Being a researcher at ULB: key figures

Lecturers, researchers, assistants, PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, etc.: all told, there are more than 3,600 researchers active across ULB's campuses in Brussels (Solbosch, La Plaine, Erasme) and Charleroi. Over half of them are working on a PhD thesis, and some are also graduates of master programmes hired with a research contract.

Being a researcher at ULB means...

working in an international environment

 

ULB encourages its researchers, assistants and professors to take part in mobility programmes, including by offering funding instruments. With some 37% of its scientists, 80% of its post-doctoral researchers and 50% of its PhD students coming from abroad, ULB is also a major host university: its International Welcome Desk provides support to incoming researchers before their arrival and once they are in Belgium. Read the Welcome Guide.

"HR Excellence in Research" Award

ULB has received the HR Excellence in Research Award in recognition of its strategy for human resource management in research, along with its action plan to improve working conditions and services offered to researchers. ULB is especially attentive to career development and training for its researchers. The University has a number of training programmes available in its EURAXESS Career Development Centre for Researchers.

A university with a strong social commitment

Commitment and solidarity have been among ULB's core values ever since its very creation. For researchers, these translate into:

Free research

Gender equality

There are more female than male students, and they often achieve better marks; at the beginning of PhD programmes, both genders are represented equally. Yet as researchers and academic careers advance, the gender gap widens and nearly 80% of full professors are now men!
In order to fight the leaky pipeline phenomenon, ULB has launched the Cascade initiative, which ensures that the gender balance among promoted staff members is at least equal to that observed at the lower level of career progression. ULB is the first - and, to date, the only - university in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation to have implemented such a measure.
The university is also developing other initiatives to improve gender equality.

You can find out more on our web page dedicated to Gender Equality.

Helping and supporting refugees and researchers at risk

Visit our web page dedicated to Solidary Initiatives.