Supported projects

ANTWERP/BRUSSELS - How is it that we know so little about Africa yet still have such strong opinions about it? This ABC book takes a close look at the existing clichés.

BRUSSELS / BIAŁOWIEŻA / LESBOS - Security agents abandoning people in the desert. Coast guards destroying boats and leaving those on board stranded on the open sea. Slave markets with refugees. Since the start of the “European refugee crisis”, violence at our external borders, and in distant countries that do the dirty work for us, has exploded.

QAMISHLO - March 2014. During a report in Rojava, the Kurdish region of Syria, things go wrong. IS militants storm the town hall and blow themselves up. Ten years later, we return to Qamishlo to see how the events of that day have changed the lives of those involved, and what remains of the revolutionary enthusiasm of a decade ago.

BRUSSELS – Across Europe, the wolf population is growing, but so is resistance. Between the numbers, the political and public debate threatens to impact science. Accurate monitoring of the animals is crucial, not only for counting them, but also for understanding how conservation works.

PORTO-NOVO - Can the close partnership between Belgium and Benin serve as a model for sustainable European-African cooperation? The failure of European states in Sahel countries such as Mali and Niger has shown that military cooperation alone does not work. In Benin, Belgium offers not only military but also economic support.

BENZDORP/PARAMARIBO - Deep in the Amazon rainforest, on the banks of the Lawa River between Suriname and French Guiana, live the Wayana. The peaceful existence of this indigenous population came to an abrupt end in 1885, when gold was discovered in the region. Since then, the presence of outsiders has left deep scars on their society.

BRUSSELS - In 2021, the European Union decided that it wants to end homelessness by 2030. Belgium also signed up to this goal. During the Belgian Presidency of the European Council at the beginning of last year, our country organised a conference in Brussels entitled “Towards zero homelessness, only six years left to succeed”.

ANTWERP - Hugo Schiltz is the most important Flemish nationalist of the 20th century. He grew up in a strict Catholic and radical Flemish nationalist environment and joined the collaboration at the age of fourteen. He quickly overcame the trauma of that collaboration and his imprisonment, after which he became the architect of federal Belgium.

LONGYEARBYEN - Svalbard, once an isolated destination for researchers and miners, is increasingly visited by tourists. Climate change, easier accessibility, and ‘last chance’ tourism have driven rapid growth in visitor numbers. This puts pressure on the fragile ecosystem and raises questions about the balance between economic development and nature conservation.

POPPEL - Dutch tractors cross the border day and night via small sandy roads to refuel more cheaply in Belgium. Since the Netherlands abolished the tax benefit for red diesel in 2013, cross-border trade has flourished with hardly any controls.

MECHELEN - Youth care center Juneco is a multicultural hub that houses 15 unaccompanied foreign minors aged 12 to 18 in Belgium. The young people grow up here without their families, creating close friendships.

OUDSBERGEN / YELLOWSTONE - After a century of absence, the wolf is once again prowling our landscapes. Its return is welcomed in forests and meadows, but resistance is growing on farms and in parliaments.

BEIRUT - Jado is a trans woman from Beirut. A prominent figure and a motherly presence in the local LGBTQIA+ community, she is an inspiration to many. Like many others, she has to fight every day just to be herself and survive.

CHELEM - Chelem, a small coastal town on the Gulf of Mexico, recently rebranded by Trump as the “Gulf of America”, is the stage for an unexpected reversal. Where once Mexicans journeyed north in search of a better life, today Americans are heading south, drawn by affordable healthcare, lower living costs, and the promise of a paradise filled with margaritas by the pool.

BUENOS AIRES - For decades, Argentinians have been plagued by monstrous price increases. With a solemn promise to put an end to hyperinflation, Javier Milei came to power at the end of 2023. Since then, Milei has been dismantling the state step by step, part of his libertarian agenda that is increasingly dividing the nation.

BRUSSELS - Life is impossible without music blends music, memory and humanity through the true stories of pianist Kosta Jakić and Simon Gronowski, a Holocaust survivor.

MARIUPOL - As Russian forces close in on the city, thousands of Mariupol's inhabitants are taking shelter in the cellars of the Azov steelworks. This is a reconstruction of the 82 dark days of recent Ukrainian history, during which courage, creativity and tolerance helped them to survive.

BRUSSELS - Which is more sustainable: a woollen jumper or a polyester one? The European Union proposes a universal calculation to find out. The answer may surprise you: although polyester is a synthetic fibre made from fossil fuels, it is not the plastic fibre but the natural fibre that turns out to be worse for the environment.

BIAŁOWIEŻA - Since March, Poland has imposed an asylum ban at its border with Belarus. Officially, there are exceptions for children, pregnant women and the sick, but in practice these are systematically ignored. Only 22 people have been able to apply for asylum since then. 

BRUSSELS/DUBLIN - For decades, European consumers have been warned about the dangers of smoking. Yet wine and beer still carry no clear health warnings, even though alcohol is one of the leading preventable causes of cancer. This investigation reveals how the European alcohol industry has fought to keep it that way.

JERUSALEM / BEIRUT / DAMASCUS – The geopolitical and humanitarian situation in the Middle East has worsened since the terror attacks of 7 October 2023. International organisations have documented large-scale war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Palestine. Meanwhile, Israel has invaded Lebanon and Syria. This advanced geopolitical strategy too often loses sight of the fate of ordinary civilians.

ANTWERP/BRUSSELS - To understand how citizens weigh ethics against the law, Suzanne Roes decided to conduct research into criminalised movements above and below ground.

GULU - Since 2005, the ‘LRA’ has been expelled from Uganda. Despite an international arrest warrant, Joseph Kony is still a fugitive. President Musevini is still in power after 38 years. The majority of Uganda's population lives in poverty with no prospect of improvement. They are surviving but hungry for hope.

DEURNE - Between 2014 and 2024, Antwerp Airport received at least €116.1 million in Flemish and federal subsidies, on top of €70.3 million that the Flemish government invested in infrastructure. Yet Antwerp Airport has been operating at a loss for years.

NEW YORK CITY - The West may not have fully realised it, but the United Nations is undergoing a revival. Not that everything will remain the same, because Beijing seems to be finding enough allies to change the organisation from within. 

ANTWERP / RIEME - No one knows how many harmful substances are emitted from the chimneys of Flemish factories. However, the emissions of the limited group of “Substances of Very High Concern” reported by Flemish companies are almost twice as high as those reported by companies in the Netherlands. 

CAMBRIDGE/LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE - How do we use the available land in our own region, and what impact does that have elsewhere? That question is crucial for our food supply, poverty reduction, nature conservation, and the fight against climate change. Unfortunately, there are many misconceptions about land use.

PANAMA CITY / BOGOTA / SAN JOSE  - While European leaders keep dragging their feet, some countries in Latin America—despite numerous obstacles and lack of funding—are hard at work to restore their natural environments. Tim Vernimmen visited three of them in the hope they might teach us how to do better at home.

BRUSSELS - A maze of European subsidy rules has created a lucrative niche: grant consultants. These consultancy firms earn substantial sums by assisting researchers with their subsidy applications. This raises a fundamental question: does current research policy steer science too much towards competition and market value, at the expense of an open, societal approach to research?

BRUSSELS - Agriculture in Flanders is facing challenges. Caught between expanding cities and ever-growing nature reserves, farmers are striving to produce food for a growing (global) population.