Caroline Buts

Caroline Buts is a Professor at the Brussels School of Governance and Applied Economics Department at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She specializes in EU competition policy, state aid frameworks, and defence economics. Her academic qualifications include a PhD in The Economics of State Aid (VUB, 2012), an LLM in Competition Policy (Brussels School of Competition, 2011), and advanced degrees in European Integration and Higher Education Pedagogy.

• Leads 19 active research projects including SUNAJUST II (state aid judicial training) and EU competition-data protection nexus studies
• Published 183+ peer-reviewed outputs across journals like World Competition and European State Aid Law Quarterly
• Recipient of 11+ awards including the 2021 Michael Intriligator Prize

Research interests focus on EU state aid mechanisms, regulatory challenges in digital markets, and the intersection of economic policies with geopolitical issues. Recent work examines green industrial policy evaluations and semiconductor sector resilience strategies.