Supported projects

BELGIUM - It is likely that the Belgian government will give the green light for the final underground disposal of nuclear waste before the end of the year. Cost: several billion euros. The taxpayer pays almost half of that. It remains to be seen whether the largest waste producer Electrabel will pay the rest.

One in twelve medical scientists in Flanders admits to making up or ‘massaging’ data in order for it to match a hypothesis. And almost six in twelve see such fraudulent practices happening around them. They identify high publication pressure as one of the causes.

Belgian military forces in Mali are at risk of being shot with Belgian weapons and munition that have fallen into the hands of Islamic rebels. The weapons come from Libya but were furnished by previous Belgian governments, material evidence and archive research shows. They have been circulating in the Arab world since the Libyan revolution.

Antibiotics have long been a sort of wonder drug that allowed for a significant decrease in mortality from all kinds of infectious diseases. But there is one disadvantage to antibiotics: bacteria develop a resitance for them. In The End of Antibiotics journalist Rinke van den Brink puts these imperceptible bruisers under the microscope. He speaks with scores of international specialists and asks them for possible solutions, because antibiotic resistance is a worldwide problem.

Peru is one of the economically fastest growing countries of Latin-America. Still, inequality stays high and social conflicts are raging throughout the country.

EGYPT - Late 2011, early 2012. While people are dying on Tahrir Square, four Belgian photographers go in search of personal stories in a metropolis of 20 million inhabitants where fault lines have suddenly been enlarged. This results in images that you don't see on TV or in the newspaper.

It's highly unusual. In October 2012, after years of friendly relations, Margot Vanderstraeten was able to get access to a small group of Antwerp modern-orthodox Jews who started a new life in New York – and don't want to leave. "I truly feel at home here. I can be truly Jewish here, too. And that is something that has never really been possible in Antwerp."

Congolese-Australian journalist Eric Mwamba went on a search to find the secret behind the riches of the Congolese elite. Many of his witnesses prefered staying anonymous for fear of their lives – which looks like a kind of Congolese omerta. John Vandaele selected Mwamba’s strongest observations and added some personal touches.

Without fuel our cars will stop moving; it is something we all know and realise. Far less of our attention is aimed at raw materials. Unrightfully so, because without raw materials cars it would not even be possible to make cars. The average car contains about a mile of copper wire, copper that is mainly looked for in Africa.

Stringent European migration legislation has shifted traditional African migration circuits towards China. The process of obtaining a European visa is long and tiresome. It can take up to two years without any guarantee of actually acquiring the visa, a Chinese visa takes a day. This led to the formation of African communities in China, such as the Congolese community in the Xiaobei district in the city of Guangzhou.