Partners

The KU Leuven has built up various international and regional partnerships with other universities, university colleges, industries and governments:

• Imec is Flanders' independent interuniversity research centre in microelectronics. At imec more than 1,800 employees and visiting scientists perform challenging, key technology R&D. With an annual research budget of currently 300 million euro, imec has become a world class R&D and training centre with an ISO 9001 certification.

• VIB, the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology, is an entrepreneurial interuniversity research institute comprising more than 1,100 researchers and technicians dedicated to gene technology research in various domains such as human health and plant genetics. VIB combines the forces of nine university research teams into a single institute and disposed of a research budget of 61.9 million euro in 2008. The institute is a close joint venture between VIB headquarters in Zwijnaarde (Gent), Belgium and the Flemish universities of Antwerp (UA), Brussels (VUB), Gent (RUG) and Leuven (KU Leuven).

• The city of Leuven is an active partner of the KU Leuven in several of its networking activities and local regional investments activities. 

• The KU Leuven also maintains close ties with the Province of Flemish Brabant. 

Through participation in the Gemma Frisius Fund (GFF), KU Leuven has partnerships with two banks:

• BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity is one of the three founding partners in the GFF. BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity was established to provide venture capital and private equity to SME's in search for accelerated internal or external growth, to MBO's, or MBI's, to family-owned business looking for restructuring, etc. in all stages of development.

• KBC Private Equity is one of the three founding partners in the GFF. It handles the private equity activities of the KBC Group, specialising in traditional sectors, ICT and life sciences, and co-operates with the equity analysts of KBC Securities, Peel Hunt and Patria.

 
Beyond that, KU Leuven has the following partnerships:

• Under CREA, the European Commission supports seed capital funds by covering part of their operating costs during their start-up phase. CREA aims to stimulate the supply of equity finance for the creation and transfer of innovative smaller businesses (fewer than 50 employees) with growth and job creating potential by supporting seed capital funds or similar organisations in their early years. CREA also intends to create a community-wide network for seed capital funds and promote the exchange of best practices and training.

• Vinnof is the Flemish Innovation Fund, which provides risk capital to Flemish innovative entrepreneurs.