Lieve Van den Block is Full Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and founding chair of the Ageing and Palliative Care Research Program at the End-of-Life Care Research Group of the VUB and Ghent University in Belgium. She holds a PhD in Medical Social Sciences and a Master in Clinical Psychology. Lieve has been involved in palliative care and end-of-life research for over 20 years, focusing on national and international public health and interventional research aimed at monitoring and improving care and support for people with serious or advanced illnesses and their family.  

She has partnered in and coordinated several EU funded research projects, including currently as coordinator of the Horizon Europe EU NAVIGATE project. She is Commissioner for the Lancet Commission on Person-centered Long-term care for older people and chairs the Aging and Palliative Care Reference Group of the European Association of Palliative Care. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles, has received several scientific awards for her work including the Collen-Francqui Research Professor Chair, and is co-editor-in-chief of Nature Springer’s Textbook of Palliative Care. Her work has been supported by grants from the European Commission, national fundamental and applied research foundations, and leading medical and health charities.