Story
SQUARE in 2020 diversified with expertise in qualitative research. In 2025 SQUARE further broadened its scope to also serve external clients, for a return and to ensure self sustainability. SQUARE is also integrating an AI component, which complements the statistical perspective with machine learning techniques.
SQUARE is the first official core facility at VUB. At SQUARE we aim to support all researchers in our community, in the VUB, and in the UZ Brussel. We intend to grow in relation to the needs of our community, and increasingly address the various challenges in quantitative and qualitative research today.
SQUARE originates from the Biostatistics and Medical Informatics (BISI) which offered consultancy at the medical campus. In 2017 their consultancy was formalized by Kurt Barbé into the Interfaculty Center Data processing and Statistics (ICDS) which by 2019 combined in-house consultancy offered by Ronald Buyl and his team with a full time consultant at the Jette campus. In 2019 a second full time consultant was included to serve the Etterbeek campus.
STAT-SQUARE
SQUARE grew out of statistical consulting, offered by BISI. The quantitative part of SQUARE is a natural extension of this service, aimed at offering expertise to researchers for generalization and modeling. The use of the name STAT-SQUARE reflects this perspective in research methodology and is used to make the link with statistics more explicit for researchers interested in our service.
AI-SQUARE
To broaden our scope, at SQUARE we have teamed up with experts from the AI Lab, which allows us to support researchers in their search for appropriate AI solutions. The use of the name AI-SQUARE reflects this perspective in AI, machine learning in particular, and is used to make the link with AI more explicit for researchers interested in our service.
Q-SQUARE
To broaden our scope, at SQUARE we also invested in support of the qualitative perspective in methodology, which uses different techniques in order to answer research questions focused on understanding opinions, emotions and motivations. The use of the name Q-SQUARE stresses the specific nature of this service.
Financing
Research board, University Medical Campus: full time statistical consultant
Vice-rectorat Research Policy:
- full time statistical consultant
- half time consultant in AI
Onderzoeksraad: half time statistical consultant
Paid services