The two Vice-Chancellors met ULB Rector Yvon Elgert to reaffirm a 50-year-old partnership that has seen dozens of collaborative research projects flourish and brought together teams from all three universities. Students, researchers and academics have travelled across the Channel in both directions. These collaborations have greatly benefited from the support of the Fondation Wiener-Anspach.
The three heads of the universities held a private meeting with Commissioner Moedas and attended his keynote speech "Universities and Horizon Europe", followed by a panel discussion.
Commissioner Moedas said: "We need to tell the story of what European science has achieved.”
He later said on Twittter: "It is a great honour to be among the representatives of three world-class institutions. It is in the interests of the whole scientific community across Europe that we find a way to work together."
The visit was previewed earlier in the day with a mention in the Brussels Playbook of influential policy magazine Politico and followed up by what may be a first: a combined interview that included both Vice-Chancellors and ULB Rector Englert.
Poltico reporter Laura Greenhalgh quizzed the university heads on their post-Brexit plans for British researchers in EU programmes.
Professor Toope was quoted in Politico as saying: “The U.K. is not in a strong bargaining position on this. We just have to understand that.
"Perhaps over time it might be possible to hope for something better, but frankly in the short term I would like there to be some kind of connectivity, and whatever exists now that makes that relatively speedy and politically acceptable is what we’re going to have to push for in the short term.”
Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen J Toope joined Oxford Vice-Chancellor Professor Louise Richardson in Brussels to renew a decades old triple partnership with Université Libre de Bruxelles, meet with European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation Carlos Moedas and conduct an interview with influential policy magazine Politico.
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