Universities and research centers are essential players in the development of the economic health of the sector by creating spin-offs companies.

The Brussels Capital Region has developed an important potential in research activities.

ULB

The University has five teaching hospitals (Hôpital Erasme, CHU Saint-Pierre, CHU Brugmann, Hôpital des Enfants Reine Fabiola (HUDERF), and the Institut Jules Bordet). Alongside them, it also benefits from a vast hospital training network in Brussels, Brabant and Hainaut. The Faculty of Medicine bases its teaching on research undertaken in practically all the specialist fields (research unit directory : http://www.ulb.ac.be/ rech/inventaire/facultes/medecine.html). A range of areas of expertise and value creation activities result from this joint research, undertaken with the University’s other Faculties and other Belgian and foreign research infrastructures, enabling this network to generate a number of major growth fields in the Brussels Region :

• molecular biology
• cancerology
• immunology
• pharmaceutical research
• public health

VUB

The Vrije Universtiteit Brussel is a dynamic and modern university with two parkland campusses in the Brussels-Capital Region: the main campus in Etterbeek with 8 faculties and the medical campus in Jette, located close to the University Hospital.
Since the very beginning high quality education and research have been central issues. VUB research teams are in many domains recognised as centres of excellence, conducting broadly based fundamental and applied research, often with an international scope.
The VUB is also the largest Dutch-speaking employer in the Brussels Region. Centrally situated in the capital of Europe the VUB wishes to participate in the expansion of Flanders and Brussels, in a spirit of pluralism and sincerity based on the fundamental principles of free inquiry.

UCL

The Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) has a very high scientific level in biotechnology.
Many research projects in Biotechnology are performed both in Louvain-la-Neuve and on its biomedical campus in Brussels. Indeed, teams originating from four faculties are involved in the biotechnology research: the Faculty of Bioengineering, Agronomy and Environment, the Faculty of Applied Sciences, the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Sciences.

Haute Ecole Lucia de Brouckère (HELDB)

The Haute Ecole Lucia de Brouckère (HELDB), delivers Master Industrial Engineers in Chemistry and Biochemistry grades.  The HELDB works out R&D programs with the industrial world in the fields of applied microbiology, food processing and bioprocesses, at Belgian and international level.

Capitalizing on more than 40 researchers experts in Life Sciences, the HELDB actively participates to broadly applied research with future-oriented and innovative strategy including economic valorization through existing spin-off compagnies.