Leuven realised very soon that innovation is one of the key factors for economic growth and development. More than 300 high-tech and innovative companies have found a solid base in Leuven. They are active in specific technology domains ranging from life sciences to e-security, with interdisciplinary approach as a common factor. Leuven is not isolated in this respect. Over the years, the university and IMEC have set up various local and international partnerships with other knowledge institutions, industries and governmental organisations.

Knowledge creation, as well as the abundance of talent in the Leuven region result in many innovations. The K.U.Leuven and IMEC fuel the technological development and innovation in the region through groundbreaking and fundamental research. This forms a foundation for innovative companies and companies that focus on the application and integration of these innovative technologies.

During the past decades, several innovative enterprises have been founded in the Leuven area. These enterprises focus on specific research domains varying from life sciences to e-security. These dynamic clusters allow the Leuven economy to develop and expand into a multi-polar innovation corridor. The Leuven knowledge region is not isolated in this respect. The K.U.Leuven and IMEC are part of several innovation networks and have built up various international and regional partnerships with other universities, colleges of higher education, industries and governments. On top of this, Leuven is part of the cross-border ELAT-network that links the knowledge regions of Eindhoven, Leuven and Aachen.

• The K.U.Leuven is the coordination centre of LERU, which bundles 12 European top universities
• Intel, Texas Instruments, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, Philips, Samsung and Panasonic are core partners of IMEC’s research platform for nano-electronics
• In 2000, the algorithm of COSIC researchers Daemen and Rijmen was selected for the encryption of all sensitive electronic American government information
• The Laboratory of Tropical Crop Improvement houses the world’s largest in-vitro banana collection, with more than 1,100 varieties

Feed-food-health
In the past, the food industry has always had a strong foothold in Leuven. It is no coincidence that Leuven is home for InBev, the largest brewer in the world. In addition, various companies active in water-, soil- and air purification, like Hercules and Huntsman ICI Europe have their European headquarters in and around Leuven.

Life sciences
Recombinant t-PA, a medicine against strokes, is administered to more than 300,000 patients each year. It is one of the many bio-medical successes developed in Leuven. Spin-offs like Thromb-X, 4 AZA Bioscience, Tigenix and Qmedit continue to build on the research in the field of life sciences.

Telematics en communication
Research on tomorrow’s intelligent environment takes shape in the Leuven region. Wireless communication, new multimedia techniques, speech-processing technology and microwaves are intensely investigated at the K.U.Leuven and IMEC. Sirius Communications (Agilent), Septentrio, Telindus and Eyetronics, for instance, carry out groundbreaking work in telematics and communication.

E-security
Ever since the end of the seventies, the region around Leuven and Brussels has yielded important international players in e-security. Leuven was also one of the first regions to geographically concentrate research on e-security. This soon led to the foundation of innovative companies like Ubizen, Hypertrust or Data4S.

Micro-electronics en nanotechnology
With IMEC, Leuven has a European top institute for research on micro-electronics and nanotechnology. IMEC has gathered the international top of the semiconductor industry (Intel, Texas Instruments, Infineon, Philips...) around its numerous research programmes. Also at the K.U.Leuven, thorough research is conducted in this field. Spin-offs like Icos Vision Systems, CoWare and AnSem build on this research foundation.

Mechatronics
Several companies in the Leuven region operate on the interface of mechanics, robotics and electronics. Examples are Materialise, LMS, Metris or Krypton. Machine development, instrumentation, auto-mation and programming of robots and intelligent machines are just some of their many activities.