“Only when it is dark enough, you can see the stars.”
Martin Luther King.
Someone else once said:
“As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”
That was Nelson Mandela. Our honorary doctor.
And my late predecessor, Caroline Pauwels, had a fondness for another quotation:
“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
By Leonard Cohen.
Excellencies,
Colleagues, students and alumni,
Friends and partners of the VUB,
Dear friends, from home and abroad,
Scientia vincere tenebras.
To conquer darkness through science.
The motto of our Free University is today more relevant than ever. Darkness comes and goes, and once again we find ourselves in the middle of it.
The stars that light up the sky are thankfully many. And among them are scientists, many scientists, and people who base their thinking and acting on science. Like all of us.
For all the great challenges of our time – climate change, the energy transition, the challenges of AI, and also: learning to understand our own brain and its dysfunctions better – we can only face them with thorough knowledge, with new insights and with humanism as our guide.
And that is why my message here, in the middle of the twenties of this century, is one of conditional optimism, based on trust.
Students, colleagues, friends,
Today we are experiencing a special moment as the VUB community:
For the first time in more than ten years, we are holding an opening on our own campus.
We do this because we not only want to speak about the university, but above all show it, as a place of research and innovation, of knowledge and knowledge transfer, a place that stands for facts and truth.
Author Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer recently wrote in his monthly essay in De Morgen, and I quote:
“Whoever accepts lies for strategic reasons loses the facts as a weapon. In the world created by the liar, the liar wins every battle. The only remedy against alternative truths is the truth.”
Dear friends,
Let us never lose the facts as a weapon. Henri Poincaré already said it: thought does not submit. Except to facts. And to the scientific methods that uncover those facts.
And indeed: alternative truths are, almost always, lies. They mainly serve the interests of a few, not the many. Not society. Nor human rights or the international legal order.
The VUB is a growing university – we now have more than 22,000 funded students. That is a doubling in twelve years. Even now – at the start of this academic year – we again see an increase of almost 6 percent.
Equally important is that our research activities and our infrastructure have grown just as strongly – as we will gladly show shortly with our campus tours.
And the point is to keep turning that growth into impact.
Impact on sustainability and innovation, on medicine and health, on social cohesion and social justice.
Scientists and academics are not politicians or policymakers.
We do not strive for power, we are not looking for a majority or a compromise. We strive for truth – or at least:
we try, through trial and error, through speech and counter-speech, to come as close as possible to the truth. And to devise solutions to problems.
We have our own guide: the principle of free inquiry. Free – in the sense of independent – but never careless.
We saw free inquiry at work just now on stage, and during the tours you will soon see much more groundbreaking science in action.
Open mind, open science, open campus.
Dear VUB members, I now want to talk about a difficult subject, something that concerns us all: behaviour, unacceptable behaviour. And yes, on our campus.
It is not the first time we have spoken about it. In recent years we have already taken many steps. We rolled out our Yana policy – Yana stands for You are not alone.
We adjusted our procedures thoroughly where they fell short, we took various initiatives such as bystander training...
But unfortunately, we are not there yet.
Victims of unacceptable behaviour still feel, despite all measures, despite the strengthened reporting system, despite all campaigns, that they are not being heard enough. The approach is still not transparent enough.
Last week I took a difficult decision. A decision inspired by ethical considerations and by care for the well-being of our community. The interests of our students and staff are, and remain, my main driving force.
There are never winners in such a case. But hopefully there is relief, at least for reporters and victims. And we, all of us, must continue to push for a real change of mentality. That change clearly still needs to be carried through, and must not remain stuck in slogans and good intentions.
At the VUB there is only room for one kind of leadership, and that is people-centred leadership. Colleagues in leadership roles must inspire, motivate and support. Be honest, reliable and empathetic. Every leader must be able to speak freely, like everyone else, but respectfully. The time of toxic leadership is over. Let us together – for it depends on each of us – turn that page.
Open mind, open science, open campus.
An open campus is a connected campus.
Two years ago, our academic opening took place in the hemicycle of the European Parliament. Then I made the case for a new Renaissance, a new European elan based on curiosity, openness and connectedness.
At the VUB we deliberately position ourselves as a European university. With a central role for Eutopia, our alliance of ten universities, all of which were also present in the European Parliament two years ago.
I have agreed to commit myself even more strongly to the alliance, as president of Eutopia.
Why is Eutopia so important?
First of all because leading voices within the European Union now propose science and knowledge as the fifth freedom.
As a necessary and explicit addition to the other four: the free movement of goods, services, people and capital.
A single market and a united Europe cannot exist without that fifth freedom—the free movement of research, innovation, knowledge, and education.
The European university alliances – there are now 65 of them – must take the lead here, and the VUB is doing that with Eutopia.
The scale of Eutopia, with nearly 280,000 students – among them all VUB students – and 35,000 staff, is intellectually stimulating. And at the same time efficient, because we can now share expensive research infrastructure.
