TEAM
Academic staff
Liesbeth De Donder
Director Research Lab
Liesbeth is head of the SARLab and leads the research line on “Care and caring communities”.
Sarah Dury
Co-director Research Lab
Sarah leads the research line on “Social relations and civic participation”.
Postdoctoral researchers
Sylvia Hoens
Senior Researcher
Sylvia conducts research on “alternative care workers” using participatory evaluation methods.
Sofie Van Regenmortel
Senior Researcher
Sofie provides statistical support to research projects and conducts research on social exclusion in later life.
Honghui Pan
Senior Researcher
Honghui investigates the wellbeing and loneliness in older Chinese migrants.
Researchers
Bas Dikmans
PhD Researcher
Bas is a qualitative researcher focusing on civic engagement of older adults in two disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Brussels.
Toon Vercauteren
PhD Researcher
Toon focuses on civic engagement of older people. He mainly works with quantitative research methods.
Ariane Vanbellinghen
PhD Researcher
Ariane investigates the relation between housing and wellbeing from a lifecourse perspective.
Suzannah D'Hooghe
PhD Researcher
Suzannah studies the role of the perceived environment on exercise and nutrition behavior in socioeconomically disadvantaged adults.
Octavia Kint
PhD Researcher
Octavia is action researcher on the topic of caring communities in Brussels.
Alexis Creten
Project Researcher
Alexis works as action researcher on the Adhzis-project, aiming to create an inclusive, neighbourhood-oriented care model in Schaarbeek. Funded by Innoviris Co-Create.
Freya Häussermann
PhD Researcher
Freya examines the influence of neighbourhood and environment on multidimensional adult loneliness.
Administrative staff
Lieselot Degraeve
Knowledge valorisation officer
Lieselot facilitates the non-scientific communication, dissemination and valorisation.
Affiliated members
Saloua Berdai
Voluntary research associate
Saloua wrote her PhD on dementia care for older people with a migration background.
Lise Switsers
Voluntary research associate
Lise wrote her PhD on loneliness among older people, using a lifecourse perspective.
Bram Fret
Voluntary research associate
Bram wrote his PhD on care and support for older people living at home within the D-SCOPE project.
Deborah Lambotte
Voluntary research associate
Deborah wrote her PhD on care networks in frail, community dwelling older adults within the D-SCOPE project. Currently, she works as researcher within the “research consortium “360° Zorg en Welzijn at University College Hogent, where she continues her research on informal care and care networks.
Ann Claeys
Voluntary research associate
Ann is currently writing her PhD on culture-sensitive care and cultural competences among healthcare professionals within the Diverse Elderly Care project.
Mirte Clerix
Joint PhD Researcher
Mirte is currently writing her PhD on the influence of collectivity and housing on the wellbeing of older adults within the HOUSE project. This is a joint PhD with Hasselt University as the main institution.
Sander Lambrix
Joint PhD Researcher
Sander is currently writing his PhD within the HOUSE project. This is a joint PhD with Hasselt University as the main institution.
Micheline Phlix
Joint PhD Researcher
Micheline is currently writing her PhD on 'Ageing in the context of migration: integrating a sense of home & wellbeing in diversity-sensitive housing design'. This is a joint PhD with Hasselt University as the main institution.
Yasemin Inaç
Joint PhD Researcher
Yasemin works on the Civisano-project. This is a joint PhD with Ugent as the main institution.
Thomas Dawance
Interdisciplinary PhD-Researcher
Thomas is currently writing his PhD on the CALICO project. This is an interdisciplinary PhD in collaboration with COSMOPOLIS research group at the VUB.
Eva Dierckx
Professor
Eva is professor within the department PSYC at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and is member of the research staff within Alexianen Care group Tienen. Within the SARLab she was promotor of the D-SCOPE project and supervises different PhD-studies on loneliness and psychological wellbeing in later life.
Sara Marsillas
Visiting Researcher (Spain)
Sara wrote her PhD on Active Ageing. Within the Matia Gerontological Institute, she is specialised in research on loneliness among older people and care innovation.
Dorien Brosens
Professor PALD
Silke Marynissen
PhD Researcher PALD
Lisa Van hove
PhD Researcher
Lisa is working on a PhD on "Suicidal and non-suicidal self-injury in older adults" (supervisor: Prof. Dr. Imke Baetens and Dr. Steven Vanderstichelen). She is also employed as a research assistant at the International Consortium on Self-injury in Educational Settings, member of BRUCC, COCO and is a clinical psychologist.
Fernanda Juma
Visiting Researcher
Fernanda is currently writing her PhD on the implications of demographic ageing in Europe, which includes issues such as social exclusion and loneliness in later life. She is a doctoral researcher at the Department of Quantitative Methods (PHD in Economics: Instruments of Economic Analysis) of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).
Tess Hartland
Visiting Researcher
Tess is a PhD researcher from the University of Manchester exploring how urban environments can support healthy ageing for older refugees and asylum seekers. She is currently conducting qualitative fieldwork in Brussels.
Joana Salles
Visiting Researcher
Joana is a PhD researcher from the University of Manchester. Using audio-visual methods, she investigates how older people collectively organise around the urban commons to resist gentrification.