The ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) and the ESF (European Social Fund Plus) aim to strengthen social and economic cohesion within the EU and, to this end, finance numerous projects. The University of Mons (UMONS) responded to their first call for projects of the 2021-2027 programming concerning Wallonia and submitted with its various partners (universities, research centers, its 4 UMONS Innovation Centers, cities, public companies…), 31 ERDF project portfolios and 9 ESF+ projects on six themes: AI and digital, materials, energy, health and biotechnology, agri-food, and continuing education or alternating training.

Wallonia, one of the three Belgian regions, has five provinces: Brabant Wallon, Liège, Namur, Luxembourg and Hainaut where UMONS is located. The University is actively involved in research, with nearly 900 researchers and 450 doctoral students working in 10 research institutes. It has set up the UMONS Innovation Network, a network that brings together partners linked to the university around the promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship, and has recently launched the UMONS Innovation Center label, allowing it to highlight the close partnership it maintains with accredited research centers or with dedicated centers.

The four UMONS Innovation Centers

UMONS collaborates with four research centers for many of its projects, these are:

• Materia Nova, founded by UMONS in 2000, which is dedicated to the development of materials and processes in the fields of energy, the environment, mechanics and metallurgy, transport and health.
• Multitel, created in 1995, on the initiative of the Polytechnic Faculty of the University of Mons with the support of the ERDF, is one of the major actors of the digital transformation in Wallonia. It has 80 researchers specialized in AI, Applied Photonics, IoT and Embedded Systems, Networking and Telecommunication and addresses the following fields: Aeronautics, Transport, Medical, Defense, Logistics, Smart Cities and Industry 4.0.
• Click: a joint initiative of UMONS, IDEA and numerous entrepreneurship players, CLICK is dedicated to stimulating creativity and innovation, particularly in the fields of digital and creative industries. It includes a Fablab, a Hub, a Living Lab and the Click N’Start (incubator for student/researcher entrepreneurs).
• BCRC (Belgian Ceramic Research Center), a research, testing and analysis laboratory whose fields of activity are materials (research and development, analysis, certification, advice and expertise), soils (geotechnics and sampling), and the environment (sampling and analysis).

In addition, in the framework of the previous programming, where it was the beneficiary of 15 projects, the UMONS was associated with ULiège and ULB for the “Wallonia Biomed” portfolio around 4 strong axes: imaging, immunology, human biological samples and bioprofiling, which gave birth to the BIOPROFILING platform. UMONS and ULB have also benefited from this financial support to create CMMI, an integrated and efficient preclinical biomedical imaging platform.

UMONS project portfolios for the 2021-2027 program

The 40 portfolios submitted by the UMONS, during the 1st APP of the 2021-2027 programming, represent a budget of more than 280 Ms€ for the partners who have committed themselves to its side.

UMONS has relied on its four UMONS Innovation Centers as well as the CMMI and Bioprofiling technology platforms for 22 of them, 11 portfolios are the result of collaboration with Materia Nova, 8 with Multitel, 6 with the BCRC , 4 with Click, 2 with CMMI and 2 with Bioprofiling. The university is the lead for five of these portfolios.

For the other portfolios introduced by UMONS, the partners are:

• IDEA Territorial Development Agency;
• Cities and municipalities;
• Universities and colleges: ULiège, Condorcet, UCLouvain, ULB, UNamur;
• Research centers: CRA-W, CETIC, Certech, Cenaero, …

The 5 portfolios coordinated by UMONS

These portfolios cover different areas

UP-PLASTICS covers the field of materials

Its objective is to design circular plastic materials (thermal and/or electromagnetic insulation, paints, glues and adhesives) through the transformation and valorization of renewable inputs (biomass,_CO2), waste (from the construction sector, such as wood, PVC, etc.) and raw materials of entomological origin (insects).

Sustainable Energy Communities in Wallonia (SECWA) dedicated to energy

It aims at developing/applying different tools to map the energy demand and the energy potential in Wallonia but also at integrating mainly technological research activities in order to develop collaborative research projects with Walloon companies focused on the demonstration of Heat/Cold/Electricity energy communities.

In the field of social inclusion, UMONS has introduced 2 ESF+ portfolios:

• ARIS (Academy of Recovery and Social Inclusion).

ARIS aims to promote and develop the recovery and social inclusion of the most deprived people and those at risk of poverty and/or social exclusion, with a particular focus on young people aged 16-23. In these ARIS, the sick, precarious or victimized person will (re)appropriate a role as a student, building a personalized training pathway, choosing training courses designed as tools for self-knowledge, their disorders and deficits and the means to cope with them.

• APPI whose objective is to consider child poverty from a multidimensional perspective.

Working with parents, promoting their professional integration, participation and social inclusion will necessarily have a positive impact on the rest of the family sphere and, by extension, on the children. Thus, it is necessary to consider the fight against poverty and the fight against child poverty in a complementary way.

• Next Generation XR, portfolio for digital.

This last portfolio coordinated by the UMONS aims to bring out technological and methodological innovations in the field of immersive and interactive technologies in the Walloon Region. It is articulated around three axes: the Meta-Humans, the Metaverse and the XR-5G.

Philippe Dubois, Rector of UMONS concludes:

“Within the framework of the 2014-2020 programming, the University of Mons has been a beneficiary of 15 ERDF and ESF+ portfolios, we hope today with the number of files returned to be able to carry even more ambitious projects and in direct line with our own strategy of deployment of growth sectors and our stated desire to promote sustainable development. Moreover, we claim to be the University of Hainaut and as such, all the files we have received are truly anchored in Hainaut, in the whole of our Province, from Tournai to Charleroi, including La Louvière.

Translated from L’UMONS introduit 40 portefeuilles projets FEDER-FSE+ pour un budget de plus de 280 millions d’euros