International Cooperation

Research at ETF Leuven always takes place in a broad international context. Individual and joint research projects strive for optimal use of expertise at home and abroad. ETF Leuven has a growing number of agreements within the framework of interuniversity cooperation with foreign educational and research institutions, such as:

	Chongshin University (Seoul, South Korea)
	Freie Theologische Hochschule Giessen (Germany)
	North-West University (Potchefstroom, South-Africa)
	Theological University in Kampen (Netherlands)
	VU University Amsterdam (Netherlands)
	Yale University (New Haven, United States)

International cooperation in the area of research recently took shape in the following ways:

• In 2014, together with the Theological University of the Reformed Churches in Kampen, ETF Leuven established a Centre of Excellence in Reformed and Evangelical Theology in order to stimulate joint junior and senior research. In particular, CERET stimulates joint doctorates.

• In 2014, Dr. Christoph Sauer was appointed professor for the chair of ‘freedom of religion and religious persecution’, within the framework of the cooperation of ETF Leuven with the International Institute for Religious Freedom (WEA), with departments in Bonn, Cape Town and Colombo.

• In 2013, Dr. Heiko Wenzel from the Freie Theologische Hochschule in Giessen was appointed as a postdoctoral researcher at the ETF Leuven in the area of Old Testament studies.

• In 2012, together with the Theological University of Apeldoorn and the Theological University Kampen, ETF Leuven established an international agreement of collaboration with the Research Group on Classic Reformed Theology, under the chairmanship of the late Prof. Dr. Willem van Asselt (ETF Leuven). Since June 2014, Prof. Dr. Andreas Beck (ETF Leuven) has been the chair of this international research group.
  
• ETF Leuven is a partner of Refo500 and RefoRC, the international platforms that provides expertise, knowledge, ideas, activities and products to mark the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation.

• In 2011, in cooperation with VU University Amsterdam, ETF Leuven established the Jonathan Edwards Center Benelux, affiliated to the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University. It is part of an international network with centers in Germany, Poland, South Africa and Brazil, among others.