UZA Foundation

UZA foundation is a public benefit foundation.

The governance of UZA foundation is in the hands of a Board of Directors. In accordance with UZA foundation's articles of association, the Board of Directors is headed by the CEO of UZA. Board members are business leaders from very diverse sectors and with extensive networks. The Board of Directors is responsible for the strategy of UZA foundation and its network of philanthropic partners.

The Board of Directors of UZA foundation is advised by the Scientific Council headed by the medical director of UZA. The Scientific Council brings together a number of top experts in different scientific, medical and clinical contexts. The Scientific Council is responsible for UZA foundation's scientific policy and strategy. They launch project calls and award Scientific Grants.

The operational team consists of five employees. Each staff member has concrete fundraising objectives. In addition, each employee has specific expertise to fulfil financial, administrative and communication tasks. In addition, we can count on a number of volunteers. The main focus in our daily operation is building a good relationship with our donors, in relation to a personalised donor journey for each of them.

We facilitate clinical research at the University Hospital of Antwerp (UZA). We work closely with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Antwerp. The clinical research we support enables the valorisation of scientific research in collaboration with the medical faculty. Our researchers' main focus is patient well-being and access for every patient to the most innovative treatments.

UZA foundation's funding largely comes from our philanthropic partners. Our philantropic partners are private individuals and (international) companies who share our passion, and thus wish to have an impact on the healthcare of the future. On an annual basis, we invite our philanthropic partners to present and discuss the results and progress in our projects. A great time with direct contact between the research teams and our partners.

Every year we organise two corporate fundraising events. In spring time we organise a gala dinner. In autumn we organise a mountain bike race. At both events, companies are invited to participate, along with their employees and their friends. Both events account for 15 to 20% of our annual income. These events create a close-knit community that we welcome year after year. Over the years, a number of our sponsors have become ambassadors for our mission and goals.

Good health is everyone's wish. People affected by a life-threatening illness, or those living with an inherited disease affect everyone. Many of our patients, their families and friends are also connected to our mission and goals. They too form a close-knit community, both locally in the Antwerp region, and more widely across Flanders, and certainly in the Netherlands. After all, almost 15% of our patients come from the neighbouring Netherlands. We can count on them, not only for donations but also as volunteers. Several of them organise fundraising campaigns and events to support our research.

The challenges in healthcare are enormous. in the future, we want to focus more and more on preventive medicine - and ambulatory care supported by digital tools.

To make this possible, we are launching a new campaign for the next three years: The development of Digital Twins. As an academic hospital, UZA has invested heavily in the collection of (digital) data in recent years.The Data Innovation Lab of UZA now aims to bring this data together in a uniform and structured way. Through a unique collaboration between our clinical experts at UZA and our ICT experts from the University of Antwerp, we want to unlock much more information from this data with Artificial Intelligence.

With this campaign we want to make new projects in preventive and personalized medicine possible. To achieve this, we will continue to focus on a growth strategy over the next 3 to 5 years