Audrey Van Scharen holds Master's degrees in Political Science and Law from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). During her tenure at VUB's Research Department (2010-2018), she established the Ethics in Research Department, dedicated to advancing legal compliance, research ethics, scientific integrity, and transparency.
In response to researchers' increasing questions on the use of data in research, she became a certified Data Protection Officer (DPO) and led the implementation of the GDPR at VUB, as well as for the National Belgian Councils of Doctors and Pharmacists, providing guidance on the use of health data.
At University Hospital Brussels, she currently serves as Manager of Ethics, Vice-President of the Medical Ethics Committee, and President of the Ethics Committee on Ethical Hospital Care. In these roles, she advises on legal and ethical compliance in the context of rapidly evolving healthcare technologies.
Audrey is also an affiliated professor at VUB's Faculty of Health and Pharmacy, where she teaches Bioethics, Research Ethics, and Ethics in Health Management and Policy. She is Vice-Chair of the Belgian Association of Research Ethics Committees (BAREC), where she, as a board member and coordinator, follows the working groups on GDPR, medical devices, and decentralized clinical trials. Through BAREC, she is involved in ongoing discussions on the reform of the Belgian legal framework for ethics review of medical research. She also represents Belgium in MedEthicsEU at the European Commission, where she follows European policy developments, including current reforms related to the Medical Device Regulation (MDR) and the Biotech act.
Her PhD research focuses on the role of Medical Research Ethics Committees in innovative research and critically examines their function in the governance of clinical research in Belgium.