The Université libre de Bruxelles is joining forces with ENSAV La Cambre, INSAS and the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels to create ATLAS – Brussels School of Arts, a unique alliance designed to serve as a forum for dialogue between the arts, sciences and society.

Signed on 21 May 2026 on the Solbosch campus, the founding declaration of the Alliance for the Transmission and Links between Arts and Sciences marks a decisive step in bringing together four institutions whose trajectories, long running in parallel, now converge around a shared ambition: to make interdisciplinarity an active space for research, transmission and experimentation.

Through ATLAS, the aim is not merely to formalise existing collaborations, but to open up a space for the circulation of knowledge where artistic practices, research, the humanities and critical pedagogies can engage with and transform one another. In an academic landscape still largely structured by disciplinary boundaries, the alliance affirms an alternative approach to higher education: cross-disciplinary, open and collective.

The Alliance builds on a long history of collaboration between the four institutions. It now provides them with a common structure and a shared vision, centred on four key areas: research, teaching, internationalisation and student support.

We have reached a crossroads where natural partnerships between our institutions are intensifying. Interdisciplinarity, for example, is now becoming a key issue for the development of research both in Belgium and internationally. With ATLAS, we will be able to structure, consolidate and expand certain innovative research projects
Benoît Hennaut, Director of ENSAV La Cambre

In particular, the platform will help to strengthen the Doctoral School in Arts and Art Sciences, develop cross-disciplinary programmes (Masters, certificates, workshops or studios) and support research and creative projects at a European level. It will also promote networking among researchers and teachers, the pooling of institutional resources, and the implementation of joint initiatives against discrimination, violence and harassment.

Subtitled ‘Brussels School of Arts’, the alliance finally affirms an international ambition befitting Brussels: a crossroads city where artistic practices, critical knowledge and contemporary forms of research find a shared ground for invention.