Spiral: 30 years of teaching experiments

Alongside its many research activities, the researchers and Professors at the Spiral Research Centre are involved in experimental and interdisciplinary teaching initiatives every year. Leading debates on the long-term management of radioactive waste, emergency planning, land-use planning at municipal level or on the future of the low-carbon transition and working with the experts and stakeholders concerned, Spiral Research Centre researchers, trained in facilitating and leading groups, regularly put in place multiple methods to get publics and students involved. These workshops, in turn, continue to feed into their respective research programmes.

Let’s have a look at the third Edition of the One Health interdisciplinary workshop, which brought together 98 students from four different faculties on April 22, 2025.

In short, the workshop « One Health »

• 3: Number of techniques and methods - Graphic Medicine, Surveying and Future Scenarios tested during the day.
• 98: Number of students taking part in the 2025 edition from Applied Sciences, Science, Technology and Society, Motor Sciences, Veterinary, Public Health, Pharmacy and Medicine.
• 3: The number of friendly, patient event coordinators who welcomed us to the CHU library. Thank you to Marjorie Bardiau, Philippe and Sarah !
• 4576: The number of pages of Marie Monique Robin's book “La Fabrique des pandémies” that have been studied and dissected over the last two years.
• 15: Number of Spiraliens researchers who have managed student discussions over the last two years. Thanks to Aline, Kim, François, Merlin, Sarah, Valentine, Gaizka, Hélène, Nassima, Luce, Justine, Martin, Catherine, Pierre and Céline.
• 23: Number of stories of desirable “One Health” futures produced with the invaluable support of Claire (Eclosio).

Discussing and imagining the future of “One Health” in an interdisciplinary way

Initiated three years ago on an experimental basis with a small cohort of students from the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and a number of students enrolled in the Science, Technology and Society (STS) Master's programme, and then under the big top on the first day of the inspiring 'Rêve Général' Festival, the “One Health” Edition 2025 interdisciplinary workshop now brings together around a hundred students from four different Faculties and it is officially included in the new Transition faculty credit for the Faculty of Medicine.

The concept? Over the course of a day, these students discuss a range of issues related to 'One Health' before imagining the desirable future that would facilitate this transition. To do this, they used a combination of three methods.

First, they all read the manga “Contamination” by AO Acato. This “graphic medicine” technique aims to raise students’ awareness of the management of a pandemic and its consequences in an emotional, personal and visual way.

On the day of the debates, two other methods will be used: the Arpentage method, led by the Spiral research centre, and the scenario method, led by Eclosio. The Arpentage method consists of tearing up Marie Monique Robin's book “La Fabrique des pandémies” and distributing it to as many participants around the table, in order to re-read the book together during a two-hour discussion. What attracts you as a reader? Which passage would you like to share to contribute to the discussion? Why or why not? The facilitator helps to make the discussion meaningful and balanced.

The scenario method aims to create, step by step, as many desired futures as there are groups of participants. The future is neither linear nor written in advance, but to be imagined and constructed. Once again, the students are guided by a researcher to discuss, imagine and write the world of 2035.

“The added value of this type of day is threefold,” says Céline Parotte, “firstly, on an individual level, the students immerse themselves in a complex topic with multiple questions in a fun and atypical way. They read a Manga before identifying surprising elements on the torn part of the book. Secondly, the interdisciplinary work is carried out gradually; while the students initially explore a topic emotionally and individually, discussions are essential. It's impossible to follow the threads of Marie-Monique Robin's stories without listening to others and contribute to the group”.

Daring to exchange, taking the risk of sharing, learning with different media to come up with concrete proposals - that's what the day was all about. Céline Parotte continues: “The third added value comes from the combination and articulation of the three methods. The Manga, although written before the Covid 19 pandemic, allows us to look back at the critical elements of crisis management, while Marie-Monique Robin's book identifies constraints and possible solutions. At the end of the afternoon, the students were given different ways of imagining and creating possible futures in terms of transition. They had spent the morning finding common ground and identifying each other's sensitivities, before embarking on writing collective narratives, which were as numerous as the groups of participants!”.

Some key messages from the survey of Marie-Monique Robin's book "La Fabrique des Pandémies".

Marie-Monique Robin sets the tone with the title of her book: “Preserving biodiversity is a global health imperative”. But how do pandemics arise? What should we be aware of? What does the author have to say on the subject? Together, the students identify the key messages and give their opinions based on their own experiences and disciplinary sensitivities.

The central idea is that human health is part of the symbiosis of the ecosystem and vice versa; “everything is intertwined (epidemics, deforestation, the long term leading to new epidemics), all elements are interconnected and the responses can only be systemic” (discussion groups 6, 7 and 5). The book gives many examples of what contributes to pandemics, and some examples particularly struck the students, such as “the industrialisation of fishing, intensive breeding that creates genetic clones that are more susceptible to disease, and the extensive use of antibiotics in animals that creates resistant pathogens” (discussion group 4).

The way in which assessments are made is also discussed: how do you carry out a health check? The experiments referred to in the book suggest a number of very different approaches: going back to the archives of accumulated knowledge on existing pathologies, or taking a walk in the forest to identify the state of the ecosystem in which humans live.

Many answers were proposed. It starts with thinking about human health with and in harmony with biodiversity, by mobilising multifactorial indicators (ecological, political, cultural and economic) together (discussion groups 1 and 3). Changing our lifestyles, preventing rather than reacting urgently, thinking about the conditions for anticipation, decentering our anthropocentric view of biodiversity, organising systematic exchanges between animal and human health specialists (panels 3, 4, 5 and 6) are some of the avenues suggested during the debates, although many questions remain. “Is it realistic to organise change at our level? Do we have the power to make decisions? How and to what extent should we anticipate? What forms of prevention should we adopt? What kind of expertise do we need to bring to the table and who do we need to reach?”

For the six student observers of the day, Margaux, Guillaume, Alice, Emmanuelle, Pauline and Leila, there are several important points. On the method, “there is a difference in jargon between the faculties (...) but their ideologies are quite similar, even if the students don't always have the same priorities. This generates a lot of debate and proves the importance of interdisciplinarity”. On the ideas presented in Marie-Monique Robin's book and the subsequent discussions, “there is a lot of emphasis on the economy and the link between the different dimensions of health. The media coverage of Covid has also highlighted social inequalities in the face of infectious diseases: access to care and knowledge are not equal”. Involving citizens in health management, learning from crises such as Covid19 and promoting health are three ways forward proposed by these students.

Imagining and telling the story of tomorrow's world

Whether it's a political speech, a letter from a father to his son, a news report, a fairy tale or a success story, the students have put together a story about the world of 2035.

The creation of a wide range of activities for young people to encourage interaction and physical activity, local products, renovation without excluding minorities, shared gardens, the abolition of INAMI numbers, an active fight against medical deserts, a discreet AI to serve real needs, the creation of a Mentascore to assess the well-being of the population on a daily basis to name but a few, the ideas are all there and are being put down on paper before being presented to others.

“Of course, this is not a planning exercise with specific constraints”, comments Céline Parotte. “The aim is to imagine and tell the story of a particular future together, bearing in mind that there are as many possibilities as there are individuals. After the meeting, the students continue the discussions, trying to convince their peers of a desirable future rather than others. They continue the exchange, but with an additional challenge: no longer to criticise an existing document, but to propose one”. She concludes: “What always fascinates me is their incredible optimism, which makes you want to move mountains”. This is further motivation to continue research and organise new interdisciplinary days.