News

On Friday 21st March, UMONS and property developer ION officially opened the “Cité de la Gare”, a student hall of residence on Place Léopold, at the foot of Mons’ new train station. The project is designed to help meet the growing demand for student accommodation in a rapidly expanding university town. Offering 86 modern en-suite rooms and a range of communal areas, the residence also focuses on energy efficiency. The first students are expected to move into this brand-new residence for the start of the 2025-26 academic year.

March 8 marks International Women's Rights Day, formalized by the UN in 1977. This day is a reminder of the persistent inequalities between the sexes. To mark the occasion, the Eunice alliance, including UMONS, has launched an awareness-raising campaign. Through the Wall of Femme videos, women with inspiring personal and/or professional journeys were highlighted.

The Rectors' Council of French-speaking universities in Belgium (CRef) fully supports the march for science on 7th March, an initiative led by the group “Stand Up for Science”.

As part of the Interreg Biocontrol 4.0 project, several Walloon, French and Flemish universities have joined forces to find reliable alternatives to synthetic pesticides. Among the various projects is the Trans-Pest project, through which the UMONS laboratory will test the effect of climate change on agricultural pests such as aphids and wireworms, and on their natural enemies such as ladybugs and lacewings. The aim is to offer farmers innovative biological control solutions to reduce pesticide use.

The General Assembly of EUNICE European University gathers in Belgium rectors, presidents, representatives of educational offerings, and students from the partner universities to analyze the progress of the creation of European joint degrees.

UMONS is preparing to renew the HRS4R label, which is essential for the attractiveness and European funding of research, by adhering to principles of quality and scientific integrity.

An article published by Professor Sylvain Gabriele's team (Faculty of Sciences - UMONS) in the upcoming issue of the prestigious scientific journal Nature Physics identifies for the first time the physico-chemical mechanisms involved in the migration of small groups of epithelial cells in confined environments. These mechanisms, which play a crucial role in the coordinated migration of tumor cells, could potentially become therapeutic targets to block the dissemination of metastatic cells.

The latest EUNICE General Assembly, held on April 23 and 24 in Cottbus, Germany, at the Brandenbug University of Technology, paved the way for European innovation in education. The partners took advantage of the event to elect the new EUNICE President, who will succeed the UMONS Rector in November.

The C2W Come to Wallonia | Connect with Wallonia call for projects, led by UMONS and UNamur, offers experienced researchers an exceptional opportunity to develop new skills and competencies by implementing a high-quality, interdisciplinary research project. The project is supported by a European funding of €4.5 million (Marie Skłodowska Curie COFUND action). The third call opens on January 15, 2024.

The 2023 edition of the Shanghai thematic rankings has recently been released, and UMONS is once again in a very good position. Among French-speaking Belgian universities, the Université de Mons comes top in materials science/engineering and chemistry.