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”.
An-Sofie Smetcoren
Co-director Research Lab
An-Sofie leads the research line "Housing and living environment".
Postdoctoral researchers
Sofie Van Regenmortel
Senior Researcher
Sofie provides statistical support to research projects and conducts research on social exclusion in later life.
Saloua Berdai
Senior Researcher
Saloua Conducts research from decolonial approaches at the intersections of aging, migration, and care.
Hanne Bakelants
Senior Researcher
Hanne examines the development, implementation, and evaluation of the VUB as a ‘Compassionate University’.
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.
Luise (Lu) Stoisser
PhD Researcher
Luise is studying residential relocation in later life and its effects on social exclusion, looking at alternative housing systems as a potential way to mediate negative relocation outcomes.
Freya Häussermann
PhD Researcher
Freya examines the influence of neighbourhood and environment on adult loneliness.
Pamela Suero
PhD Researcher
Pamela researches ageist barriers to policy reform related to ageing well in place, and policy change for advancing social and spatial justice in our ageing world.
Charlotte Van Campfort
Scientific assistent
Charlotte investigates the role of the environment in Compassionate Communities.
Kristine Deroover
Scientific assistent
Kristine her current work focuses on the HOUSE project, which explores housing for older adults and their subjective well-being.
Administrative staff
Lieselot Degraeve
Knowledge valorisation officer
Lieselot facilitates the non-scientific communication, dissemination and valorisation.
Affiliated members
Suzannah D'Hooghe
Voluntary research associate
Suzannah wrote her PhD on the role of the perceived environment on exercise and nutrition behavior in socioeconomically disadvantaged adults.
Hannelore Stegen
Voluntary research associate
Hannelore wrote her PhD on loneliness among childless older people.
Ann Claeys
Voluntary research associate
Ann is working on enhancing the competencies of healthcare providers in the field of diversity.
Jianmei Zhou
Visiting Researcher (Ireland)
Jianmei is writing her PhD on how the intersection of ageing and rurality might affect the delivery of home care services. Her research explores how this spatial (rural) ageism might affect the quality of life of older people in rural areas who age at home.
Martha Van den Bergh
Joint PhD Researcher
Martha is writing her PhD on the relationships between volunteers and employees in public and non-profit organisations. This is a joint-PhD with University of Antwerp as the lead institution.
Octavia Kint
Voluntary research associate
Octavia wrote her PhD focusing on participatory research in neighbourhoods, and more specifically the role it can play in urban challenges concerning living together.
Nathalie Colpin
PhD Researcher
Writes her doctorate on how teams of volunteers and paid staff can be effectively managed to achieve successful collaboration.
Daan Duppen
Voluntary research associate
Daan wrote his PhD on social environment and vulnerability and collaborated on the D-SCOPE project.
Sylvia Hoens
Voluntary research associate
Sylvia wrote her PhD on the potential of health workers and resident migrant workers to address the unmet care needs of older adults.
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.
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.
Thomas Dawance
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.
Honghui Pan
Voluntary research associate
Honghui investigates the wellbeing and loneliness in older Chinese migrants.
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.
Alexis Creten
Voluntary research associate
Alexis worked as action researcher on the Adhzis-project, aiming to create an inclusive, neighbourhood-oriented care model in Schaarbeek. Funded by Innoviris Co-Create.