Create impact

KU Leuven is more than a mere academic institution. The university is an engine for social progress and innovation, generating knowledge and translating it into practical solutions for today’s big challenges.

KU Leuven is known domestically and internationally for its great impact on the economy and society. This impact is visible in the translation of our scientific research into society, in our educational role for students worldwide and in our clinical care. The impact is reflected in the strong collaboration and strategic partnerships with organisations from profit- and not-for-profit sectors, with spearhead clusters such as Medvia/Flanders Bio, with the strategic research centres imec, the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), Flanders Make and the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), with research institutes such as Energyville and other Flemish and federal knowledge institutions.

Our academic services and social impact are thus inextricably linked. KU Leuven is globally active at the highest level in research and innovation. It is number one in the European Horizon Europe research programme in terms of funding (i.e. 277 million euros, which is 9% of our university’s total research funding) and participation (we participate in an average of 600 Horizon Europe projects a year, almost half of which as coordinators), awards more than 800 PhDs a year and publishes more than 4,600 scientific articles annually. In addition, the interdisciplinary KU Leuven think tank Metaforum is an academic sanctuary for social debate, where nuanced syntheses of issues are published to inform public and policy-making decisions. The Department of Fundraising and Alumni Relations (DFA) connects our university community with many donors and ensures that every graduating KU Leuven student adds to it a network of 300,000 professionals worldwide. Furthermore, through KU Leuven Engage, the university is building a sustainable dialogue with students and teachers around diversity, sustainability, service learning and other forms of social engagement. Moreover, KU Leuven supports more than 150 active spin-offs, received approval for more than 160 patents for innovative technologies in 2023, KU Leuven Research & Development (LRD) concludes more than 4,500 research contracts per year and our university has established 21 KU Leuven Institutes. In education, too, KU Leuven is a forerunner in various fields, just think of the introduction of the milestone system, in which students’ study progress is partly determined by completing a group of course units.

Nevertheless, there are challenges that put pressure on our ambition to further increase our social impact, such as the cuts at Flemish, federal and European level and the international political crises with accompanying pressure on our international collaborations. Therefore, we must actively put our shoulders to the wheel in concrete initiatives.

