UNU-MERIT · Director’s Crossover: Bartel Van de Walle & Edeltraud Guenther In this month’s episode of the Director’s Corner, Prof. Bartel Van de Walle is joined by Prof. Edeltraud Guenther, Director of UNU-FLORES, our sister Institute in Dresden, Germany. They talk about the long-term impacts of the pandemic on education, returning to work, and tactics to keep their staff inspired. Some of the topics discussed in this podcast are: – What challenges did both institutes fac...

The circumstances are still what they are: a lot of colleagues have either had COVID or are still suffereing from it. So the institute is still mostly closed down, there are not many people around, so maybe it’s good that we try to take cover for the next few weeks. Nonetheless, despite the usual COVID restrictions, we have been able to move on with the Strategic Plan and its implementation. We’ve made several steps in the past month and actually created an Implementation Timeline page on our we...

In this festive episode, Director Bartel Van de Walle speaks with our Master’s Student Ambassador Leopoldo Perez Obregon. Bartel shares his personal story, his understandings about science and academia, the challenges and advantages of online education and his vision for the future of the Institute.  ...

It’s actually pretty exciting to see what is happening on the comprehensive innovation frontlines. As we said in a previous podcast, our Comprehensive Innovation teams are actually the trailblazers to explore and build on that concept of comprehensive innovation. I was meeting with the team leads last week and they were telling me what they were doing in the meantime. And it was actually quite fascinating to see how they approached their challenge on comprehensive innovation. One of the teams wa...

This month is interesting for a number of reasons, so maybe I can start with some of the meetings I will have this month. Our UNU Rector is on a European tour. He’s in in Paris already as we speak, but then he will visit UNU-CRIS, our sister institute in Bruges. He will then visit The Hague. He’s unfortunately not able to come to Maastricht. And then he carries on to UNU-EHS in Bonn. So he’s visiting Europe for a number of reasons. ...

Her Majesty Queen Mathilde of the Belgians paid an in-person visit to UN House in Brussels, the headquarters of several agencies, funds, and programmes of the United Nations in the Belgian capital, as well as a virtual visit to the UN in Liberia, on 23 September 2021. During her meeting with representatives from UN organisations in Brussels, Her Majesty discussed the main priorities of the UN, and in particular the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It was Her Majesty’s ...

He is a free spirit. “As a child I was always wandering around outside, building huts, counting stars.” He is self-deprecating: “I was interviewed for my PhD by a committee of old white men, a bit like myself now,” but also self-aware: “I consciously moved away from fundamental mathematics after my PhD.” As a leader, his main goal is to serve others. “You don’t shake hands with an institute, but with the people who work there. First and foremost I want to look at what everybody needs.” Bartel Va...

This week our new director Bartel Van de Walle met regional governor Theo Bovens, ahead of UN Day on 24 October 2020. The two leaders discussed the state of the province and the planet, how to ensure young people are listened to and empowered, and how our staff and fellows are ambassadors for the UN. Below is a transcription of their discussion, lightly edited for clarity. What does 75 years of the United Nations mean for you? Bartel Van de Walle: First of all, the UN is already 75! I think that...

Prof. Bartel Van de Walle assumed the directorship of UNU-MERIT on 1 September 2020, and during his first day in office led an interactive welcome talk with staff online and in person. He then took time out to speak with the United Nations Regional Information Centre in Western Europe (UNRIC), contributing in Dutch and French to their ‘Faces of the UN‘ series. Bartel talked about his challenges and priorities and how, in New York in 2001, he suddenly shifted focus from abstract mathe...