The University Foundation is the meeting place
- for all academics in Belgium,
- for academics and members of civil society,
- for academics in Belgium, foreign academics and members of international organizations.
The various initiatives of the University Foundation are described on this website. For some parts of the website that are not relevant for international visitors there is no English version.
The University Foundation wishes you all a happy and joyful 2026 and expresses hope for a more peaceful world.
New Year's reception for the members of the Club: Thursday January 29 at 5.30 p.m.Read more
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The University Foundation regularly organizes academic activities and cultural activities for its members and other interested parties: lunch debates, evening lectures, visits to art exhibitions, music performances in Bozar, opera in La Monnaie... Most of these activities are organized in French and Dutch, sometimes, but rarely, only in French or only in Dutch. Therefore they are not explicitly mentioned on the English version of the website. The interested reader is referred to the French and the Dutch versions of the website for further information.Read more
On April 29, 2026 at 5 pm, the University Foundationl organizes an event on the theme "Which Restitution Policy for nazi looted art ?". Four speakers will explain different experiences and perspectives about it: Ann Demeester, director of the Kunsthaus Zurich (which houses the controversial Bührle collection), Franciska Vandepitte, senior curator of modern art at the Royal Museums for Fine Art, Geert Sels, journalist at De Standaard, who recently published a valued book on the subject under the title "Kunst voor Das Reich" and "Le trésor de guerre des nazis" (English version to be published soon), and Kim Oosterlinck, director of the Royal Museums for Fine Art, and who devoted several publications to this issue. The event will be introduced and moderated by Michel Flamée, who devoted on the internet at Lootedart.com an extensive study to these issues.
The session will be in English, Dutch and French, at the speaker's choice, however without simultaneous translation.
After the Q&A follows the usual reception.
Participation
35 € p.p. for members of the Club of the University Foundation and theit partner,
45 € p.p. for non-members.
The members of the Club of the University Foundation and their partner are invited to the New Year's reception on Thursday January 29, 2026, at 5.30 pm.
The New Year's reception will be introduced by a talk by Christiane Struyven on 'Female artists in Belgium during the interbellum (1916-1945)"
More information on the Dutch or French sections of this website.
The bi-annual English Fernand Collin Prize for Law aims at stimulating junior researchers in Flemish academic institutions in the area of law. The award was established in honour of Fernand Collin (1897-1990), who was chairman of Kredietbank from 1938 to 1973.
The Fernand Collin Prize for 2025 is awarded to Hannelore THIJS for her work Solidarity in Acquisitions Regimes (720 p.). This is the dissertation with which Ms. THIJS obtained her doctorate in law from KU Leuven on 5 December 2024. Professor Alain-Laurent Verbeke was the supervisor of this dissertation.
The Prize was presented on Monday, 8 December 2025, at 6:00 p.m. during an academic session at the University Foundation (Egmontstraat 11, 1000 Brussels).Read more
The Ethical Forum 2025 of the University Foundation will be devoted to an exchange of views on the internal restrictions on the academic freedom, with the title
ACADEMIC FREEDOM UNDER ATTACK - ALSO FROM WITHIN?
The Ethical Forum 2025 is organised in a new format, an early evening event from 5 to 7 pm, on Thursday, December 4, 2025, at the University Foundation.
For more information the reader is referred to the EF website.
The activity of Re-Bel was devoted to the important question "Belgian vs. Flemish diplomacy. Conflict or Cooperation?". It was held on Thursday 16 January 2025 from 5.30 to 7 pm, concurrently at the University Foundation (11 rue d'Egmontstraat, 1000 Brussels) and online. The panel, introducing the theme, consisted of
- Axel BUYSE, former General Representative of the Government of Flanders at the Permanent Representation of Belgium at the EU,
- Johan VERBEKE, former Belgian Ambassador in London and Washington and Permanent Representative at the UN, who teaches at VUB and ULB and is a senior researcher at the Egmont Institute,
- Sofia VANDENBOSCH, postdoctoral researcher in Constitutional Law at Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law and affiliated researcher at UCLouvain.
The conversation (Dutch/French) was moderated, as usual, by Béatrice DELVAUX (Le Soir) and Karel VERHOEVEN (De Standaard).
More information on the Re-Bel website.Read more
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Two books which received subsidy for publication from ten the University Foundarion, have received an award.
The book « À la recherche de l’écologie temporelle. Vivre des temps libérés dans les collectifs néo-paysans autogérés : une analyse anthropologique » (author Madeleine Sallustio) was awarded the First Prize as "livre d'écologie politique". For more information on the award click here. For more information on the book, click here.
The book "Le jardin anglais. Evolution du goût et passion botanique" (author Nathalie de Harlez) received the Prize Pierre-Joseph Redouté / Histoire 2023, a Prize awarded every year to the best book on gardens. For more information on the award click here. For more information on the book, click here.
The University Foundation is proud to have contributed to these awards. Read more
The University Foundation has two new twinning partners : the « Koninklijke Industrieele Groote Club » in Amsterdam and the « Grémio Literário » in Lissabon.