The PRoF Research Award 2016 goes to Professor Dominique Verté of the VUB. Chantal Van Audenhove of the KU Leuven presented him with the Award while expressing her deep appreciation for his impressive track record of field and policy research.
 
Dominique Verté is Professor of Social Gerontology at the Department of Educational Sciences of the VUB. After several years of practical experience in the care industry as a nurse, he became a scientist and acted as advisor to the Flemish government. He is well-known for his large-scale research on the needs and expectations of the elderly living at home, conducted among 70,000 elderly people in 180 municipalities in Flanders.

In his research, Professor Verté tackles a variety of issues, such as loneliness, housing, care, safety and volunteering. His research is very much unique, in that it is designed and executed with the help of the target group, i.e. the elderly. It is also explicitly aimed to help local authorities model an age-friendly environment that caters to the needs of the elderly in their municipalities.
 
This translation of knowledge into practical applications is key to Dominique Verté: “I'm not interested in research for research’s sake. The driving force for my research and consultancy activities is to translate theory into practice and thus help to improve society.