Our work & value

IlLuminetti members are sharing some central values and priorities for research:

Openness and flexibility to methods: A central focus of Illuminetti is being flexible regarding the choice of methods. We use both quantitative and qualitative methods, and we want to consider mixed methods when appropriate. The choice of methods needs always to be guided by each specific research question. We organize regularly methodological classes or workshops that allow researchers to gain expertise in quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods. In multiple branches of psychology, each subdiscipline of psychology works on its own, with not many interactions with other branches of the field.

In Illuminetti, we read literature, we attend meetings, and we publish in journals from different subdisciplines. Mainly in social, personality, cognitive, clinical, and health psychology, but also in developmental, cross-cultural, assessment, or forensic psychology. Psychology together with other disciplines our research questions are at the cross-road of many other disciplines. We collaborate actively with colleagues outside psychology in order to better understand what we do from different theoretical backgrounds and using various methodological approaches.

Being included in the society, our research consider both fundamental and applied issues. Beside research conducted in the lab, which allows drawing some causal links between variables, we consider as central to test our ideas and hypotheses in the “real” world and to measure the dynamic of changes in our societies. This means that we work with normative samples as well as with people with different mental and medical illnesses, that we study important past and present events of our country and abroad, or that we communicate regularly about our work in the media or local associations. Being funded by various agencies, being involved in large collaborative projects. In order to sustain an active research program both at the fundamental and at the applied level, it is crucial to get research funding from various research agencies. People working in Illuminetti are or were funded by various research programs and often integrated within large collaborative projects (ARC, Brain.be, Excellency programs):

• European Union (Marie Curie Actions, COST initiative IS1205 “Social psychological dynamics of historical representations in the enlarged European Union)

• Belgian federal agency for research (BELSPO):  Brain-be project “MEMEX WWI  Recognition and resentment: Experiences and memories of the Great War in Belgium“

• Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS) (Research fellows, Postdoctoral researchers FNRS and FRESH, Research associate)

• Special fund for research  (FSR) from the Université catholique de Louvain (Research fellows, Postdoctoral researchers)

• Walloon region Social Innovation call “Germaine Tillion” Excellency program “Innovative nutrition research on obesity based on colic nutriments. Biological, behavioral and societal aspects”

• Brussels Region Innoviris (Prospective Research for Brussels)An international group working and having fun together. The group is very international. We had or we currently host people from France, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, The Netherlands, The United States, Russia, and United Kingdom. Although the everybody works hard in the Illuminetti group, a fundamental aspect is also to experience pleasure when working. This means that our lab meetings always occur in a very positive and supportive atmosphere, that cooperation is a central value and having fun together is an essential aspect of our daily life.

Our research domains