UQAM Research Lab in Design for e-Mental Health

The Cercle Diament* is UQAM’s research and innovation laboratory in design and digital mental health. Its director is Professor Stéphane Vial.

* Originally known as the Chaire Diament

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Since January 1, 2026, the Cercle Diament (« Diament Circle ») has been UQAM’s research and innovation laboratory in design and digital mental health. Based at the School of Design, it is affiliated with the Research Centre of the Montreal University Institute of Mental Health (CR-IUSMM).

Emerging from the Chaire Diament (2020–2025), the Cercle continues the Chaire’s pioneering program in the field of design for digital mental health.

The Cercle Diament mobilizes codesign and human-centered design to conceive mental health services and environments, both digital and non-digital, which it experiments with in real-world settings from a social innovation perspective.

The laboratory also works on the responsible design of artificial intelligence systems for mental health and mobilizes entrepreneurship through design to transform research into concrete, sustainable solutions that can be deployed at scale.

Our vision

To humanize digital innovation in mental health.

Our mission

To create, evaluate, study and promote e-mental health services of high ethical and experiential quality through responsible human-centred design.

Our core valeurs

Creativity

The Chaire Diament relies on design as a creative force, a facilitator of multidisciplinary collaborations and a driver of social innovation. It is committed to originality, the original, the contemporary.

Empathy

Rooted in the logic of Care, the Chaire Diament seeks to welcome vulnerability with delicacy. It operates from a user-centred, inclusive and participatory perspective.

Rigour

The Chaire Diament contributes to the advancement of knowledge and practices. Faithful to the values of research and science, it is concerned with clinical validity and proven efficacy.

Sobriety

The Chaire Diament seeks to limit its environmental impact and develop eco-responsible online services. Committed to web ecodesign, it is a proponent of digital sobriety.

Responsibility

The Chaire Diament gives central importance to the ethical and societal issues of e-health and is part of the responsible innovation in health movement.