Impact for industry and government: collaborate with KU Leuven
KU Leuven offers expertise and a wide range of services and collaboration opportunities to industry and governments. As a company, government body or other organisation, you can:
- Engage in contract research & collaborations
- Use our business consultancy services
- Hire our talented graduates
- Access our specialised facilities
- Get scientific insights in your policy domain
- Find industry training and continuing education programmes
- Join our networks and events
Impact as a student: engage, and amplify your learning
KU Leuven provides its students with many possibilities to have a positive impact during their education. As a student of KU Leuven, you can:
- Take a course that revolves around community engagement, reflection and service-learning
- Participate in a KU Leuven Global Development project
- Do an internship here or abroad in a non-profit organisation
- Collaborate with a civil society organisation for your thesis
- Work on an international project with social impact
- Develop your entrepreneurial ideas
KU Leuven Stories
Tenofovir or how to go antiviral
KU Leuven has a longstanding tradition in contributing to the development of innovative and effective drugs. Owing to the work of a few trailblazing scientists, a new generation of powerful anti-HIV/AIDS treatments arrived onto the market. One example is tenofovir, the most commonly used anti-HIV drug in the world. Stemming from a successful collaboration between researchers at KU Leuven, Prague's Academy of Sciences and Gilead Sciences, the drug manages to ‘go anti-viral’, and enables those infected to lead full and qualitative lives.
Impact as a student/researcher: take your business idea to market
KU Leuven has a tradition of fostering and stimulating entrepeneurship. As a student or researcher with an entrepreneurial mindset, you can:
- Get support with spin-off creation and intellectual property
- Use our incubation centres to grow your business
- Take an entrepeneurship course
- Get start-up support
- ...
Impact as a researcher: engage with society
KU Leuven researchers actively collaborate with partners outside academia to foster innovation and create a mutually beneficial partnership. As a researcher, you can engage with society in many ways:
- Improve science communication
- Find funding for your impactful research
- Get guidance for tech transfer & intellectual property
- Aim for social impact for your research from the start
- Turn your research into a viable business
- Keep developing and continue your education
- Tackle big societal challenges through interdisciplinary collaboration
- Engage in global development projects
Rector Luc Sels on the University's mission and its role in industry and society
The University's mission is comprehensive. It is often expressed in terms of missions, with teaching and research being crucial missions, but not the only ones. The third mission stipulates that the University contributes to sustainable social development.
In Flanders, this mission is somewhat bureaucratically translated as 'social service', a label that does not immediately inspire and does not really give this mission the place it deserves. It is about so much more than service provision. It is about our convinced commitment to help shape our society.
Support the University and its Research
At KU Leuven and University Hospitals Leuven, our researchers and students collaborate tirelessly to develop new insights and sustainable innovations that have a positive impact on society. We are committed to addressing the challenges of today and tomorrow, and we need your support to achieve our goals. By making a donation to our efforts, you can help us drive innovation and make a real difference in the world. Together, we can create a better future for everyone.
Building a world ready for tomorrow, with today's excellent research
Whether it concerns establishing research collaborations, securing and licensing intellectual property or the creation of spin-offs: the multidisciplinary team of KU Leuven Research & Development offers a comprehensive array of services, coaching, financing and expert administrative support that empowers researchers in their process of knowledge and technology transfer.
A sustainable future
KU Leuven has dedicated itself to sustainability: in education, research and business operations. By doing so, KU Leuven supports the universitas idea, actively involving students, academics, administrative and technical staff, alumni and emeriti in the implementation of our sustainability policy.
An inclusive society
An inclusive, welcoming university recognises and embraces the uniqueness and talents of each individual. In doing so, we provide an open climate and positive culture of collaboration, learning and living.
Focus on global development
KU Leuven stimulates collaboration between our academics and their counterparts across the world, looking for innovative responses to global and local challenges.
Interdisciplinary research and facilities
KU Leuven Institutes conduct interdisciplinary research with social relevance. KU Leuven Core Facilities bundle top scientific research infrastructure, including databases and archives.
KU Leuven Connect: our alumni community
KU Leuven wants to be there for its alumni, both as a 'home base' and an important part of the extensive network where alumni can offer mutual added value.
KU Leuven Continue: lifelong learning
In today's rapidly evolving world, it is essential for individuals to continue learning throughout their lives to stay relevant and adaptable in their careers and personal lives. Lifelong learning enables people to acquire new skills, knowledge, and perspectives, empowering them to navigate the ever-changing world more effectively.
Metaforum
Metaforum was founded at KU Leuven in 2008 as an interdisciplinary think tank. Its mission is to make the university's wealth of scientific and scholarly expertise on pressing societal issues available to policy makers and the general public.
The goal of Metaforum is to bring together scientists from different research fields around important societal themes and to create a framework in which these scientists develop a vision to tackle such challenges. Metaforum working groups lead to position and debate papers providing a synthesis of scientific knowledge on a specific societal theme and with general recommendations or policy advice.
Celebrate 600 years of KU Leuven with us
The year 2025 will certainly be memorable: KU Leuven is celebrating its 600th anniversary. Six centuries of groundbreaking research, outstanding education and active social commitment that form a springboard to even greater accomplishments in the next 600 years.
As a company, organisation or association, you can help us increase our future impact by entering into a partnership with KU Leuven. In this way, you will stimulate cutting-edge research and become part of our exclusive 600-year partner network.