Fostering multiple and systemic approaches to the environmental crisis, through research and seed funding.
Today’s defining challenges are wicked problems: complex, interdependent, and impossible to solve from one single viewpoint or discipline.
Addressing them calls for bold collaboration and integrated thinking. The Swifft Collective responds to this urgency through four research chairs and a seed funding programme, working across economy, anthropology, energy, social justice, and wellbeing to advance sustainable transitions.
The Swifft Collective connects ambitious research goals with transdisciplinary, on-the-ground action to accelerate meaningful change.
Thematic Chairs
Four research chairs and interaction between different disciplines.
Seed Funding
Transdisciplinary research-action through the Islands of Hope funding programme
Infrastructure
A DeCarbonLab will be created at the Usquare campus facilitating the collaboration and the dissemination of research results.
The SWIFFT Collective is established through a joint initiative of Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), with the support of Helios Foundation.
Research axes
Chair in Sustainable Transformations and Wellbeing
Defining new paradigms in the field of sustainability sciences, bridging disciplines and exploring research methods towards new institutional structures.
Chair in Sustainable Engineering
Create models and frameworks for sustainable energy use that considers social, environmental and economic factors.
Chair in Decarbonisation and Justice
Researching environmental justice in the field of climate transitions, analysing how carbon reduction strategies can be designed and implemented equitably.
Chair in Decarbonisation and Finance
Map the financial landscape of the Just Transition and the different approaches to financing climate and energy transitions.
Islands of Hope seed funding programme
Where we live, how we move, how we nourish ourselves, how we power our lives, how we heal…
Discover the Islands of Hope, our seed-funding programme to support transdisciplinary research projects, bringing together academics and on-the-ground organisations, in Brussels and in Belgium.
In 2025, seven projects were selected for a total funding of 1M €, uniting academic partners with on-the-ground organisations. Stay tuned for a second round of funding in 2027, with the support of Helios Foundation.