Flagship Projects

The Institute essentially develops its activities through collaborative research projects.

These projects:

  • Are based on interdisciplinarity
  • Prioritise collaborative research and co-development
  • Rely on partnerships with all sectors of society (industries, services, research centres, governmental institutions, etc.)
  • Bring together provincial, regional, federal, European and international partners.

The Institute is active in setting up research projects, with its partners, which respond to the emerging problems linked to the Institute’s field.

Below you can find a list of some key projects, which highlight some of the issues our researchers tackle.

Development of cultural and creative industries by proposing innovative solutions for the management of the growth of economic actors of this ecosystem.

“Mobilisation des Acteurs Vers l’Inclusion Sociale par l’Education et l’Emploi” (Mobilisation of Actors Towards Social Inclusion through Education and Employment). Federation of local actors developed to offer innovative solutions to avoid social exclusion and to enable the socio-economic transition.

humanOrg collaborates with the InforTech Institute on this project. The development of smart cities creates windows of opportunity to understand broad societal expectations. Smart cities will be able to collaborate in development projects that focus on more than just technology.

Project Wal-e-Cities – GOV UMONS HumanOrg 2016-2020

ERDF Project Portfolio Wal-e-Citie s

The European Regional Development Fund and the Wallonia invest in your future

 

Goals :

The main goal of the project portfolio is integration of digital into local policies in Wallonia, to make it a connected and intelligent territory. The project is divided into 6 components: mobility, energy and environment, governance, living (urban environment and citizen well-being), communication, economy.

The main goal of the project GOV (Urban Governance) led by UMONS HumanOrg is to analyze the existing relationships between the actors (cities, private actors, users …) as well as their needs and expectations. The implementation of pilot projects will also be monitored and studied. All the data collected will allow us to propose guidelines in the form of recommendations for the Walloon cities and companies wishing to implement a smart policy adapted to their territory and to facilitate the exchange and the sharing of information between the actors.

The implementation of this project is possible thanks to the financial support of the ERDF and Wallonia funds. For more details, please visit the Walloon Government’s website dedicated to the Structural Funds: http://europe.wallonie.be

 

UMONS HumanOrg researchers involved:

  • Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of Mons:
    • Marianne Durieux
    • Noémie Lago,
    • Jean Alexandre Pouleur,
    • Pascal Simoens
  • Warocqué School of Economics and Management:
    • Chantal Scoubeau

The reclassification and reorientation of brownfield sites requires an investigation based on various factors: money (e.g. deciding between the costs of the clean-up and the value created by the economic entities), urbanism (reclassification can cause significant landscaping changes) society (urban changes can affect citizens’ feelings). The analysis of these various pillars makes it possible to structure the socio-economic transition.

Every year for the past 6 years, UMONS has collaborated with the University of Ghent to carry out this study, the aim of which is to create the federal directory on the state of poverty and the policy of fighting poverty and social exclusion in Belgium.

As part of their pursuit of constant improvement, the Office of Birth and Childhood (ONE) strives to value and analyse the results of the various research conducted by and for the ONE. The aim of the project is to analyse the “return on investment” and the gains of this research for the users and also to examine, on request, what needs the researchers were meeting, how they were collaborating and with who.

Organisation of information sessions and presentation of the experimental device for the school’s stakeholders throughout the Wallonia-Brussels region.

The aim of the project is to study how smart meters can be a useful tool for vulnerable people and the average electricity consumer. The project focuses on the social mechanisms influencing electricity consumption and their impacts on the rational use of energy and the management of the energy budget of the households concerned.

Pilot project on the placement of smart meters: research conducted by the UMONS Family Sciences Unit to develop the public’s power to act on energy consumption.

In light of profound technological, energy and environmental changes, the Walloon Region has decided that it is necessary to support the entire population in order to face these new challenges. Also, as part of a research project it finances (2017-2020), it was decided that smart meters would be installed in 500 households of the Mons-Borinage region. This research is conducted by the UMONS Family Sciences Unit in collaboration with the ORES distribution network. It focuses on the social mechanisms which influence electricity consumption and their impacts on the rational use of energy and the management of the energy budget of the households concerned. This research specifically focuses on the use of smart meters in electricity market conditions specific to Wallonia.

A smart meter is an electricity meter which, among other things, allows for more precise readings and several readings per hour. Its simple system allows the customer to adapt their power consumption through the distribution network’s portal. In addition, with “smart box” equipment, smart meters also provide local consumption data in real time.

The new meter will provide better information to the public about electricity consumption and will, therefore, help people to consume both better and less, with beneficial effects for the cost of energy and the environment. In addition, the distributor will be able to make better use of its network, since it will be more informed about the power dynamics present on the lines and will, therefore, be able to adapt them to the production of renewable energies or the charging of electric vehicles. This type of meter could also evolve towards a smart grid in the future.

 “Smart User” has two main components. The research component, deals with the collection of information, firstly linked to the consumption of electrical energy, taking into account the installation of the technical device of the meters (and related or proposed complementary tools), and, secondly, associated with the contexts of the users.

The second component, the action component, relates to the implementation of systems to support the target population in the proactive use of functionalities enabled by smart meters (and related or proposed complementary tools) with a view to better managing energy consumption.

The research also aims to provide information which will enable Wallonia to see a paradigm shift linked to the possible deployment of large-scale smart meters so that the region can revise its social energy policy. This project will help to identify the mechanisms and measures linked to the deployment of smart meters, meaning that it can play an active role in fighting against energy poverty and high levels of personal debt.