The aim of the V&S Centre is to study the extent to which the various players in society (including public institutions, whether Belgian, European or international) respond to the needs of populations who are or could be vulnerable and/or marginalized. This includes not only people affected by poverty or precariousness, but also, more generally, those whose fundamental rights are not respected, or are at risk of not being respected, or those who can be described as "vulnerable people". The research carried out at the V&S Centre also aims to study the extent to which the instruments (normative or otherwise) available to these various actors enable the needs of vulnerable people to be met, whatever the source of their vulnerability. The weakening of social ties that results from these situations, and the search for remedies that respect human dignity, is an angle of approach common to all the research carried out by the members of the V&S Centre.

This object of research lends itself to a broader approach than just the legal framework of said fragilities. The center's expertise thus gravitates around the main human sciences such as law, psychology, criminology, philosophy, economics and so on. An interdisciplinary approach is resolutely favored through constant theoretical and/or practical dialogue between the various disciplines.

The Centre V&S's current research areas currently revolve around the following themes:

• Company (prevention and management of psychosocial risks in the workplace);
• State (equality and non-discrimination, citizenship and justice, social security, social inclusion, religions, radicalism, terrorism, international humanitarian law);
• Family (children's rights, single-parent families, the elderly and aging, disability and mental health).

Within the framework of these different axes, the V&S Center not only conducts research, but also ensures that its findings and reflections are disseminated within the scientific community and to a wider public through colloquia and study days, both nationally and internationally, and various publications.

Because of their expertise, V&S Centre staff are members of several editorial boards, expert groups, steering committees, international networks, research seminars, etc., and are also auditioned by legislators and/or public authorities at various levels of power. They are also often called upon by the media. Discover press appearances.

The V&S Center's research also feeds into numerous teaching courses - including in the field of continuing education - including:

• the inter-university certificate in urban security policy management, in collaboration with UCL and ULg, unique in the French Community;
• the inter-university certificate in forensics, in collaboration with UCL and USL-B;
• the inter Hautes-Ecoles et Universités certificate in support for the highly precarious in collaboration with HENALLUX;
• the certificate in children's rights co-organized by UNamur, UCL and USL-B;
• the master of specialization in human rights co-organized by UNamur, UCL and USL-B;
• some elective courses taught at the Faculty of Law (law, gender and society, special welfare issues at work, antidiscriminatierecht, special public law issues, etc.).
• the master of specialization in an interdisciplinary approach to children's rights, co-organized by UNamur, UCLouvain, ULB, ULiège and USL-B ;
• the certificate in a multidisciplinary approach to child and youth abuse, co-organized by UNamur, UCLouvain, ULB, ULiège and UMons;
• the certificate in school and social attachment support, in collaboration with ITN.
• The "Vulnerabilities and Societies" option can also be chosen as part of the Bachelor of Law curriculum