The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium
| The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium RASAB |
|
|---|---|
| founding | 2001 |
| Sponsorship | autonomous |
| place | Brussels , Belgium |
| Chairman | Karel Velle (KVAB) and Daniel Dethier (ARB) (changing annually) |
| Website | rasab.be |
The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium (RASAB) is a Belgian association based in Brussels that coordinates the activities of the two academies of science and the arts in Belgium. It thus roughly corresponds to the Union of German Academies of Science .
Composition and tasks of RASAB
The association is the joint organization of the Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten (KVAB), and the Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (ARB). The cooperation group Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium (RASAB) was founded in 2001 in the legal form of a Belgian VoG ( non-profit association ) and has its seat at Hertogsstraat 1 Rue Ducale B-1000 Brussels not far from the Palace of the Academies ( Warandepark ).
The main focus of the association's work lies in coordinating the activities of the two academies at both national and international level, i.e. promoting cooperation between universities and colleges inside and outside Belgium and representing Belgium in international organizations and forums. In addition, it should exercise an advisory and recommendatory function in various areas of society and arouse interest in the Belgian research landscape among foreign scientists.
History of origin
Originally there was only one academy for science and the arts in Belgium, founded during the Austrian rule in 1769 as the "Literary Society".
A patent from Empress Maria Theresa raised the society to Caesarea ac Regia Scientiarum et Litterarum Academia Bruxellis (Imperial and Royal Academy of Sciences in Brussels) in 1772 . In reference to the Academia Theresiana in Vienna , it was unofficially called la Thérésienne . When the French invaded the Austrian Netherlands at the end of the 18th century , the academy led a rather miserable existence during the period of French occupation that followed, as the French central government had no interest in strengthening the "periphery". In 1794 the academy dissolved.
After Napoleonic rule was shaken off in the Wars of Liberation , it was reopened under King Wilhelm I in 1816, but gained only limited importance because the center of power in the now unified Netherlands was in The Hague . Only after Belgian independence and the restructuring of the academy did a period of prosperity emerge from 1845, during which, however, the predominance of the country's French-speaking minority remained unbroken: For example, the academy's publications appeared exclusively in French for a long time. The Flemish majority of the country generally saw themselves as second-class citizens, as was the case in the capital, Brussels , which at that time was even less Frenchized than since the end of the 19th century.
This situation repeatedly led to friction, so that gradually concessions had to be made to the Flemings, but there was still a clear French-speaking predominance in the academy. To remedy this, French-speaking and Dutch-speaking departments were set up in 1938. The two terms Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten and Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique still referred to the entire institution at that time. This situation persisted until the state reform in 1970, which at least officially emancipated the Flemish from the historically determined French-speaking domination.
As a result of this state reform in 1971, the academy was divided into two equal academies, namely the Dutch- speaking Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten (KAWLSK) and the French-speaking Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (ARB ). Both academies were granted the same right to refer to the historical Theresian society as the source of its origin, which is still significant today: In some publications, the KAWLSK is misleadingly portrayed as a split from the ARB.
In 1999, the former name of the KAWLSK was changed to Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten (KVAB) .
In the long run, however, it has proven to be inevitable to create a common platform for internal Belgian cooperation and for the representation of the Belgian academies at international level without endangering the independence of the two existing academies. To this end, the English-language coordination organization The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium (RASAB), which both institutions jointly maintain, was founded in 2001 .
International organizations
RASAB is active in several international organizations. These include the International Science Council ICSU , the IAP ( Inter Academies Panel ), the Council of EU Academies EASAC ( European Academies Science Advisory Council ), the pan-European association ALLEA ( All European Academies ) and other organizations.
Publications
Since April 19, 2001, all RASAB articles have been published in the Belgian State Gazette .
Web links
- rasab.be/en (website in English)
- rasab.be/nl (website in Dutch)
- rasab.be/fr (website in French)
- kvab.be (website in Dutch)
- ARB (website in French)
- allea.org (website in English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ General Assembly; accessed March 5, 2019 , rasab.be
- ↑ Johannes Koll: The Belgian Nation p. 39, citing the work D. du Jardin from 1774.
- ↑ rasab.be ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