And many of our students – so far about two thousand VUB students – gain a unique European learning experience through the so-called connected communities within Eutopia.
With our alliance, we must help defend and strengthen European values, and support Europe’s prosperity—prosperity built on research and innovation. And we must also uphold European values, rooted in democracy and respect for the rule of law. And we work towards the same goal with our VUB partners outside Europe, such as the University of the Western Cape. We have just listened to Rector Balfour.
We have in fact already taken the lead with very concrete initiatives.
As one of the first universities, we reached out to researchers in the United States whose research is under threat.
We drew their attention to the opportunities here, without exclusivity. In the meantime, more than a hundred American researchers have contacted us. Three leading researchers from the US have already submitted an Advanced Grant application to the European Research Council, with the VUB as host institution. A first.
If it were up to Commission President Von der Leyen, the EU must become a top destination for researchers worldwide.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In this, the EU is showing its most enlightened side. And that is something we can only welcome. And we do so: in words and in deeds.
We also hope that the EU will follow us on another hot issue: the association agreement with Israel.
The universities – not only us, but the ten Belgian rectors – have long called for the suspension of that association agreement. Article 2 of the treaty states that respect for human rights is a basic condition.
By suspending the treaty, Israeli partners would no longer be able to participate in large European research projects, within the so-called Horizon programme. These projects sometimes involve dozens of partners from all over Europe, and sometimes also from Israel. In the current circumstances, that is no longer defensible. The VUB is, moreover, the only university that has itself stepped out of such an ongoing project with an Israeli partner, a project on artificial intelligence where we could not rule out military applications.
But suspending the association agreement would bring clarity for all and would be a morally right decision.
At the same time – and I want to say this very clearly once again: we have also condemned the terrorist acts of Hamas and will continue to do so. As well as every form of antisemitism.
But today I state very clearly that from now on I will not sign any cooperation agreement with an Israeli partner. None at all. We cannot keep waiting for an EU decision.
Now, the EU would do better to follow the example of South Africa, which has brought Israel before the International Court of Justice. (Your country did the right thing, Rector Balfour.)
But meanwhile no one seems to care about Eastern Congo, the World Cycling Championships take place in Rwanda and there is hardly any protest.
Even though we wish Remco his rainbow jersey – maybe even two.
This May, on World Press Freedom Day, together with the ULB, we awarded an Honorary Title for Freedom of Expression to the Rwandan journalist in exile, Samuel Baker Byansi. With the World Cycling Championships, Rwanda wants to present itself to the world as a model state. A story that, hopefully, not only critical journalists but also sports journalists will expose. Maybe they can interview Samuel Baker Byansi.
Open mind, open science, open campus.
The free spirit we celebrated last year during the Festival of the Free Spirit in the Royal Circus, where we awarded honorary doctorates to Guy Mortier and Femke Lakerveld. But that free spirit is increasingly under threat, because at the same time it forms a threat itself. A threat to those who prefer to proclaim their own version of the truth within a closed system, a closed society. Putin feared Alexei Navalny more than the other way around.
And the Trump administration had difficulties with free and critical scientists, and put unprecedented pressure on American knowledge institutions.
But, dear colleagues, we too are under pressure. The September Declaration is a bitter pill for us. Our financial strength was already under strain due to insufficient structural funding, and since yesterday further cuts have been added by the Flemish Government. A cold strike through the Brussels funds means that we and other Brussels higher education institutions are taking exceptionally hard blows. And this while Brussels’ universities and colleges are precisely those making the greatest social effort to lead (also) vulnerable students, many of them first-generation students, to a higher education diploma.
We will therefore do everything in our power to reverse this as much as possible. Or is Flanders really abandoning Brussels altogether?
Dear friends,
Today should be a celebration, in the spirit of openness, curiosity and connectedness. We want to highlight this with our Open Campus Day. Even though our campuses, here and in Jette, are open every day, 24/7, as part of the city and society.
Tomorrow we will also know whether Molenbeek, and thus Brussels, will become European Capital of Culture in 2030. VUB and ULB are both active partners in Molenbeek for Brussels 2030. We sincerely believe in the potential of Molenbeek, of the Brussels region, and its young population. We are and remain an urban engaged university.
During the tours you can discover our brand-new martial arts centre CEMAS, officially opened this morning. CEMAS stands for Centre for Martial Arts and Science.
The centre responds to the lack of martial arts infrastructure in Brussels. But at the same time it is a multidisciplinary research centre. Research shows that martial arts can in fact empower young people in socially vulnerable positions. And provide social mobility.
Our research group ‘Sport & Society’ will, together with other VUB scientists, provide specific support and training programmes for organisations working with young people.
A concrete example, then, of our openness towards society and our engagement for the city and its young residents.
