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SHS Impulse
The methodological needs that led to the creation of SHS Impulse are essential to ensuring the quality of research in the humanities and social sciences (HSS). An innovative system is available to offer support tailored to researchers' needs and to strengthen excellence in HSS at UNamur.
The methodological platform offers financial support for access to methodological resources in SHS in the form of co-financing for several activities.
The 4 areas of focus
Axis 1 - Support for the acquisition of databases, documentary resources, and software
Bibliographic resources (digital or printed), access to databases, and software licenses dedicated to qualitative and quantitative data analysis.
Call for applications twice a year—February (deadline end of March) and September (deadline end of October).
Axis 2 - Subsidies for advanced training in the use of specialized methods
Expert interventions, monitoring and implementation of AI advances in the social sciences and humanities, training and supervision in the field of digital humanities.
Continuous call for proposals – one-stop shop
Axis 3 - Co-financing of access to the SMCS platform (Support in Methodology and Statistical Calculation)
The UCL SMCS platform offers a range of services for processing quantitative and qualitative data, as well as personalized advice at various stages of the research project.
Continuous call for proposals – one-stop shop
Axis 4 - Establishment of a social sciences and humanities space
This space will encourage meetings and exchanges of expertise between researchers. A laboratory for conducting experiments, as well as audio and video recording equipment, computers with data processing software, and a specialized library on methods in the social sciences and humanities. This space could be part of the BUMP's deliberations.
Call for applications available on Plomino (access restricted to UNamur members).
Support in defining the design of your research in the social sciences and humanities
The SHS Impulse platform also offers methodological support at every stage of your project involving innovative methods in computational social sciences or digital humanities. Louis Escouflaire is at your service to assist you with:
- Designing your research project,
- Discovering, integrating, and using innovative methodologies (involving machine learning, large language models, generative artificial intelligence, and other computational social science methods),
- Writing applications for various funding calls, particularly in terms of methodology.
The platform will also organize seminars and training sessions on various tools and methods to boost your research projects (automatic transcription of interviews, automatic content analysis using LLMs, programming basics for the social sciences and humanities, etc.).
All researchers interested in participating in one or more training modules are invited to complete a form to indicate their preferences and potential requests.
Governance
The management body of the SHS Impulse platform will ensure that the seven institutes involved in the field of social sciences and humanities are represented:
- Development Finance & Public Policies (DeFiPP)
- Namur Philosophical Space (ESPHIN)
- UNamur Institute for Research in Didactics and Education (IRDENa)
- Namur Digital Institute (NADI)
- Namur Institute of Language, Text and Transmediality (NaLTT)
- Heritage, Transmission, Legacy (PaTHs)
- TRANSITIONS
Its mission will be to oversee the implementation and monitoring of actions. It will be composed of nine members, including one representative from each of the seven research institutes involved, a scientific advisor from ADRE, and a research logistician.
Notable features
- The result of collaboration between all Belgian universities, The Social Study (TSS) is a cutting-edge infrastructure for data collection in Belgium.
- Corpus of data on sign language in French-speaking Belgium and bilingual tools: www.corpus-lsfb.be
Spotlight
News
News
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NaLTT Institute
New impetus for the humanities and social sciences at UNamur
Institution
Humanities and Social Sciences
SDG#4 - Quality education
News
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NaLTT Institute
DeFiPP Institute
ESPHIN Institute
IRDENa Institute
NaDI Institute
PaTHs Institute
Institute
New impetus for the humanities and social sciences at UNamur
Institution
Humanities and Social Sciences
SDG#4 - Quality education
Created on
26 May
2025
Modified on
08 Oct
2025
A new platform dedicated to research in the humanities and social sciences (SHS) is being launched at UNamur. The aim? To offer SHS researchers methodological support tailored to their needs and strengthen SHS excellence at UNamur. This platform, SHS Impulse, will provide various services such as financial support for training, consultancy, access to resources, or co-financed software purchases.
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.
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We started from the needs of SHS researchers to establish four axes developed within this platform
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Resources organized around 4 axes
- 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.
Outlook
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.