Itinera Institute

Itinera Institute
founded in the year	2006
City	Brussels
Country	Belgium
Website	http://www.itinerainstitute.org
address	Boulevard Leopold II Laan 184d, 1080 Brussels
Virtual Networks A "Virtual Network" is a group of Think Tanks identified by certain semantic and normative (ideological) commonalities (e.g. climate change scepticism). Such a virtual network constitutes a research field that differs from the study of formal networks. Formal networks are real in the sense of officially acknowledged and immediately open to empirical validation. Virtual networks on the other hand display shared ideas. Social network analysis tools can be applied to find out if or to what extent virtual networks are real networks that display linkages (membership in networks, personnel, resources etc.). Unconnected think tanks in turn can be considered special cases in need of explanation independent from network structures (unless we have to assume invisible, hidden or covered ties).	Austerity politics
Last revision	30.11.2014

The institute asserts as its mission to make »recommendations for structural policy reforms, with a focus on sustainable economic growth and social protection.« And »We contribute to the political debate by pro-actively investigating issues that are or will be topical. These studies culminate in reports you can find on our website, public debates, events and activities.« <ref>[1],)

Organizational Structure and Funding

Address

Boulevard Leopold II Laan 184d, 1080 Brussels

People

Executive board

People leading the Think Tank in the day to day business (CEOs, directorates etc.).

• Marc De Vos, Director

• Leo Neels, General Director

Staff

People working for the Think Tank (Fellows etc.). This includes also part-time employees.

• Johan Albrecht, Senior Fellow

• Etienne De Callataÿ, Senior Fellow

• Chantal Versweyveld

• Bruno Colmant

• Svin Deneckere (2013-), Senior Fellow Health Care & Elderly Care

• Herman Matthijs

• Alexandre Simons, Junior Fellow

• Frits Schuitema, Senior Fellow

• Dave Sinardet

• Edoardo Traversa

• Frederic Heymans

• Simon Ghiotto, Junior Fellow

• Jean Hindriks, Senior Fellow

• Bilal Benyaich

• Ivan Van de Cloot, Chief Economist

• Marijn Verschelde

• Benoit Gailly

Advisory board

People advising the Think Tank (mainly in scientific questions)

• Bernard Foccroulle

• Etienne Davignon

• Luc Vansteenkiste

• Diane Verstraeten

• Jim O'Neill

• Peter Piot

• Mia Doornaert

• Leonard Shrank

• Philippe Herreweghe

• Luc Coene

• Mark Eyskens

• Günter Burghardt

• John Monks

• Piet Steel

• Jacques-François Thisse

• Catherine Verfaillie

• Luc Van den Bossche

• Herman De Bode

• Michel Hansenne

• André Oosterlinck

• Dirk Brossé

Experts

Experts are not permanently employed at the Think Tank. They are paid for contract research when their expertise is needed. Some Think Tanks call a database of hundred or even more experts their own.

• Bilal Benyaich, Senior Fellow

• Edoardo Traversa, Visiting Fellow

• Koen Schoors, Visiting Fellow

• Marijn Verschelde, Visiting Fellow

• Bruno Colmant, Visiting Fellow

• Dave Sinardet, Visiting Fellow

• Benoit Gailly, Visiting Fellow

• Herman Matthijs, Visiting Fellow

Topics

We used the DGs of the EU to generate a basic list of topics. This list is going to be steadily extended. However we try to preserve a persistent list of topics.

• Economic Policy
• Taxation
• home affairs
• Fiscal Policy
• Education
• Health and Consumer Policy
• Pensions

Semantic Fields

What we call here a semantic field is the idea to categorize think tanks in a two level system. The first levels are so called 'Virtual Networks' and the second are the semantic fields. Accordingly every semantic field entered here has to be attached to a virtual network. If you would like to follow a special phenomenon among think tanks please contact us and we are going to add a new virtual network. Semantic fields are topics that promote a virtual network. Lets take climate change as an example: 'climate change skeptics' is the virtual network and 'adaption instead of mitigation' would be one possible semantic field.

• Tax Reduction (Austerity Politics): Deplores the internationally compared high taxation rate in Belgium.