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KIn recent years, KU Leuven has focused on a number of interregional and regional partnerships (Kortrijk collaboration with the University of Lille, Leuven-Louvain University Alliance (LLUA) and the recently launched collaboration with TU Eindhoven). They allow us to join forces on an interregional level and strengthen our position and outreach in those regions. Mutual academic reinforcement must be the guiding principle and must outweigh any heightened administrative, organisational or logistical impact. This will allow us to improve valuable partnerships, but also to discontinue initiatives that are not gaining sufficient traction.

We also collaborate with strategic research centres (SOCs), in particular with the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) and imec. We will continue to embrace these partnerships, but we are also mindful of potential ambiguities that may arise from dual statutes, differences in research funding and additional KPIs imposed by partner organisations. We will resolve these issues in a transparent manner. Similarly, we will continue to build on our partnerships with EnergyVille, Vito and SCK-CEN.

Together, we make KU Leuven

Thank you very much for the vote of confidence you have placed in me during what has already been an intense campaign. Now we are steaming ahead to the final round of voting! Because if you really want to bring a breath of fresh air to the university, you need to know exactly what is going on, what the needs are and how we can realistically address them. In short, you need to know KU Leuven inside out so that we can move forward together and leave no one behind. That’s why I am keen to continue the dialogue with you, because yes, together, we make KU Leuven.