Koen Pepermans

About

Koen Pepermans received his master degree in political and social sciences (1994) from the University of Antwerp. He is the Faculty Director of the Faculty of Social Sciences and also the Data Protection Officer at the University of Antwerp. Before his current position he was a teaching and research assistant in the domain of methodology at the same faculty for the master years. As part of this function he taught multivariate statistics, coordinated student research projects in a multitude of topics and was promotor for students thesis’s. During this time he focused mainly on mental health issues and the Minimal Psychiatric Data-system next to other projects related to social aspects of environment and use of space. As part of this function he was a member of the steering group for the Health Survey at the end of the ‘90s. He has provided survey, model and IT expertise to numerous projects both as part of his job at the university and for other universities and organisations through his company KPsoft. The Great Corona Study Together with colleagues from UAntwerp, UHasselt and KU Leuven, he is co-initiator of the Great Corona Study, an initiative that they all take on as volunteers in addition to other tasks. 46 waves of the Great Corona Study (an ethically approved have been executed in the period March 2020-2022, first on a weekly basis and later with a lower frequency. The University of Antwerp was the lead institution for this large scale survey in cooperation with two other Belgian universities (UHasselt and KU Leuven). In total more than 3 million unique records were collected. The data were used to support the Belgian and regional authorities with data and insights whilst also informing and raising awareness in the general public about the pandemic. A limited list of other projects from the last 25 years: - For the VRT Stemtest he has developed the instrument to assign weights to the various propositions that were used during de Stemtest in 2003, 2007, 2009 en 2019. - 'Care circuits and care pathways in Mental Health Care' - 'Minimum Psychiatric Data' (registration project of treatments in mental health care of the federal government) - Geographical part of the project 'General offender profile analysis', (Police services Antwerp) - Sociale Kaart Kempen' (STC Kempen) - 'Service centres in the city of Antwerp' (OCMW Antwerp) - Storage of low-level radioactive waste' (ONDRAF/NIRAS) - Nuisance in the city' (VLIM)

Education