1. We are putting even more effort into collaborations with our alumni, including PhD and Postdoc alumni, who are active within companies, civil society organisations and other institutions, in order to translate scientific knowledge into practice faster, and to safeguard resources for research through these collaborations. In 2019, an alumni platform was made available through KU Leuven Connect. We are raising the profile of this network within KU Leuven so that researchers can efficiently identify alumni to initiate collaborations. Getting young graduates excited about the KU Leuven Alumni policy remains a challenge, and this is where important steps forward can still be made. We take inspiration from examples within certain faculties where alumni actively engage to give lectures, organise group tours and open up networking evenings.
2. Besides the alumni policy, we are looking at how to engage companies to participate financially in the purchase and maintenance of equipment and/or buildings/classrooms, inspired by examples from abroad. Of course, the independence of teaching and research and researchers must always be guaranteed.
3. We remain committed to chairs, endowments and bequests, because the expertise we gain from these resources is crucial for strengthening our academic services, entrepreneurship and community engagement. In 2024, KU Leuven received support from no fewer than 12,318 donors, 26 per cent of whom were KU Leuven alumni and 6 per cent from our own staff. These contributions, which together amounted to more than 23 millioneuros, enabled us to realise numerous projects. Almost 18 million euros of this was invested in healthcare research, while fundamental research outside the medical sector (2.7 million euros), education (1.8 million euros), heritage (342,000 euros) and international projects (457,000 euros) also received significant support. The instruments that demonstrated their added value in the biomedical sphere can inspire our missions in the two other science groups.
4. At a Flemish and national level, we are making efforts to convince policymakers to provide more budgetary space for funding and framing research and education. The government is currently considering a new inter-university funding model, which is likely to land in 2028-2029.
5. At the European level, together with our partner universities, we will strongly advocate increasingacademic research budgets. This is necessary to consolidate our European research and innovation position in today’s rapidly changing world and to ensure that researchers have the means to continue pioneering and valorising work. The role of strong networks with a clear focus, such as the League of European Research Universities (LERU) or CESAER, is crucial here. We advocate that countries guilty of gross human rights violations should be excluded from structural European funding.
6. We support our researchers even more strongly when applying for funding. We already make many efforts to help researchers apply for Horizon Europe projects, for example. Here, we think especially of the Global Seed Fund, which funds pilot projects that can leverage larger Horizon Europe projects, or the grant facilitators within the Research Coordination Department (DOC) who help researchers prepare their research applications. This is a first step, and an investigation into the efficiency of these initiatives is imminent. But we may be able to do more to help our researchers. Therefore, we should quantify how much financial resources researchers outsource to external partners on an annual basis in the run-up to and when writing and submitting project proposals for European funding. After all, if project applications are successful, such consultancy/management firms often request up to 10% of project funds. Taken together, we expect this to be a substantial amount that eventually flows away from the university. This amount may be in an order of magnitude sufficient to further develop the Grant Facilitating Office within the DOC.
7. Many faculties, departments and research groups no longer see the connection between their performance (such as student numbers and research output) and the (financial) recognition obtained for it. A recalculation of the allocation of financial resources within the university is therefore imminent. At the same time, of course, a new (intergroup) allocation can never be applied indiscriminately and should be seen as a compass to further steer the direction of our policy. The last intergroup allocation dates from 2012 and some adjustments have also been made since then. A new analysis of the current situation is essential to better align spending and efforts . After all, a university administration must have the right information to implement adequate policies. To re-run the same allocation model of 2012 would ignore the fact that the university has evolved tremendously since then. Significant adjustments have happened since then, such as the integration of the various college courses, the development of several small campuses, the introduction of growth paths and strategic mandates, the broad investment in the mental well-being of our students, and the additional government funding to cope with rising physician quotas. We also refer here to the future funding model of the Flemish government, and hope for the additional resources mentioned above. A new (intergroup) allocation in no way serves to individually count the efforts made by each staff member, service, faculty or department. In any case, this exercise should take into account the specific situation of the integrated faculties, for instance in terms of their evolution in research culture. After all, it takes about a generation to achieve a steady state around research culture in these integrated programmes. For various reasons, this will be anything but an easy exercise, but this does not mean we should shy away from it, or fear what the outcome will teach us.
8. We put art and cultural projects linked to the preservation of our heritage on the map, as well as culture as a field of study and part of our university public life. We support great cultural initiatives such as the BAC ART LAB, where art and science meet and provide space for artistic experimentation, as well as the Alamire foundation study centre on polyphony. The Academic and Historical Patrimony Department not only manages KU Leuven’s artistic patrimony, but is also responsible for the University’s archives and heritage and the related scientific collections. The University Library also organised many exhibitions over the past 15 years, curated by KU Leuven professors and staff. In cooperation with the City of Leuven, Museum M and Art Leuven, our university also contributed to city festivals such as Utopia and the Knalfestival. Weekly, more than 400 students also rehearse with university ensembles and perform regularly at home and abroad, making culture an integral part of our university community. The newly established Vesalius Project with the Vesalius Museum is another example of the strong presence of art, culture and heritage at our university. We definitely want and need to continue nurturing these initiatives. We have an impressive university heritage of which we can be proud and in which we must continue to invest. Legacies received by KU Leuven can be used in part to allocate the funds required for this purpose.
9. We will further strengthen ties between KU Leuven and UC Louvain. The sister universities will have four joint degree programmes (joint programmes) in 2025-2026. In addition, honorary doctorates will be awarded together in this festive year and we will celebrate our 600th anniversary together. Joint programmes require more structural cooperation. This is the only way to ensure a clear and uniform learning path for all students, while at the same time limiting the administrative burden that follows from initiatives of this kind. This cooperation must therefore be deepened, also in the field of research and sustainability, but with clear added value for both parties. The fact that within a few years the campuses of KU Leuven and of UCLouvain in Brussels will border each other, offers unprecedented opportunities to strengthen the position of Leuven universities in the European capital and the metropolitan context of Brussels.