Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) is a competitive, high-quality, socially committed and internationally oriented university located in Brussels, Belgium. It counts 4 campuses in Brussels, 8 faculties and around 160 research groups most of them involved in one or more of the 9 strategic research clusters: 1) big data, 2) brain & behaviour, 3) city dynamics, 4) environmental issues, 5) fighting diseases, 6) small particles, 7) smart engineering, 8) societal challenges, and 9) the circle of life.
In 2020, VUB ranks among the top 17% of universities in the world, according to the latest QS World University ranking, scoring strongly on teaching quality and international attractiveness for teaching staff. . According to the Times Higher Education (THE) ranking, VUB is among the 6% best universities worldwide. In the academic year 2019-2020, VUB counted around 20.000 students, including 1.900 PhD students within the 3 doctoral schools (Human Sciences, Natural Sciences and (Bioscience) Engineering, and Life Sciences and Medicine) VUB is an active participant in European R&I projects, Horizon 2020 in particular. There are currently about 150 running R&I projects at VUB in all strategic research clusters, and the budget acquired from European funding sources increased from €6 million to €20 million between 2014 and 2020. The increase mainly demonstrates VUB’s commitment to promoting European R&I, as well as its internationally renowned position as centre of knowledge in the capital of Europe.
The research conducted at VUB is clustered around 9 strategic clusters, allowing groundbreaking research and innovation between, across and among disciplines.
