The HAEMUS International Research Network – from the ancient name of the Balkan mountains – proposes to bring together researchers in archaeology and history working on the territory of the Balkan peninsula and/or on the surrounding lands during the Late Roman and Early Byzantine eras. This scientific network is designed around ongoing archaeological excavations and other research programmes in the region. There have been similar projects before, especially in France, but this is the first time that the entirety of the Balkans, from east to west and north to south, is considered more from the perspective of ancient administrative boundaries, between the 3rd and 8th centuries, rather than from contemporary borders. In order to adequately shed light on the phenomenon of the historical transition from Roman Antiquity to the Middle Ages, the network, however, not hesitates to look beyond established temporal benchmarks and the spatial framework.
 
For its implementation phase, the HAEMUS International Research Network was carried by the University of Lille, the HALMA-UMR 8164 research centre (Univ. Lille, CNRS, MC) and the I-SITE ULNE Foundation (also as a structuring activity of the InclusU: The European University for Inclusiveness project), in cooperation with a consortium of other high-ranking European institutions. The majority is now represented on the steering committee, its core group including, in addition to institutions from Lille:
 

• AOrOc-UMR 8546 research centre (CNRS, PSL [ENS, EPHE])
• Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖIA/ÖAW)
• University of Vienna
• Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO)
• Roman-Germanic Commission of the German Archaeological Institute (RGK/DAI)
• École française d'Athènes (EFA)
• École française de Rome (EFR)
• Italian Archaeological School at Athens (SAIA)
• Institute of Heritage Science of the Italian National Research Council (ISPC/CNR)
• University of Kent

 
The steering committee is supplemented by a scientific board bringing together high-level academic institutions from the eleven Balkan countries, to which are added Hungary and Turkey. The HAEMUS International Research Network also has a specific partnership, in training, research and publishing with Brepols Publishers, and is fully supported by the Hauts-de-France region.