LIBER Appoints New Executive Director

LIBER is delighted to announce that Alexander Hasgall has been appointed as LIBER Executive Director, effective as of March 1, 2026.

Dr. Alexander Hasgall brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of membership organisations, consortia, and research funders in the European research landscape. At LIBER, he takes on the role of Executive Director with the mission to coordinate and implement our strategic actions, manage the LIBER Office and Foundation, as well as advocate for our research library members at the European level.  

Before joining LIBER, Alexander headed International Funding Policy at the Swiss National Science Foundation (2024-2025), where he developed a global cooperation strategy and established and managed partnerships with international research funders.  

From 2017 to 2023, he served as Head of the Council for Doctoral Education at the European University Association (EUA-CDE), working on doctoral education and research training. Alexander led the development and implementation of its strategy and activities and represented the European doctoral education community in European and global fora. His work resulted in several publications on doctoral education and the future of research training, including the vision paper Building the Foundations of Research. In addition, he was responsible for the area of research ethics and integrity at EUA. 

Before this, he spent three years at the University of Geneva coordinating a consortium of all Swiss universities on reforming research assessment in the social sciences and humanities. The project led to one of the first comprehensive frameworks to address SSH-specificities in evaluation practices. 

Alexander holds a doctorate in Contemporary History from the University of Zurich and studied Philosophy and History at the University of Zurich and the Free University of Berlin. His doctoral research addressed knowledge politics, archives, and institutional memory in dealing with the last military dictatorship in Argentina. Earlier, he also served as a human rights observer in Guatemala. 

He is active in diverse advisory roles, including membership on the Scientific Council of the TUM Graduate School, as a Trustee of the UK Career Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC/VITAE), and as an advisory board member of the Research Chair on Teaching and Learning at the University of Johannesburg. 

On his new appointment at LIBER, Alexander commented, 

Throughout my career, I have been fascinated by the diversity of institutions and people that shape European research. I deeply identify with the values of this community of over 420 European research libraries, including intellectual freedom, responsibility for preserving and making knowledge accessible, and scientific ethics and integrity.
LIBER is the voice of European research libraries at a time when their social engagement and access to public knowledge are more important than ever. We are confronted with the question of how research libraries can maintain open, trusted spaces for knowledge when political pressure, an accelerated digital transformation, and knowledge security concerns challenge these values. I look forward to working with LIBER members to ensure a strong role for research libraries in European research policy.

Alexander succeeds the current Executive Director, Martine Pronk, who will leave LIBER at the end of February to begin a new role as Head Librarian of Wageningen University & Research (WUR).