Didier Caluwaerts is an Associate Professor of Democratic Governance at the VUB. His research interests include democratic innovations, democracy and long-term thinking, comparative politics, and Belgian politics. 

His PhD (2011, VUB) dealt with deliberative democracy in divided societies. It was awarded the 2012 ECPR Jean Blondel PhD award and the 2016 Ignace Vanderschueren PhD Prize, and it was nominated for the Annual PhD Prize of the Dutch and Flemish Political Science Associations. He is also the winner of the 2010 ECPR Dirk Berg-Schlosser award, the 2023 Frank Cass Prize for the best article in Democratization, and co-organizer of the G1000 citizens' summit (2011).

Didier was previously a post-doctoral researcher of the FWO at the VUB (2012-2015). In 2013 and 2014, he was a Democracy Fellow and a Frank Boas Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His stay at Harvard was made possible with grants from the Fulbright Commission and the Belgian American Educational Foundation.