Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

KU Leuven boasts a rich tradition of education and research that dates back six centuries. The university’s basic research orientation has always been and will remain fundamental research. At the same time, the university remains vigilantly open to contemporary cultural, economic and industrial realities, as well as to the community’s needs and expectations. From a basis of social responsibility and scientific expertise, KU Leuven provides high-quality, comprehensive health care, including specialised tertiary care, in its University Hospitals. In doing so it strives toward optimum accessibility and respect for all patients. KU Leuven is the largest university in Belgium in terms of research funding and expenditure (EUR 522 million in 2020), and is a charter member of LERU. KU Leuven conducts fundamental and applied research in all academic disciplines with a clear international orientation. In the Times Higher Education ranking KU Leuven is ranked as the 13th European university, while in the Reuters Top 100 of the World’s most innovative institutions, KU Leuven is listed as the first European university, for the fourth year in a row. In Horizon 2020, KU Leuven currently has been approved more than 450 projects and is ranked fifth HES institution with regard to number of signed grants (482, worth more than 274 million euro). KU Leuven takes up the 11th place of European HES institutions hosting ERC grants (as first legal signatories of the grant agreement, ERC annual report 2018). To date, the over 100 ERC grants involving KU Leuven researchers, (including affiliates with VIB and IMEC) confirm that KU Leuven is a breeding ground and attractive destination for the world’s best researchers. The success in the FP7 and Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions is a manifestation of the three pillars of KU Leuven: research, education and service to society. In Horizon 2020, we are involved in 97 Innovative Training Networks, ranking us first institution of higher education with regard to number of MSCA-ITNs. In addition, we are hosting 78 MSCA Individual Fellows. KU Leuven employs 7,430 researchers on its academic staff (2019). To strengthen international collaboration, KU Leuven has its own international research fellowship programme and supports international scholars in international funding applications. KU Leuven Research & Development (LRD) is the technology transfer office (TTO) of the KU Leuven. Since 1972 a multidisciplinary team of experts guides researchers in their interaction with industry and society, and the valorisation of their research results (148 patents granted in 2019).

Role within ImmUniverse

KUL is involved in work package 6 of ImmUniverse: “Verification of identified signatures in a clinical multi-partner study”. Our tasks - together with the other partners – involve:

1. To harmonise study protocols, define the framework for prospective trials, and establish the multidisciplinary clinical research network
2. To provide access for retrospective longitudinal analyses of cohorts of IBD, Pso and AD patients undergoing targeted therapy.
3. To implement and conduct an observational open-label cohort study of UC and AD patients with longitudinal biosamples using random choice of standard of care therapies.