Gert-Jan Burgers is full professor in Heritage and History of Cultural Landscapes and Urban Environments at the Faculty of Humanities of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA). He directs the interfaculty VU research institute CLUE+ for Culture, Cognition, History and Heritage, with approx. 250 researchers from a range of disciplines from the Humanities, Religion and Theology, Science, Social Sciences, Law and Economics. Burgers is also coordinator of the Pan-european H2020 Marie Curie International Training Network 'Heriland. Cultural Heritage and the Planning of European Landscapes'. Prior to this, he was director of the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (2012-2013) and Head of the Heritage and Ancient Studies departments of the same institute (2006-2013). In these capacities, Burgers’ mission has been to bring together researchers from a wide variety of academic disciplines, to jointly investigate scientific and societal challenges and to formulate strategies for addressing those challenges.