Jan Danckaert, the new rector of VUB, never dreamed of becoming a rector as a child. The fact he is so keen to take on the role now is almost entirely thanks to the inspiring examples that have crossed his path in recent years, and to those he came across early in his career as a young researcher. Danckaert studied physics at the University of Antwerp before moving to Brussels for his doctorate. “There is the physics of very small particles,” says Danckaert. “And there is the physics of the infinitely large, of everything that occurs in the universe. Well, my research field, on complex systems, deals with everything in between.”
For Danckaert, the physics of complex systems is both research area and inspiration: “A single neuron cannot think, but by working together in our brain, all those neurons can solve very complex problems. When many components interact with each other, those components in different combinations also acquire different properties.”
The analogy with a university is clear to him. “When all the people at a university are working and thinking together, you get a community that is many times greater than the sum of the individuals. To be intelligent, a system must then be open to the outside world. This applies equally to a university. It must open its doors to the world, must be ready for interactions, collaborations and partnerships.”
The Green Energy Park experiment
According to Danckaert, this requires scale and critical mass. “It only makes sense if there is impact. And you can only create impact if you’re big enough, if there are enough brains working together.” We’re talking at the Green Energy Park (GEP) site in Zellik, at the laying of the foundation stone of the site’s data centre. Danckaert: “You need scale and interaction here at GEP, too. Today we’ve laid the foundation stone of what will become an interdisciplinary research park that will build bridges between scientific research and technological innovation, between our university and the UZ Brussel on the one hand, and industry, business and even the government on the other.”
The data centre meets the highest standards for sustainability, another key area for Danckaert’s time as rector. With energy prices reaching unprecedented heights under the pressure of world events, even a university needs to minimise its carbon footprint. All the new buildings constructed by the university will comply with sustainability regulations. As well as the GEP, little more than a week earlier, an impressive school site that includes a nursery, a new classroom for the FOS scouts and space for a few more users was officially inaugurated, using 100% geothermal energy for its heating
“The data centre’s servers will be cooled using rainwater that subsequently heats other buildings,” explains Danckaert. “Only green power is used. The GEP is actually an experiment in itself. The energy crisis is prompting us to fully commit to the transition to sustainable and renewable alternatives sooner than expected. The biggest challenge remains our existing building stock on the Etterbeek campus, where specialists are now looking at ways to use energy wisely. I was recently with our EUTOPIA partner in Venice where they have a university in very old buildings and face similar challenges. It’s a challenge for everyone and there is no universal solution. When it comes to renovation, we want to prioritise those buildings where we can take sustainable steps. Our energy bill will quadruple this year and may well rise further next academic year. Maybe, pending better solutions, we should co-work a bit more in fewer buildings, flex work in a place we wouldn’t otherwise go, start using other buildings less and turn the heating down there. This could lead in turn to a closer community, where people from different disciplines and faculties can meet in a different way.”
Erasmus 2.0
“All in all, I am pretty optimistic,” Danckaert says, looking ahead. “If everyone starts integrating sustainability into their business operations, like VUB is doing, we will make progress much more quickly than first expected. I think universities have a pioneering role to play in this: we at VUB should strive for sustainable solutions for society, not just for ourselves. That also means thinking less locally, less ‘every person for themselves’. Only by mobilising all our knowledge and expertise and sharing it on a global scale will we be able to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The world needs us and the world’s needs are growing almost every day. Yet, all things considered, I am hopeful, especially in the medium term, and more so when I see international cooperation becoming more important and work being done on open science, which provides innovations that can serve the common good.”
Such international cooperation is also high on Danckaert’s own agenda. For example, he likes to refer to EUTOPIA, the cooperation of 10 top European universities including VUB, which is strongly supported by the European Commission. “We have several collaborations as a university. First and foremost within our association with the Erasmushogeschool and, of course, with our French-speaking parent university ULB, with joint projects such as the Learning and Innovation Centre in that symbolic place between our campuses, and with Usquare. Moreover, we have several joint programmes, including five master’s programmes in civil engineering and the master’s in urban studies. Brussels is also a strong asset for our university, a context that we should valorise and cherish: many international institutions want to position themselves here. Brussels has become a strong brand.
