A call from rectors, researchers and students: "Strangling the resources allocated to research and teaching threatens the evolution of society"

Open letter from the Rectors’ Council of French-speaking universities in Belgium of May 12, 2025

Imagine a world - or, closer to home, a Belgium - where some research would be allowed... and some not. Research into global warming, for example. Fundamental research of no immediate societal use would be excluded, as would certain training programs deemed to be of low priority. A fictional scenario? Not really. In the medium term, the risk is real if the cumulative reforms are confirmed...

The CRef recently voiced its concern about the various developments and reforms by which the Community, regional and federal governments risk financially suffocating the universities of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, concerns also relayed in a carte blanche signed by over 2000 academics. If these reforms are confirmed, they will lead to a reduction in the quality of training, an impoverishment of research and a drastic decline in the attractiveness of scientific and academic careers in French-speaking universities. Do our governments realize the extent to which strangling universities and the means devoted to scientific research jeopardizes the evolution of society as a whole? Faced with this prospect, the signatories have decided to resist and to use all their skills to demonstrate the absolute necessity of preserving their meagre resources, their freedom of research, the quality and diversity of their training, and their confidence in these places of reflection and construction of tomorrow's society.

Impact on innovation and industry

The universities of the FWB have long established a strong link between fundamental, strategic, applied and industrial research, valorizing their results on a daily basis. They have set up knowledge transfer units, coordinated by the LiEU network, to bring together researchers and private or public partners to stimulate collaboration and promote the application of research results in society. Over 220 spin-offs have been created, some of which have become world leaders in their field.

Each type of research is linked to skills in other fields through multiple synergies: cutting-edge strategic or applied research cannot be carried out without a broad base of scientific expertise. The recent Draghi report on European competitiveness established the unanimously recognized fact of this synergy: one of the recommendations of this report is precisely to perpetuate the research valorization units in universities, whose current under-funding it underlines. In the Walloon Region, this support is based on temporary programs, covering less and less of the entire value chain. An uncertain future, given that knowledge enhancement is a long and complex process. What's more, it's incomprehensible that the Walloon Region is planning to slash funding for the WEL Research Institute (WEL RI), which is essential to strategic research that addresses economic, industrial and societal issues, and develops key technologies for the future. The figures speak for themselves: in 4 years, 50 patents, €10 million in revenues, 6 spin-offs, €88 million in investments and dozens of jobs created. A direct societal impact, the result of ambitious programs and proactive monitoring. Reducing the budgets allocated to research and WEL RI would break this momentum, leading to a decline in innovation, reduced competitiveness and job losses. It would also jeopardize the country's ability to meet Europe's target of investing 3% of GDP in research, whereas public investment in this area only contributes 0.87% of the 3.4% Belgium will achieve by 2021 (source: FEB). Resisting the temptation to slash research funding means acting for the economic health of the country and of Europe.

Towards less independent universities?

In the United States, cuts or threatened cuts in federal funding for several major universities (Harvard, Columbia, Berkeley) are clearly aimed at muzzling these knowledge-producing institutions and reducing their academic freedom. We may well wonder to what extent the reforms announced here, whose cumulative effect could bring universities to the brink of bankruptcy, are not part of a similar global trend that sees university autonomy and academic freedom diminish in favor of a utilitarian, even instrumentalist, vision of research and teaching.

Against this backdrop, the questions being raised about the usefulness of the humanities and social sciences are particularly worrying. Without speaking of censorship at this stage, we can only worry about restrictions on the "freedom to research" (according to the FNRS's inspiring slogan), if only fields deemed immediately applicable or profitable are favored, to the detriment of others. The risks are considerable, not only for research, but also for training: tomorrow, our students may no longer have the opportunity to study in certain fields: "What's the point of studying literature in the Middle Ages after all? Yet it is precisely by giving universities their independence and academics this freedom that these same people would learn, for example, about the links that can be made between the massive use of forgery in the Middle Ages and today's fake news, and the impact of this on populations (https://www.seuil.com/ouvrage/forger-le-faux-paul-bertrand/9782021494211). The complexity of the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals is a perfect example of the interconnectedness of different fields, and underlines the importance of resisting immediate profitability and the reduction of fields of knowledge.

Brain drain and declining quality: a dangerous boomerang effect

At a time when the national and international context underlines more than ever the need to invest in education, research and innovation, all these measures add to the chronic underfunding of universities. They will further reduce the attractiveness of academic careers, provoking a brain drain and a loss of scientific level, disqualifying our region in a world in crisis. This will have a negative impact both on the quality of the training that our universities will be able to offer students and doctoral candidates, and on their ability to attract European funding for research and innovation, which is so vital to the economic development of our regions. And tomorrow, the astronaut chosen by the ESA will no longer be Belgian, but from a country where research has not been sacrificed. In a country where "grey matter" is the main resource, jeopardizing the training of researchers will have the effect of pushing industries in search of innovation to locate elsewhere... Leading irrevocably to the socio-economic collapse of this country.

Is this what we really want?

Resisting the boomerang effect of these measures has become a question of survival for our universities, which are nonetheless indispensable players in societal evolution and economic development.

Signatories

Le Conseil des Rectrices et Recteurs francophone (CRef)
Le F.R.S.-FNRS
La Fédération des Etudiants Francophones (FEF)
Essenscia Wallonie-Bruxelles