research 10 research 11 tigators (PIs) and ~500 members under the directorship of Jacques Piette and Catherine Sadzot: one of the largest real (as opposed to virtual) research centers devoted to the health sciences in Belgium. As a consequence, our actions would inevitably be of consolidation rather than creation. Ambition. Our (i.e. Brigitte and I) priority at the time was to promote GIGA as a center of internationally recognized academic excellence. In our opinion, the rest, including the development of innovative medical solutions, would naturally follow this condition sine qua non. The mistake, too often made by eager decision makers and politicians, is to “put the cart before the horse”. First and fore most academic excellence! We realized full well that the European research space is rapidly evolving towards a two-tiered landscape with a shrinking number of elite universities producing most of the knowledge. In Belgium, two universities lead the pack: KUL and our sister university, RUG. They consistantly rank within the top 100 universities of the world. It is also those two top universities that attract most of Belgian ERC funding, helped in that, to a considerable extent, by the exemplary Flemish Institute of Biotechnology or VIB. We were, and still are, convinced that this is not a fatality. It only depends on us to reverse this trend and to become part of the best, at least in selected disciplines. And that is what we wanted to help achieve through GIGA, for the benefit of our university and its region. GIGA has the potential to be a perfect instrument and model for our university to improve its rankings. GIGA is sometimes accused of being “elitist”. It is not about being better than the others. It is about being one’s own best, to do one’s very best, and to be lucid about where others stand.I believe this to be laudable. In fact, I think it is our duty. Challenges. If you want to improve, you may want to start with a bit of candid introspection, and identify limiting factors and potential areas of improvement. We referred to these as “challenges”, amongst which we distinguished global and local challenges. The first was to get the community to recognize that we had/have to collectively lift our performances as measured by objective criteria. For example, the h-factor, corrected for age, is ~20 points higher for VIB PIs as it is for GIGA PIs. Secondly, GIGA PIs were/are, on average, raising insufficient research funds. In particular, the proportion of funds from European grants – by far the largest “pot” - was well below 10% in 2016. Quite illustrative in this regard, ~50% of VIB PIs are ERC awardees, while this percentage is closer to ~5% for GIGA PIs. Thirdly, we were/are not sufficiently visible and attractive internationally. A particularly striking figure, raised by several of our scientific advisory boards (SAB), is the < 5% proportion of non-Belgian PIs. Fourthly, life sciences are increasingly turning into data sciences, and our PIs were/ are insufficiently prepared for this important transition. Of note, these four challenges not only apply to GIGA but to our university in general. In addition, we identified a number of local challenges. The most important was the fact that our place as an interdisciplinary research unit in a faculty-dominated university landscape was uncomfortable, as testified by sometimes tense relationships with faculties/authorities, the lack of recurrent core funding and adequate representation in decision making organs. It seemed to us essential to re-establish a win-win relationship with faculties. Also, the involvement of GIGA in continued education and innovation, essential components of GIGA’s initial mission, had dwindled over time, transferred to a large extent to the university’s tech transfer office. MICHEL GEORGES Interview Michel, how would you sum up your eight years as director of GIGA? Historical perspective. When Brigitte (Malgrange) and I took over the directorship in 2016, GIGA existed for more than 10 years, with ~90% of its members (re-)located within 250 meters from each other and from the university hospital. GIGA was already a mature organization, the largest and arguably most notorious research unit of the University of Liège. It is worth reminding the younger ones that GIGA was created in 2004 by three laboratories (Martial, Georges, Rentier), and that it grew rapidly - with the impetus of vice-rector of research and then rector Professor Rentier, Professor Martial and Dr. André Renard (GIGA’s first director) and with major financial support from the FEDER – to reach approximately 100 principal invesAt the end of December, Michel Georges completed his 2 terms at the head of GIGA. We asked him to answer a few questions about his 8 years at the helm of GIGA.
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