Academic Opening 2025-2026.
Open Mind. Open Science. Open Campus.
Free to create your own programme
This year, you get to decide how you want to experience the official start of the new academic year.
We warmly welcome you to the opening ceremony in Aula Q and invite you to join one or more themed guided tours. These tours take you straight to the heart of our university: our research labs and learning centers.
Discover below what our researchers have in store for you in their state-of-the-art workspaces, and see how they are literally overcoming darkness through science.
ACADEMIC OPENING CEREMONY
AULA Q | Doors: 2.30 PM. Start: 3 PM. End: 4.30 PM.
The academic opening ceremony will be a compact and powerful event, where—true to our motto scientia vincere tenebras—we celebrate science in all its forms: from surprising demonstrations to artistic performances and inspiring words from our rectors. With an open mind and a clear vision of a better future for all.
We’ll light up the stage with scientific demonstrations, artistic performances, and powerful messages from national and international voices, including ULB Rector Annemie Schaus and Rector Robert Balfour from the University of the Western Cape. The ceremony will conclude with the opening speech by Rector Jan Danckaert, marking the start of the fourth academic year of his first term, followed by 'Het Lied van Geen Taal'.
SIX THEMATIC TOURS
Various locations across the campus
Start times: 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM – 3:00 PM – 3:30 PM – 4:00 PM – 4:30 PM – 5:00 PM – 5:30 PM
BIOTECHNOLOGY IS LIFE – AND LIFE IS BIOTECHNOLOGY
From tackling cancer to delivering climate solutions, from food production to water purification, from gene therapy to cultivated meat, and from innovative fermentation to bio-renewable energy: biotechnology is everywhere—woven into what we eat, how we heal, and how we safeguard our planet.
Curious to see how VUB scientists are pioneering in this field? On the biotechnology tour of the Academic Opening 2025, a guide will lead you into their natural habitat: the research laboratory. You’ll discover the meticulous precision of the MICROLAB, where glass and silicon chips are crafted to separate cells and particles, and gain molecular insights through the cryo-electron microscope, laying the groundwork for the medicines of tomorrow. The journey continues into the bio-incubator, where fledgling biotech companies take their first steps, and culminates in the microbrewery, micro-bakeries and chocolaterie, where microbial fermentation refines the flavours and aromas of sour beers, sourdough breads and fine chocolate.
Starting point: the campfire and BBQ zones
THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF NATURE
What is in the air we breathe? How do plants respond to climate stress? And how do we analyse the very matter from which everything is made?
On this guided tour, you’ll discover how our researchers bring together chemistry, geology, and biology to study the nature and composition of both biological and inorganic materials. Their field of research? Exceptionally diverse. Their research locations? Equally so. Along the way, you’ll pass through controlled climate chambers, outdoor gardens, greenhouses, and high-tech laboratories. You’ll learn about fundamental building blocks – from molecules, minerals, and rocks – to the field of materials science, where groundbreaking discoveries pave the way for exciting new innovations.
Starting point: building D at the Esplanade
BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE TOMORROW
What does a future that is truly sustainable and human-centred look like?During this guided tour, you’ll gain exclusive insight into the work of engineering scientists who are pushing boundaries every day—developing sustainable technologies that are fundamentally reshaping the way we live.
At the Circular Retrofit Lab, you’ll witness how ageing buildings are transformed into showcases of climate-friendly architecture through circular techniques and innovative materials. You’ll come face to face with an AI-driven robotic arm, live in action to demonstrate how robotics can make our lives safer, healthier and more efficient. And as the highlight of the tour, you’ll step into one of Europe’s largest electromobility laboratories—where researchers are making electric vehicles and batteries smarter, stronger and more sustainable.
Starting point: the campfire and BBQ zones
SPORT AS A LAB FOR BODY AND PERFORMANCE
Discover the Sporty Side of Campus! Our tour begins at BLITS – the Brussels Laboratory for Exercise and Top Sport – where elite athletes come for maximum performance testing, personalised training advice and medical follow-up. Here, you’ll also learn about cutting-edge research on ‘Exercise and the Brain in Health and Disease’ (MFYS).
From there, we head to the brand-new martial arts centre CEMAS – the Centre for Martial Arts and Science. Officially opening its doors on 23 September, CEMAS will become the home of the Flemish Boxing League, among others. But it is also an important research hub for the Sport & Society group, which studies the social power of sport—and in particular, how martial arts can help empower young people in vulnerable social situations at school, in their free time, and even in the workplace. Such impact doesn’t just happen by chance: it requires carefully designed, evidence-based methods.
Prize Draw! Among all participants of this tour, we will raffle off a maximum performance test worth €265!
Starting point: U-Residence building
CULTURE AS A MIRROR OF SOCIETY
Science and culture have much in common. Both are critical voices and bridge-builders. Both act as mirrors of society and engines of change. Artists and scientists alike question what is and open our imagination to what could be. And this is of course also true on our open campus.
The cultural walk focuses on architecture and visual arts. It begins at the iconic Braem Building, the ‘temple of sciences’. With its elliptical form, colourful murals and striking concrete canopy, architect Renaat Braem shaped the VUB as an open and tolerant university, with free inquiry at its heart. Inside, he brought his rectorship to life. Across five floors, he painted the unfolding of the cosmos and the Earth, the origins of life, the evolution of plants, animals and humanity, and the human struggle for freedom—culminating in ultimate liberation within an open community.
At the other end of the walk, you’ll find the former student housing designed by architect Willy Van Der Meeren. Once mass-produced examples of modernist architecture, today they serve as state-of-the-art research centres and laboratories. A fine showcase of sustainable reconversion, proudly bearing the VUB signature.
Between these two iconic campus landmarks, you’ll stroll past the inspiring sculptures of our Humanist Sculpture Park. Each one tells its own story: of critical thought, deep human compassion, the struggle for freedom and an open-minded view of the world.
Starting point: Braem building
LEARNING AS A SCIENCE
Learning is more than passing on knowledge. It is about experimenting, collaborating, and allowing yourself to be surprised. In the Learning and Innovation Centre, you’ll discover how education itself is a living science.
From high-tech classrooms to spaces designed for informal exchange, the LIC showcases what the learning environment of the future could look like. Here, learning becomes an experience that sparks curiosity and fuels creativity. Step into a world where the boundaries between education, technology and research begin to blur. A world where learning is always in motion—and where the future of education is already taking shape today.
Starting point: Crazy Copy Center at the Esplanade