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Vrije Universiteit Brussel

VUB

As a university Vrije Universtiteit Brussel follows a wide range of EU initiatives, policies and legislative files.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Zoltán Tarr (Member of the European Parliament)

27 Nov 2025 · Erasmus+

Response to 2021-2024 Triannual evaluation of the six Executive Agencies

18 Nov 2025

The feedback concerns only the two agencies with which we have extensive experience - ERCEA: highly responsive, provides informed and specific answers to questions that are sometimes complex and urgent. Cpuld serve as excellent standard for high quality. - REA: not responsive (sometimes need to send reminders after 2 weeks), often provides generic answers (e.g. copy-paste extracts from - annotated - grant agreements) that do not apply to the specific case or does not solve the issue. We often have to resort to asking our NCP (Flanders) who seem to have more leverage to get specific answers from COM services, this is not always efficient or fast enough. We advocate for high quality services of the level of ERCEA (possibly the Officers have more experience, are better trained, share their knowledge...). Generally, services that are subcontracted to external parties do not provide the same level of quality as internal services (see for example Horizon auditors, Tender Portal IT helpdesk). Thank you for the consultation.
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Meeting with Bruno Tobback (Member of the European Parliament) and Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven and Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad

24 Sept 2025 · Europees onderzoeks- en innovatiebeleid

Meeting with Fulvia Raffaelli (Head of Unit Health and Food Safety)

24 Apr 2025 · Health, Economics, Law and Technology (HELT) Symposium 2025. Panel session entitled: "AI in Health: Crafting Regulatory Frameworks for Trust and Safety” , organised by WHO

Meeting with Eszter Lakos (Member of the European Parliament)

3 Mar 2025 · Research policies

Meeting with Rudi Kennes (Member of the European Parliament)

18 Feb 2025 · Universities and research

Meeting with Kathleen Van Brempt (Member of the European Parliament)

7 Feb 2025 · General European Politics (study visit VUB library)

Meeting with Ekaterina Zaharieva (Commissioner) and

27 Jan 2025 · Presentation of the VUB, in particular StartLAB, university Alliance EUTOPIA

Meeting with Alexandra Hild (Cabinet of Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva), Andreas Schwarz (Cabinet of Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva)

27 Jan 2025 · Presentation of the VUB, in particular StartLAB, university Alliance EUTOPIA

Meeting with Christophe Galand (Head of Unit Budget) and European University Association and

23 Jan 2025 · Discussion on research place in the the future Multiannual Financial Framework

Meeting with Alexandra Hild (Cabinet of Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva), Andreas Schwarz (Cabinet of Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva)

23 Jan 2025 · Presentation of the VUB, in particular StartLAB, university Alliance EUTOPIA

Meeting with Kathleen Van Brempt (Member of the European Parliament)

21 Jan 2025 · De rol van Europese universiteiten in onderzoek en ontwikkeling en de Europese horizon-fondsen

Meeting with Liesbet Sommen (Member of the European Parliament)

21 Jan 2025 · Onderzoek en ontwikkeling

Meeting with Hilde Vautmans (Member of the European Parliament)

21 Jan 2025 · Higher education / Talent

Response to Communication on the European Research Area Implementation

13 Sept 2024

Based on evidence from the ERA monitoring & dashboard 2023, and on policy development and implementation at our university, suggestions for the ERA 2025-2027 period - The number of (new) ERA actions should be limited: it provides focus and aligns objectives with the resources available at all stakeholders levels - All ERA actions should have similar levels of ambition, scopes and transformative potential; specific activities that were successful in one context/member state can serve as good practices to advance the ERA but should not become an ERA action as such e.g. plastic pirates, mutual learning exercise - The impact of the PACT and ERA actions should not imply that science, research and innovation always need to have short-term direct foreseeable impacts - ERA actions where clear progress was made in the 2022-2024 period at EU level should be continued with a similar approach and higher ambitions e.g. open science, researchers careers, gender equality - ERA actions where limited/no progress was made should be approached differently e.g. academic freedom index; EU-wide access to excellence (regional level instead of national level? Correlation with national investment levels?...); environmentally related government R&D budget - KPIs of some actions should be adapted to reflect actual progress e.g. ERA priority 2 the number of patents on environmental technologies is a weak proxy of the actual contribution of R&I to the green transition; the joint impact of the green and digital transformation should be reflected based on a scientifically sound methodology - Some (new) areas of concern deserve more attention e.g. increasing investment and access to research infrastructure; increasing attractiveness and sustainability of academic careers; the role of European universities alliances in the ERA strategy; responsible use of AI in research; mainstreaming the gender dimension of R&I...
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Meeting with Kathleen Van Brempt (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

29 Sept 2023 · China Maritime Policy (APA)

Meeting with Daniel Freund (Member of the European Parliament) and Transparency International Liaison Office to the European Union and

26 Jun 2023 · Treaty reform

Meeting with Kathleen Van Brempt (Member of the European Parliament) and Bond Beter Leefmilieu Vlaanderen vzw and North Sea Port

1 Mar 2023 · Sustainable transition to climate neutrality - the role of European ports

Meeting with Alice Kuhnke (Member of the European Parliament) and The European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association and European Network Against Racism

17 Nov 2021 · Speaker: Discrimination in Europe in times of COVID - How to combat it?

Meeting with Diederik Samsom (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans)

15 Sept 2021 · Keynote speech at Jean Monnet Network GOVTRAN : “Fit for 55% and climate neutrality: The future of Europe in the World”.

Response to Pact for Research and Innovation in Europe

27 Apr 2021

With the current publicly available information, the proposed PACT seems a watered down version of the past: voluntary scheme requiring no actual commitment, no mention of 3% GDP to research anymore for example, lower ambitions than in the Communication of Dec 2020. This does not seem appropriate for the European R&I challenges ahead, and does not give confidence in a strong ERA or inspiration to contribute to building up the new ERA. It could end up worse than the previous cycle. It is also difficult to understand how to build a strong ERA with limited interactions with key stakeholders such as European universities. We would appreciate a consultation process that is more transparent and far-reaching.
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Meeting with Anthony Whelan (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen), Bjoern Seibert (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen), Brenda Furniere (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen), Fernando Sampedro Marcos (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen), Nicole Dewandre (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen), Olivier Smith (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen), Per Haugaard (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen), Peteris Ustubs (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen), Sonia Vila Nunez (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen), Valeria Miceli (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen) and

28 Jul 2020 · High-Level Roundtable Discussion on The State of the Union in 2020 and EU's Global Engagement in a Covid-19 world - [Via Webex]

Meeting with Carlos Moedas (Commissioner) and

18 Jun 2018 · Presentation on liver disease research (ERC grant)