d'Impulsion Scientifique (MIS) have also been secured. This 3-year funding supports young permanent researchers wishing to develop an original and innovative research program while acquiring scientific autonomy within their department.

Let's also mention the two projects funded under the "WelCHANGE" call for proposals; an instrument for funding research projects with potential societal impacts, led by a main promoter from the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Appel Equipment

• Xavier De Bolle, Institut Narilis, Co-sponsor in collaboration with UCLouvain
• Luca Fusaro, Institut NISM

Call for Research Credits (CDR)

• Marc Hennequart, Institut NARILIS
• Nicolas Gillet, Institut NARILIS
• Jean-Yves Matroule, Institut NARILIS
• Patricia Renard, Institut NARILIS
• Francesco Renzi, Institut NARILIS
• Stéphane Vincent, Institut NISM
• Laurence Meurant, Institut NaLTT
• Emma-Louise Silva, Institut NaLTT

Call for Research Projects (PDR)

• Jérémy Dodeigne, Institut Transitions, Co-promoter in collaboration with ULB
• Luc Henrard, Institut NISM; Co-promoter: Yoann Olivier, Institut NISM

Fonds pour la formation à la Recherche dans l'Industrie et dans l'Agriculture (FRIA)

• Emma Bongiovanni - Promoter: Catherine Michaux, Institut NISM
• Simon Chabot - Promoter: Carine Michiels, Institut Narilis; Co-promoter: Anne-Catherine Heuskin, Institut Narilis
• Lee Denis - Promoter: Muriel Lepère, Institut ILEE
• Maé Desclez - Promoter: Johan Yans, Institut ILEE; Co-promoter: Hamed Pourkhorsandi (University of Toulouse)
• Pierre Lombard - Promoter: Benoît Muylkens, Institut Narilis; Co-promoter: Damien Coupeau, Institut Narilis
• Amandine Pecquet - Promoter: Nicolas Gillet, Institut Narilis; Co-promoter: Damien Coupeau, Institut Narilis
• Kilian Petit - Promoter: Henri-François Renard, Institut Narilis; Co-promoter: Xavier De Bolle, Institut Narilis
• Simon Rouxhet - Promoter: Catherine Michaux, Institut NISM; Co-promoter: Nicolas Gillet, Institut Narilis
• William Soulié - Promoter: Yoann Olivier, Institut NISM
• Elisabeth Wanlin - Promoter: Xavier De Bolle, Institut Narilis
• Laura Willam - Promoter: Frédérik De Laender, Institut ILEE

Fonds pour la Recherche en Sciences Humaines (FRESH)

• Louis Droussin - Promoter: Arthur Borriello, Institut Transitions; Co-promoter: Vincent Jacquet, Institut Transitions
• Nicolas Larrea Avila - Promoter: Guilhem Cassan, Institut DeFIPP
• Victor Sluyters - Promoter: Wafa Hammedi, Institut NADI

Mandat d'Impulsion Scientifique (MIS)

• Charlotte Beaudart, Institut Narilis
• Eli Thoré Institut ILEE

Appel WelCHANGE

• Nathalie Burnay Institut Transitions, in collaboration with UCLouvain
• Catherine Guirkinger Institut DeFIPP

Congratulations to one and all!

The ERCIS network brings together universities and companies from 25 - mainly European - countries around a common goal: to advance information systems research and meet the challenges of digital transformation. To achieve this, the ERCIS network emphasizes collaborative research, innovation and knowledge sharing.

In practical terms, this membership paves the way for training opportunities for MINDIT researchers and PhD students: networking events, annual workshops, summer school or PhD Colloquium. It also creates bridges to develop partnerships at the level of academic programs.

Finally, ERCIS relies on a corporate advisory board, guaranteeing synergy between research and field practices.

The Digital Sessions are an initiative launched by the NaDI, the digital research institute at UNamur. The latter brings together researchers from the Faculties of law, informatics and EMCP.

To stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration, NaDI has launched a call for projects. One of the selected projects? Les Séances du Numérique, an original format in which fiction becomes the starting point for debate. Each meeting begins with a film screening, followed by an interdisciplinary conference on a digital-related social issue.

The ambition of these sessions is simple: to educate about digital issues through fiction, and to confront a variety of viewpoints.

This format extends the experience of the podcast Pop-Code already hosted by Anthony Simonofski and Benoît Vanderose, but with an added dimension: interdisciplinarity and direct exchange with the audience. After the film, everyone can question the experts and enrich the reflection.

Digital technology will be at the heart of future screenings, with a dynamic that is both collaborative and rooted in current affairs:

1. Fostering collaboration between several NaDI centers to bring disciplines into dialogue (as was the case at the first session with CRIDS and PReCISE).
2. Bouncing off themes linked to current events to guarantee the relevance of exchanges.

Four sessions will be offered per year, open to all, with one priority: reaching out to citizens. The films are there to give the event a cultural and scientific outreach.

Eventually, the team would like to diversify its formats: screenings in cinemas like Caméo, broadcasting series, even playconferences where we play a video game during the debate. The idea: to use fiction in all its forms to kick-start discussion.

• Fanny Barnabé, lecturer at CRIDS / NaDI
• Anne-Sophie Collard, professor at the EMCP Faculty
• Anthony Simonofski, professor at the EMCP Faculty
• Benoît Vanderose, professor at the Computer Science Faculty

In collaboration with the Knowledge Confluence and the Administration de la communication

Several projects are already aiming to entrust part of the legislative work to artificial intelligence (AI). While for the time being, these are mainly tools for transcribing parliamentary debates, translating or analyzing archives, drafting tools or legislative texts are also being considered. The use of AI may seem interesting: it can improve readability or facilitate standardization. But, depending on how it is used, it may not spontaneously respect the fundamental principles of the legislative process, such as legality, proportionality or equality. These requirements, established by the Constitutional Court, are the subject of numerous case law decisions. As part of a doctoral thesis, Aline Nardi, is sifting through them to see whether the use of AI is possible in legislative processes.

His finding? "For csome more critical tasks, which go beyond simple editing, problems arise." In particular, she points to the opacity of the reasoning, since "it is difficult to trace why the AI suggests such and such a lead from the query submitted to it". Yet, in a state governed by the rule of law, the legislative process must be transparent and comprehensible if it is to be challenged by parliamentarians and citizens.

There are also issues of democratic legitimacy: "The company that develops the system used by parliamentary assemblies can influence decisions that are extremely important for a nation. Is a parliamentarian still useful if he or she is only there to ratify decisions made by a machine?" asks the jurist.

On the citizens' side, AI has been transforming election campaigns for some years now. Micro-targeting, automated disinformation, manipulation of emotions via social networks: these are all formidable tools that can skew public debate. The 2016 US presidential campaign clearly illustrates this problem."Cambridge Analytica, for example, targeted and influenced undecided voters whose positions could be tilted in Donald Trump's favor. Around 20 million undecided voters thus received tailored messages, such as memes, videos, blog posts in favor of Trump", recalls Aline Nardi. Combined with social networks, AI therefore calls into question the right of voters to form an opinion based on pluralist and reliable information.

More recently, the Romanian Constitutional Court invalidated the 2024 presidential election on the grounds of misuse of AI and lack of transparency in digital campaigns. "This affected the freely expressed nature of the citizens' vote and in particular their right to be properly informed, explains Aline Nardi.

The European Union is trying to take action against these abuses. Several regulations have been put in place. They aim to frame digital technologies and limit their harmful effects on the information space, particularly during electoral processes. These regulations include the Digital Services Act (DSA), the AI Regulation and the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising Regulation (TTPA). These regulations have prompted Google, and more recently Meta, to stop allowing political, electoral and social issue advertising in the European Union.

"However, questions remain as to the applicability, concrete implementation and effectiveness of certain standards stemming from bodies of digital law", alerts Aline Nardi, who calls for "sortir de ce flou juridique".