KU Leuven Research & Development (LRD)

The knowledge and technology transfer activities of LRD include:

• Collaborating with industry: Companies often turn to the university to answer part of their R&D needs, instead of performing the whole process themselves. When researchers collaborate with industry, LRD sets up well-balanced collaboration agreements. Specifically for European consortium projects, LRD's EU advisors guide researchers in administrative, financial and legal matters during the entire project life cycle;
• Managing intellectual property: LRD helps researchers to protect their intellectual property and devise appropriate strategies for transferring the intellectual property from the university to industry;
• Creating spin-off companies: LRD assists researchers during the start-up phase and guides them through the process of translating a business idea into a real company. LRD also provides researchers access to seed capital, through the KU Leuven Gemma Frisius Fund, and appropriate lab and office space in one of Leuven's incubators and science parks;
• Promoting entrepreneurship and innovation by stimulating networking initiatives such as Leuven.Inc (Leuven Innovation Networking Circle) and technology clustering such as DSP Valley and LSEC (Leuven Security Excellence Consortium);
• Stimulating and cultivating knowledge-driven regional development: in close collaboration with the city of Leuven, the province of Vlaams-Brabant, and the Flemish and European government, LRD supports the development of a favourable climate for knowledge-driven entrepreneurship and innovation. LRD is a founding partner of Leuven Mindgate, which internationally positions Leuven as one of Europe's most prolifc regions for high-tech business development and innovation. Leuven is also part of the ELAt-network which connects the knowledge regions of Eindhoven, Leuven and Aachen.