Science parks and business centres
Science parks
- In 2004, the Arenberg Science Park, with an area of 13 hectares, was opened. This science park, situated close to imec, consists of four clusters, of which two focus on biotechnology and two on ICT and other high-tech sectors.
- Haasrode Science Park, with a total area of 136 hectares, accommodates tens of high-technology businesses, employing around 5,000 people in total. These businesses consist of KU Leuven spin-off companies like LMS International, ICOS Vision Systems, Easics and Materialise, as well as renowned international companies such as JSR Electronics, Heraeus Sensor-Nite, NXP and Terumo. The Greenhill Campus, also located within this park, is a modern office park that unites functionality with a pleasant working environment offering approximately 19,650 m² office space, 2,000 m² storage area, 300 m² archives and 550 parking places.
- A third park, the Termunck Science Park, is currently in the planning phase. It will measure 36 hectares.
For some years now, LRD has been working closely with the city of Genk and the University of Hasselt to develop a science park on the old mining site of Waterschei. The science park will cover 20 hectares and consist of 11 clusters of 20,000 m². The first two clusters will be developed in the near future. One of the clusters offers space to innovative companies and startups, the second cluster houses ‘EnergyVille’, a large European research centre for renewable energy. KU Leuven and VITO (Flemish Institute for Technological Research) will develop this recently approved project further. This second cluster will also house the ‘Knowledge and Innovation Community’ (KIC) for sustainable energy. At the end of 2009, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) selected KU Leuven to work together with TU Eindhoven and some leading research institutes and companies to create the Benelux arm of the KIC for sustainable energy.
KU Leuven has also joined forces with the city of Tienen to develop a science park on the Feed Food Health campus. This will be a thematic industrial zone where only research-oriented and high-tech companies, related to the food sector in its widest meaning, can establish themselves.
Business centres
- The Leuven Business Centre is an incubator, located in Haasrode, that provides modern offices for young companies with an option of extensive services on the basis of shared costs. The Leuven Business Centre offers 70 modern offices of between 20 and 50 m².
- Leuven Bio-Incubator
- The Ubicentre is located on the old Philips-site, just outside the Leuven city centre. This old industrial site was renovated in order to be transformed into an attractive, high-quality equipped business centre with 42,000 m² office space.
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Remy Campus is a 37,000 m² business park located at less than 10 minutes from the Leuven city centre, in a green environment alongside the Leuven canal. It harbours tens of Leuven’s technology companies. The site of the Remy factory, which goes back to 1855, was transformed into a modern business centre. The impressive tower silo of the Remy site was renovated into contemporary loft offices.
