Biotechnology, space science and nanotechnology play key parts in Belgium's science agenda.
Famed for its beer, chocolate and the statue of a urinating boy in its capital, Belgium also has a well established scientific heritage. The country excels in biotechnology and space science, and has a world-leading nanotechnology research centre, the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre in Leuven. Belgium also has the world's highest number of clinical trials per capita; this has been attributed to the nation's research capacity and very short time to approval for Phase I trials, compared with other European nations. The science budgets of Flemish-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia are administered separately, as is that of the small Brussels-Capital Region. Collaboration between individual researchers is not unusual, but there are few formal mechanisms to promote cross-region collaboration.
Government budgets allocated to research and development
Belgium's research funding has increased in general over the last 12 years, both regionally and country-wide.
Employment in the capital
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The remaining 16.6% of researchers are in the Brussels-Capital Region.
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Brussels-based biopharmaceutical company UCB (Union Chimique Belge) is building a biotechnology plant at its Braine-l'Alleud site. The plant, which will produce drugs for clinical trials in nervous system and immunological diseases, is scheduled to open in 2012 and will employ 100 professionals.
Additional information
There is a Correction associated with this article (Nature 467, 1142; 2010). The Catholic University of Louvain was wrongly depicted as being in Flanders. It is actually in Wallonia. The image presented here and the accompanying PDF have been corrected to reflect this.
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Hendricus Hoogenboom, chief scientific officer, Ablynx, Ghent, Belgium
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Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre
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Sanderson, K. Belgium. Nature 467, 876 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7317-876a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7317-876a