Institut de Recherche Santé et Société (IRSS), UCLouvain
" In this period of confinement, the daily life of any parent who has to combine professional life and coordination of family life at home requires a whole reorganization. This reality is more intense when a parent accompanies a child with a serious illness or with a disability. The beginning of confinement rhymed with the end of the respite periods for these numerous families, since most of the institutions active in "Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles" cannot currently fully fulfill their mission or offer their home help services as they usually do. We hear it through the media, these parents are calling for help. A small group of pediatric professionals, experienced in respite care, is at the initiative of this approach: Répit-Solidaire, a platform intended for parents of sick or disabled children in French-speaking Belgium. It comes in the form of a website and a Facebook group. The main objectives are to provide information on...

Read more: Anne-Catherine Dubois, Infirmière pédiatrique et Doctorante en Santé Publique - Maëlle Boland,...

UCLouvain
" The Covid-19 outbreak has exposed the world's population to challenging and long-lasting emotional conditions. While investigations of responses to tragic one-off events exist, studies on the evolution of collective emotions during a pandemic are missing. Collecting the time-sensitive data about the population's collective emotional state could improve the planning of mental health interventions and risk-communication. In a first phase, we analyzed the digital traces of emotional expressions on Twitter in the five weeks after the outbreak in 8.3 billion tweets in six different languages from 18 countries. Next, we keep monitoring the evolution of emotional responses with particular attention to lexical indicators of solidarity according to the different phases of the pandemic's evolution, the resumption of activities, and economic and social difficulties in these 18 countries. "
Funding: This is a collaboration with the Complexity Science Hub Vienna (Austria). (These...

Read more: Bernard Rimé

ULB
" Production de visières à destination du personnel soignant en collaboration avec le Fablab ULB et le Your Lab. Plans en open source. - Mise en place d'une carte interactive des entreprises oeuvrant dans la lutte contre le covid-19 en collaboration avec le Fablab de Mons et le Fablab Wapi. Objectif de la carte : la mise en valeur des opérateurs économiques. - prototypage de pièces en 3D à la demande des hôpitaux - Prototypage de parois séparatrices en plexi (plan en open source) "
Contact: Fab-C Fablab Charleroi Métropole This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. fablab-charleroi.be faceshield-fabc.be

UCLouvain
" This research project aims at studying the conditions under which the modern welfare state could build a kind of epidemics insurance, while paying a particular attention to the issue of fairness. The global objective of saving lives may be associated to policies that have undesirable distributive effects, against ideals of social justice. The project aims at finding ways to make mass prevention and equity compatible. "
Funding: This project will be part of my research load at UCLouvain, within the Hoover Chair in Economic ans Social Ethics.
Publication References: Fleurbaey, M., Ponthiere, G. (2013). Prevention against Equality ? Journal of Public Economics. Fleurbaey, M., Leroux, ML, Ponthiere, G. (2014). Compensating the dead. Journal of Mathematical Economics. Fleurbaey, M., Leroux, ML., Pestieau, P., Ponthiere G. (2016). Fair retirement under risk lifetime. International Economic Review. Leroux, ML., Ponthiere, G. (2018). Working time regulations, unequal lifetime and...

Read more: Gregory Ponthiere, Professor

ULB
" French-speaking international network: PoSoc 19. The network will analyze the political and legal recompositions of states and political regimes in the face of Covid 19. Already 170 colleagues from 45 countries on 5 continents participate in this network. "
Funding: Seeking funding
Contact: Jean-Michel De Waele Professeur de science politique CEVIPOL Université Libre de Bruxelles. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Comment: French-speaking international network: PoSoc 19. The network will analyze the political and legal recompositions of states and political regimes in the face of Covid 19. Already 170 colleagues from 45 countries on 5 continents participate in this network. Six workshops: 1 - Multi-level (national, regional and local) anti-pandemic and anti-crisis policies, in their political, economic and social dimensions, taking into account public and private actors and the consequences of these policies (freedoms, public finances, reorganisation of work and services, etc.). 2 -...

