Highlights 2017/2019

KVAB

– In 2019, the ARB hired several researchers to work on specific projects for a period of 1 to 3 years. The research projects are diversified, as the different scientific fields covered by the ARB: Greek archeology, restitution of cultural heritage, biology and impact of public investments on sustainable development.
– The ARB has established a Québec Chair, in partnership with the Québec Government Office in Brussels. Each year, this chair will henceforth welcome two eminent Quebec personalities from the world of science or culture who will not only be able to give lectures within the Academy but also meet their Belgian colleagues.
– The Collège Belgique, department of the Academy responsible for organizing scientific conferences for the general public, has installed a new headquarters at the General Delegation of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, boulevard Saint-Germain, in Paris, where a dedicated cycle to augmented humanity was organized throughout the year.

Updated data related to Board and Executive Committee representatives : Daniel Dethier, Director of the « Classe des Arts » and civil engineer, has become President of the Academy in 2019.

ARB

– In 2018, Didier Viviers was appointed permanent secretary of the ARB and started to strengthen the relations between the ARB and several international and European scientific networks, especially by creating a department of International Relations.
– ARB has become a member of Euro-CASE in 2018, alongside the Belgian sister academy KVAB. Luc Chefneux, member and vice-director of the Class Technology & Society, has been appointed as the ARB member of the Board of Euro-CASE.
– The work of the ARB has focused on several societal issues: the future of the European Union, industrialisation, education, energy, corporate social responsibility. The ARB also launched the “Rencontres internationales”, a series of conference focused on how each region, each culture, each relevant State articulates local concerns and global issues.

– The Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts (KVAB) KVAB has four classes, including the Class of Technical Sciences KTW which has been a Euro-CASE member since mid-2018, alongside the Belgian sister academy ARB. Joos Vandewalle, former president of KVAB has been appointed as a KVAB member of the EuroCASE Board. Brussels and the premises of the Palace of the Academies has offered enormous added value as a central meeting place in Europe.
– In 2019 the Class of Technical Sciences KTW celebrated its 10th anniversary. In the past ten years the KTW was very active. The Class produced many important society related positioning papers. Specific themes were: mobility for tomorrow, privacy in an age of the internet, social networks and Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, data science and healthcare, learning analytics, corporate digital responsibility and research driven science. Moreover, thinkers programs, with thinkers from abroad, were set up around current societal issues, for instance: societal values in digital innovation, food, democracy and disinformation, the limits of transparency, the doctoral space revisited, water and climate, …
– Three permanent reflection groups stimulate the debate on (1) Energy, (2) Art, Science and Technology, (3) Responsible Research and Innovation and Ethics in Science. Some of the most successful symposia were: “Energiezuinigheid bij decreet, waar stopt het bij nieuw- en vernieuwbouw?” (Energy efficiency by decree, where does it stop with new and renovated buildings?), “The Belgian energy system: a bright future?”, ‘Kunst en Wetenschap in Symbiose’ (Art and Science in Symbiosis), leve[n]dekunst’ (living Art).