Biobanks are organized repositories that collect and store human biological samples, such as blood or tissue, together with linked health and research data. Around the world, there has been a recent evolution of biobanks from freezers full of samples to more complex systems involving large ‘omics’ datasets (e.g. DNA or proteins), and links to electronic health records.
By global standards, Belgium’s biobanks are relatively advanced, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. This sentiment was front and center at the ‘Flanders-UK Immunology and Immunotherapy Partnering Forum’ in February 2026, co-organized by VIB, One Nucleus, and Biovia, which included a session dedicated to the topic of biobanks.
“The consensus at the biobank session was clear,” says Katrien Lorré, Biovia’s Domain Lead for Medical Biotech. “In Belgium we need to evolve our biobanks to become data-rich platforms better capable of facilitating science. Samples and data need to be made more accessible to all researchers in our ecosystem, to enable better health innovation.”
From Freezers to Platforms: The New Biobank Standard
Across Europe, the definition of a “good” biobank is rapidly shifting. Storage and sample processing remain foundational, but ‘platform biobanks’ have increasingly become the gold standard. These are platforms where well-annotated samples are paired with harmonized metadata, as well as clear governance and access pathways. The model means that the same cohort of samples can support many research questions for different organizations, enabling far more effective health innovation over time.
“Samples and data need to be made more accessible to all researchers in our ecosystem, to enable better health innovation.” – Katrien Lorré
This shift is also reflected in Europe’s biobanking research infrastructure BBMRI-ERIC, which exists to make biobank samples and data easier to find, access, and use across borders. BBMRI-ERIC currently connects around 400 biobanks and 2,600+ collections across 32 countries, making it one of the largest biobank directories in the world.
By European standards, the Belgian landscape is substantial but fragmented. One organizing structure is BBMRI.be, the Belgian national node within BBMRI-ERIC, where Biovia and VIB are part of the stakeholder working group. BBMRI.be currently connects 20 biobanks linked to public institutions such as hospitals, universities, and research centers.
Belgium: Strong Assets, Uneven Access
The existence of a network of strong biobanks is an asset. The challenge — as voiced repeatedly by Belgian researchers — is their experience of unpredictable access to samples and data. This includes variable timelines for applications, the type of documentation that’s expected, and how rules are applied to researchers from different organizations.
“[Belgium needs to] do what is necessary to facilitate reuse in an ethical way, which doesn’t create an undue burden for researchers.” – René Custers
During the panel, René Custers, Regulatory & Responsible Research Manager at VIB, noted that while the European Health Data Space is an attempt to harmonize health data for secondary use in research, this is a complex endeavor which is being implemented differently across member states. According to Custers, Belgium needs to “do what is necessary to facilitate reuse in an ethical way, which doesn’t create an undue burden for researchers.”
Kathleen D’Hondt, Policy Advisor at the Department of Work, Economy, Science, Innovation and Social Economy (WEWIS), said that from a national legislative perspective, there has been a “strong emphasis in recent years on reducing the administration for scientists” in relation to biobanking.
Making Data Enrichment the Default
With data reuse as the new frontier, Belgium’s opportunity lies in designing collaborative models for biobanks that build value over time. One of the most concrete tools is a ‘return of data’ approach. This is when the same samples are used for multiple studies, where they generate new datasets , which can then flow back to enrich the biobank’s data.
That logic sits at the center of ‘Banking the Brain’, a major pending Flemish research infrastructure initiative to empower brain disease research across Flanders (FWO IRI-ESFRI program). Banking the Brain connects biological samples, clinical data, and research‑generated datasets for brain disease research across the five Flemish universities and their affiliated hospitals and biobanks in a harmonized, federated framework, to make brain‑related samples and data better connected, findable, accessible, and reusable. The 1000 Healthy Elderly Study represents a flagship example of such a cohort, with its rich longitudinal phenotyping, well‑characterized biospecimens, and focus on cognitive ageing and resilience. A collaboration between the University of Antwerp and VIB, Banking the Brain was described at the forum by Prof. Dr. Julie van der Zee, Biobank Lead at the VIB–UAntwerp Centre for Molecular Neurology.
Read this article to learn more about van der Zee’s work on Catching Cognitive Decline Early with Citizen Science!
Van der Zee explained that the benefits of enriching biobanks are grounded in practical scarcity: “samples are very precious,” she said, and you do not have endless volumes from any one individual, especially for samples like brain tissue. But data layers such as “omics data and biomarker profiles” can be used “over and over again,” allowing the same cohort of patients to support many future studies. According to her, turning samples into reusable datasets is not just scientifically appealing — it also makes a finite resource sustainable and systematically more valuable over time.
What Belgium Needs Next: Predictability, Sustainability, and Trust
Both sample and data sharing need to be guided by the same principles. Responsible reuse cannot depend on trust alone; it needs clear standards, accountable access, sustained resources, and governance models that protect participants while enabling science. For Belgium, the challenge is therefore not only to make biobanks more accessible, but to make them part of a coherent infrastructure for health research.
If Belgium wants biobanks to function as research infrastructure for the whole ecosystem — and not just institutional services — there are a few major shifts needed.
Van der Zee emphasized that Belgium requires more sustainable, consistent funding for biobanks. Currently, Belgian biobanks are financed either via institutional funding or staccato, project-by-project grants. Biobanks need long-term operational investment — for staff, quality systems, governance, IT, and ongoing dataset enrichment — but those costs rarely fit cleanly into competitive, short-term funding cycles. Van der Zee described it is “very difficult” to fund strategic sample collections through competitive grants and called for improved financing methods.
“Belgium can turn biobanks into a real competitive advantage for health innovation — across academia, hospitals, and industry.” – Katrien Lorré
Belgium also needs more consistent ethics approval for responsible research, including collaboration across academic and commercial settings. Following the panel, Jérôme Van Biervliet, Managing Director for VIB, emphasized that biobanks are “critical infrastructure” and the way the Belgian model currently operates is “absolutely not acceptable.” Biobank data should be accessible to both academic and industry scientists, “for basic research, but also for the development of new health innovations,” he said.
Els Hermans, Program Manager, Translational Research, VIB Grand Challenges Program at VIB, agreed that “a researcher is a researcher according to the law, whether they are from an academic institute or a biotech.” She also reminded the room that “the voice of patient” is essential, but still largely missing from the discussion. This matters, because ultimately “it’s a patient who is the owner of the sample and not the hospital.”
Together, these perspectives point to a clear Belgian agenda, according to Lorré: “If we can align processes, invest sustainably, and build trust through transparency and patient involvement, Belgium can turn biobanks into a real competitive advantage for health innovation — across academia, hospitals, and industry.”