Situated in Belgium, in the heart of Western Europe, KU Leuven has been a center of learning and innovation for nearly six centuries. Today, it is Belgium’s largest university and, founded in 1425, one of the oldest and most renowned universities in Europe. As a leading European research university and co-founder of the League of European Research Universities (LERU), KU Leuven pursues high-quality, innovative, interdisciplinary research. With a research budget of over 475 million euro and an academic staff of more than 7,000 researchers from 120 countries, KU Leuven strives to build on its strong international reputation for research and knowledge & technology transfer excellence. The university consistently secures funding from the most select competitive research funds, among them the prestigious ERC Grants awarded by the European Research Council. KU Leuven has 57,551 students (2017-2018), of whom 17 percent international students. In addition, there are 51,926 students (2017-2018) at five university college clusters, which together with KU Leuven make up the KU Leuven Association.