“As far as EUTOPIA is concerned, Europe is fully committed to such alliances and partnerships. We now have 30 connected learning communities within EUTOPIA and that is very important, both for the students and for our research groups. We are actually creating a kind of Erasmus 2.0, a layer on top of the existing Erasmus programme, which will continue, of course. Within EUTOPIA, research groups and students can collaborate physically or virtually in workshops, participate in shared courses or conduct research together. I know how important that is in a student or researcher’s journey, and sometimes on a personal level. I had several overseas experiences that have been incredibly important for my scientific path. I also met my wife during my postgraduate experience in Spain. The mobility of researchers and students is necessary to build a scientific curriculum. In fact, in my field, it has become impossible to build a career as a scientist without international experience.”
Sowing no doubt
Scaling up, connecting people and institutions, being big enough to have an impact: how does Danckaert plan to achieve that at the university level? “I know it won’t be a simple
theoretical exercise. We have fantastic researchers and research groups at VUB. But some of those groups are actually too small. So I would like to appeal to those small groups – they are completely free to do this – to look for partnerships, both inside and outside VUB, to deepen synergies between complementary scientific activities, so that their scientific weight can increase. Sometimes those groups are doing very interesting research that doesn’t get out into the world because there isn’t enough weight. I will listen to the researchers, and I realise better than anyone that a research landscape, as an ecosystem, benefits from diversity. But gone are the days when a scientist was like a grocer, wanting to do everything themselves. Research groups need to be large enough to have impact.”
That impact frequently depends on how researchers go public with their work. Danckaert makes no secret of the fact that he considers it important for research to be reported in the press, to ensure people are aware of the research being conducted at the university. Because science also belongs to the community. “It’s important for scientists to share their passion and their results with the world. This is important not only for society, but also because we work with public money and we need to spend it as well as possible.”
The title of his opening speech also refers to this: science as a public good. “That idea is of course much broader than just press coverage,” says Danckaert. “It’s also about open science. I like to refer to the Covid pandemic, when we saw what global action with internationally shared knowledge can enable in a short period of time. So I advocate making our knowledge and research results as freely accessible as possible, and ensuring that open science has a place within EUTOPIA. It is de rigeur these days to question the sciences, to question everything. Scientists may doubt – no, they must doubt. But doubt as a scientific method is not the same thing as sowing doubt.”
YANA: integrated approach to transgressive behaviour
Just about every university has had to deal with cases of transgressive behaviour in the past year. Do Danckaert and VUB have a plan in place to prevent this from occurring in the future?
“You can never completely prevent such behaviour, of course,” he says. “Over the past few months, we have been working on a policy plan that aims to prevent it on the one hand, and better assist the victims on the other. We want to focus as much as possible on prevention.”
For the integrated and transparent implementation of this policy against transgressive behaviour and for victim support, VUB has outlined a framework called YANA, which stands for You Are Not Alone. “In short, this is what it comes down to,” says Danckaert. “YANA is an accessible way to report transgressive behaviour. People who want to report an incident can do so by phone, email and later in person. Via the hotline, internal and external bodies and support workers will be called in. The process involves a comprehensive briefing of all those who will be involved. Through YANA, the entire VUB community will be informed about dealing with transgressive behaviour and people at all hierarchical levels will be trained to deal with victims and detect such behaviour.”
Shaking a leg
Danckaert has previously indicated that his wanderings as a young researcher through labs in Europe have been important to his scientific career. But he also encountered something else in Spain (besides his wife, of course) that means a lot to him: salsa. And clearly he doesn’t just mean watching. You might not suspect it at first glance, but when the right music plays and the opportunity arises, Danckaert is an agile, elegant and enthusiastic salsa dancer. “I have a great passion for Latin American music,” he says, laughing. “Salsa, bossa nova... But that passion was there even before I met my wife. I have a very eclectic taste in music and I regularly go to concerts. Play me a beautiful fado by Mariza, for example, and I am completely enraptured. In the classical repertoire, I prefer Baroque.”
Many would say it will be difficult, almost impossible, for Jan Danckaert to fill the shoes of his predecessors Caroline Pauwels and Paul “The Builder” De Knop. “I’m not going to attempt to do that,” he says with a smile. “I’m going to cherish their legacy with great respect, and take what they have achieved into the future. They have given me a lot of inspiration. Beyond that, history will determine how I will be remembered.”
Who knows, if our new rector is joined on a stage somewhere by his ULB colleague Annemie Schaus, he might revisit – in an up tempo version – the beautiful tango danced by Caroline Pauwels and ULB rector Englert, on the joint academic opening of VUB and ULB in 2019. It would be a fine tribute to his predecessor, to life, to positivity – and to the partnerships Danckaert is keen to forge during his rectorship.