Bart Vanhercke, PhD in Social Science, is the Director (since March 2010), as well as a Senior Researcher (since February 2006), at the Brussels-based European Social Observatory. He is therefore in charge of the broad research strategy, the day-to-day management of the team and regular interns, of overseeing the projects, budget, tendering and communication strategy. His current research focuses on the European Pillar of Social Rights and the social dimension of the new European economic governance, topics on which he also works as an associate academic staff member (since 2016) at the Research Institute for Work and Society (HIVA) as well as (since 2008) at the Centre for Sociological Research (CESO), University of Leuven.
His earlier research dealt with the Europeanization of domestic social inclusion, health care and pension policies through different EU policy instruments (law, governance and funding), and the social challenges of EMU and EU enlargement. In March 2016 he obtained his PhD (cum laude) at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) of the University of Amsterdam. Bart Vanhercke was appointed, for the academic year 2013-2014, Associate Professor at the Institute for European Studies of Saint-Louis University (FUSL). He was appointed Policy Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA Berlin) in November 2015. He is the author of around 130 articles, book chapters, edited volumes and reports.