International colleagues starting at KU Leuven will be given every opportunity to integrate into our university community and society. To that end, the procedure for their onboarding has already been substantially refined, but follow-up after the start-up phase (e.g. monitoring the extent to which they can fully participate in internal debates and decision-making processes, and attending to the integration of family members) can be dealt with more systematically, ideally in cooperation with local initiatives such as the City of Leuven’s International house. In addition, we need to properly implement the recently outlined language policy for international senior academic staff (ZAP), focusing on expectation management, open dialogue through career interviews and strengthened language offerings. Faculties, departments and institutes may also actively look for inspiration on how to encourage international colleagues to fully engage in, for example, a research group or POC.