What is BrIAS?

The newly founded Brussels Institute for Advanced Studies (BrIAS), co-founded by the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), aims to expand upon the mission of other IASes as an incubator of ideas and research by focusing on current and urgent themes with a great societal impact.

Located in the heart of Brussels, it aims to attract the very best scientists, artists or designers, coming from various fields or countries and with no philosophical or political restriction, and provide the opportunity to work in an atmosphere of complete freedom, collaboration, mutual emulation and cross-fertilisation. In this context, BrIAS aims to facilitate collaborations with countries facing critical challenges pertaining to sustainability.

This year's theme

Every two years, a new programme team is chosen to organise a themed programme. The programme team, headed by two programme directors (ULB and VUB), are in charge of inviting Senior Fellows and organising events around their theme.

This year’s theme is titled “Democratic Governance: Challenges and Innovations” and will run from Autumn 2025 until Spring 2027.

The programme focuses on four areas identiﬁed as key challenges to democratic governance:

polarization, populism, and violence
democratic short-termism and sustainability
technology, misinformation, and artificial intelligence
inequality and inclusion

What we do: Brainstorming and Networking

BrIAS strives to break down the walls of ignorance and dogmatism by stimulating groundbreaking research at the highest level of creativity, without taboos or prejudice,

on a theme of importance to sustainable development,

by inviting high-level scientists, “Fellows“, from different disciplines and socio-cultural backgrounds, to discuss and collaborate in total academic freedom, leading to mutual emulation and cross-fertilisation,

in an environment free of daily hassles.

Maps & directions

The headquarters of BrIAS are at a privileged location in the iconic neighborhood of Ixelles/Elsene: we are within walking distance from the ULB (La Plaine 1.6 km, Solbosch 1.4 km) and VUB (0.5 km) campuses. This location makes BrIAS the ideal place for invited researchers to collaborate with the universities from Brussels and beyond, thanks to the close proximity of the Etterbeek train station (0.2 km) and the many options of nearby means of public transportation.

Scientific output

With the first fellows arriving in Brussels in 2021, several publications and projects have resulted as a result of the fellowships. Below is a list of scientific output so far.