In the media: how KU Leuven became the top Horizon Europe grant winner

At the halfway point, KU Leuven has won more grants from Horizon Europe than any other university. This isn’t accidental. Jan D'hooge, vice rector of research policy, told Science|Business how it took the lead.

Since Horizon Europe kicked off with a budget of €95.5 billion in 2021, KU Leuven has won €247 million in grants in 418 projects, of which it coordinates 176. Its best performance is in Horizon Europe’s Pillar II which funds large-scale collaborative research projects as well as Pillar I for fundamental research.

The university has a big team of support staff that help researchers turn their ideas into research proposals, with this support network itself built on a strong policy base.

The Flemish regional research policy has been a major determinant in its universities doing well in Horizon Europe, says D'hooge. Each of its university has a budget for the research policy as well as for internal projects that serve as a base for securing funding from sources such as Horizon Europe.

The inhouse funding scheme is competitive, but also fosters a collegiate environment for writing grant proposals. “The internal projects explicitly have the idea of leveraging towards external funding,” says D’hooge. “The researchers can practise how to write their grant proposals, so it is in the sense that they apply competitively, but then if they don't make it, they get very valuable feedback.”

It's not a coincidence that three of the five Flemish universities – the other two being Ghent University and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) – are in the top of Horizon Europe universities.

In a study last year, KU Leuven matched similar researchers in terms of gender, discipline, years of experience who did and who did not obtain this internal project funding. The study then traced their careers in the five years that followed. It found researchers that secured internal funding went on to win more external funding.

The lesson is that long-term investment in how to shape grant proposals pays off. Right now, Flanders one of Europe's leaders in investment in research, at 3.65% of GDP. And it’s ‘relatively free’ money, notes D’hooge, as universities are free to spend it as they like within certain boundaries.

“Most of the universities use it to internally fund projects in a competitive manner, and that I think helps in researchers getting acquainted with proposal writing,” says D’hooge.

Support staff and incentives

The most credit goes to the support staff. D’hooge estimates that over multiple teams more than 30 people work on helping researchers put their ideas down on paper in succinct proposals and sort through the myriad or paperwork Horizon grants require.

They’re there to ensure scientists don’t spend all their time on formulating their ideas, and as a result neglecting the parts of Horizon applications concerned with implementation and impact. From D’hooge’s personal experience, scientists tend to over-concentrate on excellence.

This is becoming all the more pertinent. Despite attempts to simplify, Horizon Europe is becoming more demanding, with new requirements such as adhering to open science principles and ensuring the project does no harm to the environment are introduced.

With the requirements growing, so is KU Leuven’s support team. The university has recently introduced grant facilitators who help with proposal writing and engagement with EU funds, looking to increase the percentage of staff attempting to secure EU grants. Right now, the number stands at only 40%.

Another key aspect is financial incentives for researchers to secure EU funds. The university uses part of its Flemish region budget to enable researchers to travel abroad to find and spend time with potential partners for projects.

Researchers also get bonuses if they are successful, which includes €50,000 on top of their grant to spend on research as they see fit. In addition, at the end of a project, the university promises that of the 25% of allowed indirect costs for general expenses in EU projects, 8% goes directly to the research lab that runs the project.

And it’s a learning process too. While KU Leuven is successful in Pillar II of Horizon Europe, it still hopes to improve its participation in the European Research Council, which supports fundamental research.

To do so, the university takes part in a variety of formal networks and alliances, where expertise is shared. It also hosts plenty of visits from other universities to share knowledge. “It's a continuous effort and so we try to continuously improve our support,” says D’hooge.

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