About Us

LSTS is an interdisciplinary Research Group focusing upon the articulations of law, science, technology, ethics and society. Based at the Faculty of Law & Criminology of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), it is currently recognised as a Large Research Group. LSTS engages in a variety of legal disciplines ranging from legal theory to positive law, and its legal research recurrently intersects with disciplines such as philosophy (of law, of sciences and of technology), science and technology studies (STS), computer science, digital sociology, communication studies, and critical data studies, among others. LSTS is an internationally recognised centre of expertise on privacy and data protection law. Its research generally explores digitalisation and digitalisations’ impact and regulation from a European and global perspectives, covering subjects such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), health, surveillance, discrimination, gender or (cyber-)security.

LSTS is chaired by Gloria González Fuster. Launched in 2003, it was initially steered by Serge Gutwirth and Paul De Hert, and jointly led by Gloria González Fuster and Mireille Hildebrandt from 2019 to February 2024. LSTS notably brings together the Brussels Privacy Hub (BPH), the Brussels Laboratory for Data Protection & Privacy Impact Assessments (d.pia.lab), the Cyber and Data Security Lab (CDSL) and the Health and Ageing Law Lab (HALL). The ERC project COHUBICOL and DATAUNION are also located at LSTS. LSTS is part of the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies (BCUS) and the AI for the Common Good Institute Brussels (FARI).

Director of Research Group: Gloria González Fuster

Contact person for Research: Rocco Bellanova 

Contact person for Tech Transfer: Paul Quinn 

Contact person for Communication: Tatiana Duarte Nicolau 

Contact person Open Access/Open Data: Simone Casiraghi

Project Management Officer: Michael Sewell