On Thursday evening, July 3, 2025, Prof. Dr. Anouk Bollen-Vandenboorn received a Belgian medal from the outgoing Belgian ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Ms. Anick van Calster. Anouk was awarded the Knight of the Order of the Crown in the presence of family, friends, and colleagues at the Belgian embassy in The Hague. In a very personal speech, the ambassador thanked Anouk for her important contribution to cross-border cooperation between Belgium and the Netherlands.
The award is recognition of Anouk’s work as director of ITEM in recent years. More than ten years ago, Anouk was one of the founders of ITEM, an ambitious project to establish a center of expertise and thereby structurally link knowledge, policy, and practice on cross-border issues. With boundless enthusiasm, passion, and dedication, she then worked on cross-border cooperation between regions, member states, organizations, researchers, and administrations. ITEM’s motto, “knowledge, connection, and collaboration,” perfectly describes Anouk.
With succes. Under Anouk’s leadership, ITEM has achieved many results and successes over the past ten years. This has already been reviewed in the 10-year Self-Reflection ITEM 2015-2024. Milestones include the Quality Requirements for Border Effects in the Netherlands as an integral part of new policy and legislation and the establishment of the Flanders-Netherlands Coordination Point (the Schakelpunt), but Anouk has also worked hard both behind the scenes and in the spotlight to strengthen cross-border networks and governance and ITEM’s position within them. She has also successfully positioned ITEM as an important stakeholder for numerous practical initiatives at the border, particularly through participation in various Interreg projects. This week, a collaborative project between UM and the universities of Aachen, Liège, and Hasselt was approved. Anouk has developed various ITEM activities and projects that are now indispensable. In all of this, she focuses on the border resident, who needs help in a more borderless society and structure. It is no coincidence that Han Polman, former King’s Commissioner in Zeeland, also received an award for his contribution to cross-border cooperation. In recent years, ITEM has collaborated intensively with Limburg and other Dutch and Belgian provinces. With the Province of Zeeland, for example, in connection with the cross-border North Sea Port and the establishment of the Flanders-Netherlands Coordination Point.
As the ITEM team, we are extremely proud of this well-deserved award for Anouk, in recognition of her work. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Belgian ambassador, Ms. Anick van Calster, for this. Although we cannot formally award her a medal, we are grateful to Anouk for her efforts within the team, within UM, and within the extensive cross-border field.
