The Universities of Belgium (Wallonia-Brussels), fully involved in the fight against the Corona disease, and together focused on societal challenges
© LIEU Network
Interview with Dr Ir Michel MORANT and Dr Ir Olivier VANDE VYVER, President and Manager of the LIEU Network
prepared to face an epidemy, specially the more developed countries where the advanced medical systems had induced a total feeling of security among the population. When the medical systems were overloaded by patients, the governments called scientists for help to understand what was happening, to evaluate what could happen, to give advise to slow down the disease, and to explain to the population what to do and what to avoid.
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ould you remind us of the missions of the LIEU Network? The ‘Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles’ Universities have a great deal of potential for innovation, which they want to use for the development of the region. This is the aim of KTOs (Knowledge Transfer Offices), also known as interfaces. In 2003, these organisations decided to work together and create the LIEU Network, which is supported by the Walloon Government and the Conference of Rectors.
Never in the past, such a number of academics were called to explain in all media the situation, what measures should be taken, what is the evolution of the COVID in the population, in other countries.
The LIEU Network has four objectives: • to promote the scientific resources of universities and facilitate their access to companies; • to develop research collaborations between companies and research units; • to operate the tech transfer, from scouting inventions to licensing and spin-off creation; • to support the teams in a continuous process of professionalisation.
It looked like the daily debriefing of the US General Colin Powell during the first Gulf war, with the difference that soldiers had been replaced by scientists. Virologists, epidemiologists, physicians, medical doctors, intensive care unit specialists, economists, psychologists, pediatricians, … all have been asked to give opinion or advice, to describe the reality, the problems.
Indeed, since early 2020, our life around the whole world has been re-shaped by the COVID-19 pandemy. What has been the role of universities during this period? The universities have played a growing role during this period. At the beginning, some alert launchers claimed in the desert that a new problem was rising. Most countries were totally un-
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Of course, this was the visible part of the iceberg, day after day.
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What was then the hidden part of the iceberg? The role of universities is to act permanently at frontier research in order to provide an updated education to the students, whatever their age, and to help the Society answer to fundamental questions. Particularly in the Corona crisis, when a new phenomenon – a totally unknown, but very active virus - appears, a lot of questions rise and wait for answers. What kind of virus? What’s its behavior? What could be the consequences? How to efficiently detect it? How to treat it? How to prevent it? How to measure its expansion? How to slow its expansion? What could be its sequels? How to organize the Society to face it? What should be the restrictions for the population? What are the economic consequences? How to organize schools? How to organize retirement homes? How are young people affected? And what about the elderly? …
