(Sciences)²

For several years now, the University of Lausanne has been developing an interdisciplinary approach that creates new knowledge. A number of UNIL faculties include the need for cross-disciplinary research in their titles: Faculty of Biology and Medicine, Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, Faculty of Law and Criminal Sciences, Faculty of Theology and Religious Sciences. Other faculties, such as Arts and Social and Political Sciences, are intrinsically multidisciplinary.

Taking advantage of the geographical proximity between the UNIL faculties and between the latter and the EPFL faculties, the (Sciences)² project aims to strengthen the dialogue between the sciences and to increase contacts between researchers, taking exchanges to the ‘power of two’.

The programme has three components:

• Courses and seminars aimed primarily at students from the humanities faculties at UNIL.
• The interdisciplinary master's thesis workshop for students from all UNIL faculties interested in interdisciplinary research.
• Binômes’ of scientists, a database designed to facilitate meetings between teacher-researchers from different disciplines.

The (Sciences)² programme also organises a series of lectures as part of the ‘Research in all its forms’ Masters course. The theme of the lecture series changes each year. All lectures are open to the public without prior registration (free admission). The lectures have been filmed since the 2017 cycle, and the videos are available on the lecture cycle information pages.

Finally, the (Sciences)² programme promotes interdisciplinarity by providing financial support for research under the CROSS call for projects. The CROSS programme, which is open to all research themes, awards grants to researchers from EPFL and the University of Lausanne who submit proposals for joint projects combining the natural sciences and engineering with the humanities and social sciences.

• Bachelor : The courses and seminars aimed primarily at students of the UNIL humanities faculties
• Master: The interdisciplinary master's thesis workshop aimed at the student body of all UNIL faculties interested in interdisciplinary research.