Read more: Jean-Michel De Waele, Professor

ULiège, Centre for Ethnic and Migration Studies - FNRS
" Protecting the diaspora? COVID-19 and the emergency policy measures of European countries for their citizens residing abroad Abstract: In a context of increased migration and overexposure of mobile individuals to social risks, the social protection of diaspora populations has become an area of concern across Europe. However, there is still substantial variation in how EU Member States respond to the needs of their nationals residing abroad. Such variation is also observed in the emergency measures that European countries have adopted for their non-resident nationals in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the framework of the ERC-funded project "Migration and Transnational Social Protection in Post(Crisis) Europe" (MiTSoPro), researchers from the Centre for Ethnic and Migration Studies of the University of Liege will collect data on EU states' policy (re)actions affecting their diaspora populations, from travel restrictions...

Read more: Jean-Michel Lafleur, FNRS Research Associate - Vintila Daniela, Doctor - Konstantinidou Angeliki -...

Chemical Engineering ULiège & CRM Group - FNRS
" The Chemical Engineering Department of the Faculty of Applied Sciences of the University of Liège has been producing protective visors by 3D printing since April 4 and provides various hospital services (CHU, Citadelle, Bois de l'Abbaye), rest homes, associations and health care practices. A team of members of the Department has been set up to ensure 24-hour production, which means that up to 90 visors can now be produced per day depending on demand. As the days go by, production optimization continues to lighten components, produce faster and reduce the amount of raw material needed. The Department also receives visor supports produced by 3D printing by people from the Metallurgical Research Centre (CRM), a privileged partner of the Faculty, in order to equip them with plastic sheets to produce visors. This equipment is then distributed with the rest of the production from Chemical Engineering. The milestone of 1000 visors...

Read more: Jérôme Schruyers, Researcher - Alexandre Léonard, Research logistician - Carlos Mendoza, Postdoc -...

ULiège + Mesylab SRL
" How to securely return to normalcy at work? All countries consider to lift the lockdown, but few have executed it. There are no "best practices". Questions abound: What are the risks? What are the most effective measures? Will communities follow? What are the consequences for our individual lives? Who decides how to proceed? AIMS OF THE PROJECT GIGA aims at defining the best possible approach to opening up again by involving its members. Your opinion matters. GIGA has sought assistance in conducting this real time experiment from political scientists, philosophers, lawyers and medical doctors. "
Contact: This project is supported by the GIGA office and is coordinated by the ad hoc Advisory Committee made up of expert political scientists in participation (Dr. F. Thoreau, Dr. C. Parotte, Dr. P. Delvenne, Dr. C. Fallon), a political and ethicist philosopher (Dr. F. Caeymaex) and doctors (Dr. Y. Beguin, Dr. G. Darcis).

UCLouvain, ULB, KU Leuven, UAntwerpen
" This project aims at appraising through a longitudinal survey, the effects of the confinment on psychological well-being and authoritarian tendencies (N = 1200 at T1 and N = 520 at T2). "
Funding: none
Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

UMONS 
" In view of the sanitary context, the UMONS Polytechnic Faculty has decided to replace its annual Créathon with a modified virtual version on the theme of containment. The professors at the origin of the initiative thus decided, in consultation with the academic authorities, to set up an activity whose objective was to enable students to meet (virtually) and to think about how, as engineers and citizens, they could put their skills at the service of society in this particular context. The question addressed to them was the following: "By what brilliant and simple means can we help our fellow citizens to better live the confinement and regain a smille? ». The 21 students who were present thus went through, during 4 hours of team work, the different stages of project creation (ideation, structuring of ideas, action plan of the selected idea and pitch) accompanied by their teachers. This session led to the presentation of 3 project ideas. The proposed solutions address well-known...

Read more: Sébastien Bette, Professor - Santo Raneri, Research and Teaching Assistant

UCLouvain
" The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental representation of social groups : The role of threat on the stereotypes of Chinese in the US and in France "
Funding: UCLouvain and FNRS
Contact: Vincent Yzerbyt, UCLouvain (PSP/IPSY), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Comment: This project comprises two subprojects, one devoted to the change in stereotypes of Chinese in France and one on the facial representation of Chinese in the United States

UCLouvain
" The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the image about and behaviors towards fragile populations in general and migrants in particular "
Funding: An application for funding has been sent in. UCLouvain
Publication References: Vincent Yzerbyt & Stéphanie Demoulin (2019). Les relations intergroupes. Presses Universitaires de Grenoble: Grenoble
Contact: Vincent Yzerbyt, UCLouvain (PSP/IPSY), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.