Opening remarks

SPEAKER

Vice-rector research Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) & Director of imec-SMIT

Professor Pieter Ballon is Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Vice-Rector of Research. As director of SMIT (Studies in Media, Innovation & Technology), a joint research center of VUB and imec, he leads one of the largest European social science research groups on digital media and smart technology.

He is also co-founder of the European Network of Living Labs and of the Hannah Arendt Institute. As Vice-Chancellor for Research, he succeeds Karin Vanderkerken. “Whether it's artificial intelligence, sustainability, cancer or fertility research, the VUB has always been pioneering in groundbreaking and relevant research,” he says. “We are going to strengthen that even more.”

SPEAKER

Full Professor, Vice-rector of research and valorization, Vice-rector of culture and scientific mediation at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)

Marius Gilbert graduated in Agricultural Sciences at the University of Brussels (ULB) in 1995. He was then a visiting researcher for two years at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford and obtained a PhD on the spatial epidemiology of a forest insect pest at ULB in 2001. In 2006, he was awarded a permanent academic position with the Belgian FNRS, and joined the university as professor in 2023. In 2016, he founded the Spatial Epidemiology Lab (SpELL), now led by Simon Dellicour. During the COVID pandemic, he joined the Expert Group on the Exit Strategy (GEES) that was assembled by the prime minister Sophie Wilmes to advise the government on the lockdown exit strategy. In September 2020 he joined the team of the rector Annemie Schaus as vice-rector of Research and Valorization, during her first mandate, and with an additional mandate of Vice-rector of Culture and Scientific mediation in the current one.

SPEAKER

Federal Minister in charge of Public Action and Modernization

Vanessa Matz, born on August 12, 1973, in Liège, Belgium, is a prominent Belgian politician and member of the Les Engagés party (formerly cdH). She began her political career in local government, serving as a municipal councilor and alderman in Aywaille from 1994 to 2018. Matz entered national politics in 2008 as a co-opted senator and later served as a directly elected senator from 2009 to 2014. Since 2014, she has been a member of the Belgian Federal Parliament, where she has focused on areas such as interior affairs, justice, and social emancipation17. As of July 10, 2024, Matz held the position of chair of the Les Engagés parliamentary group in the Chamber of Representatives. With the formation of the Belgian government in February 2025, she now serves as Minister of Public Modernisation.

SPEAKER

FARI Co-director

Carl Mörch is co-director of FARI – AI for the Common Good Institute (ULB-VUB) and a member of the AI Ethics & Law Board of the Federal initiative AI4Belgium. He is also a member of the Ethics Special Interest Group of CLAIRE and a co-chair of CLAIRE Brussels office.

Carl aims at fostering high-quality applied projects related to AI, Data and Robotics that could serve the Brussels Region and its inhabitants. With FARI, he wants to support initiatives that can reinforce education around these technologies, and could help bridge the gap with civil society. In 2020, Carl was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship by the International Observatory on the Societal Impacts of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies (OBVIA). He was, from 2020 to 2021, a postdoctoral fellow at the Université de Montréal and at Mila – Québec Artificial Intelligence Institute. He is also a lecturer and adjunct professor at UQÀM (Montréal, Canada). His personal research work is oriented towards the concrete application of high-level ethical principles in applied domains. In general, he is interested in the responsible development of technologies in society, and health care (Psychology and Dental Medicine in particular).