Medical Research

The Fund's indefeasible support to medical research

In Belgium, as elsewhere, medical research continually lacks resources to advance the knowledge and elaboration of new treatments. In addition, it often suffers from disinterest of the public, which is largely unaware of its needs but also poorly informed of its advances from which our society nevertheless benefits on a daily basis. It is without any doubt to promote the medical research sector that the InBev-Baillet Latour Fund has, from its inception, sought to reward the efforts made by university laboratories, to encourage research in Belgium, and to motivate researchers to conduct and pursue their work in our country. Thus, the Fund has awarded a Health Prize from 1979 (initially every two years, then annually). This initiative was followed in 2006 by the award of a Clinical Research Prize, and, two years later, by the financing of research scholarships at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp. 1 Health Prize 2 Clinical Research Prize 3 Scholarships at the Institute of Tropical Medicine

Winner 2013 Prof. Carlo Maria Croce and Princess Mathilde

"The role of foundations in modern societies continues to grow in importance, in particular because the State today no longer automatically has all the necessary financial resources to be considered the sole guardian of the public interest. The potential of Foundations as support to research for the public benefit, remains insufficiently exploited." "I remain convinced that foundations represent an important future option for the research sector and can contribute in a very significant way to increasing the volume of investments in the sector. Operating independently of any time constraints induced by the political cycle and of any profit-making imperatives, they can explore new avenues, transcend disciplines, and, for example, resolutely support orphan sectors in research."

"Furthermore, it would be interesting in future to investigate common research initiatives and novel instruments for promoting and supporting research by collaborations between foundations and research organisations at the European level." * Véronique Halloin has been the Secretary General of the National Fund of Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS) since October 1, 2008. She is also Vice Rector of ULB, in charge of research and development.