Another example that we can visit during the tours is our Research Valley. The old student housing district designed by architect Willy Van der Meeren has in recent years been gradually transformed into one large research valley. With the cryo-electron microscope, the Circular Retrofit Lab, the Microlab, the Fermented Food Pilot Plant… And earlier this year the opening of the bio-incubator, which will help shape the biotech of tomorrow. And from which, hopefully, new successful biotech companies will again emerge. Just like with our nanobodies, perhaps the Belgian biotech discovery, of which we as VUB members are rightly proud. Those tiny camel antibodies formed – and still form – the basis for new medicines.
Research and innovation in the service of humanity. That is what the Research Valley stands for. And the university as a whole.
Also to visit shortly: the equally brand-new Learning and Innovation Centre – an open house for all students of ULB and VUB – on the border of our two campuses.
The place to study, network and innovate in 2025, where presentations and demonstrations can take place in a high-tech environment, and above all: where openness reigns, total openness in a glass building, connected on one side with the esplanade of our campus and on the other with the ULB.
Le LIC est un trait d'union entre nos deux campus, nos deux communautés, nos deux universités.
The Learning and Innovation Centre, the Research Valley, CEMAS, the Health Campus in Jette, the Photonics Campus in Gooik, the Green Energy Park in Zellik and much more research, innovation and educational infrastructure all have one thing in common: scale.
In my first speech as rector – when I began my four-year term – I pleaded for scaling up as an answer to the challenges science was facing. Today, as I begin my fourth year as rector, that scaling up has already been largely realised. For example, we went from around 150 research groups to about 80, through reorganisation, through scaling up. We are also investing much more clearly in interdisciplinarity, as with our House for Sustainable Transitions or with our climate scientists.
No major problem can be approached from just one discipline. Climate, the energy transition, mobility, the unprecedented revolution driven by AI, understanding our brain, and yes, also life together in our cities – all require an interdisciplinary approach.
That is the path we want to continue. Let us walk it together, on our open campus, and then you will be even more convinced – that is my hope at least – of scale as a condition for impact.
Dear friends and partners of the VUB,
Dear students,
I repeat once again: my message is cautious and conditionally optimistic. We all have questions. So do I.
I would like to go into three questions a little more deeply. Briefly.
One: where is AI heading? Is artificial intelligence the dream assistant for every scientist and the dream tutor for every student?
As a university, with our AI lab, we were among the pioneers of artificial intelligence – already in the 1980s – and today AI is sending a shockwave through all universities, and through society.
It changes the way we research, study, assess.
A student recently told me: “I have been at university for a few years now, and each year studying has been a totally different experience.”
I think that’s right: covid changed so much, now there is AI, and everything is moving incredibly fast.
At the VUB we have leading research groups that help shape AI and how we should deal with it – such as the FARI institute with the ULB: AI for the common good.
We have developed a university-wide policy to handle AI thoughtfully, a policy that must constantly keep its finger on the pulse. It is clear that from now on we will have to assess a master’s thesis differently. With much more emphasis on oral interaction and defence.
But the content of our programmes will also change, just as many professions will change. AI is not only there to take repetitive, boring tasks out of our hands. It will also drive creative and intellectual processes both on campus and beyond.
But we are firmly convinced – as we also just saw in the testimonies at our Health Campus – that AI can only serve humanity, never the other way round.
And above all, we must continue to think critically ourselves, and teach our students to do so too.
A second question I want to touch on: where is the university itself heading? Well, as I said, things were going well, until Sunday evening.
Due to the recently announced cuts there is now clearly even more need for a powerful organisation that uses the available resources and people as effectively as possible to better support both teaching and research. First the core tasks. That focus is absolutely necessary. In a turbulent sea, your ship must be agile. And therefore stripped of all unnecessary ballast. And we want to ensure that with a new governance model, which the university council will be presented with for approval next week. Or rejection.
(The pension reform against which the trade unions are taking action today is indeed a bad thing for many colleagues. And therefore a bad thing for universities as a whole. Trade unions and universities are not opposed here.
It is, after all, important to remain an attractive employer. Attractive at home, compared to what the private sector offers. And attractive internationally, compared to what foreign universities offer.)
And a final question: where is our unstable world heading? Well, here too we will have to be agile and combative. And we can only play two cards: that of international law and that of Europe.
I think we are only now truly becoming Europeans. You can feel that in almost all EU member states. And let us as universities – with Eutopia and the other European University Alliances, with science as the fifth freedom – fully commit ourselves to that.
And above all let us, as the VUB community of researchers, lecturers and support staff, of 22,000 students and many more alumni, of partners at home and abroad – with the ULB, with the University of the Western Cape – let us with this great community always want to be part of the solution, for a sustainable and peaceful future, for the light that overcomes the darkness.
Scientia vincere tenebras.
An open campus is a campus full of light.
I thank you.