Atlas report
AI researchers in Belgium
KU Leuven is the largest, with 469 indexed researchers, 1.7 times Vrije Universiteit Brussel behind it. One institution sets the tone for the country.
The short answer
3 021 researchers in the index have an institution in Belgium, the 27th largest count among 132 countries.
The subject where Belgium weighs most against the rest of the world is Service-Oriented Architecture and Web Services: 1.1% of its subject assignments work on it, 3.1 times the world share of 0.4%.
Belgium counts 256 indexed AI researchers per million inhabitants, 2.9 times the world rate of 89.
What stands out
Generative Adversarial Networks and Image Synthesis is the subject newcomers in Belgium pick up fastest: 27 started on it between 2023 and 2025, and its share of new entrants is 2.0 times its share in the previous window.
With 0.1% of the world's people and 0.4% of its indexed AI researchers, Belgium runs at 2.9 times its demographic weight.
Subjects
The single most common subject is Topic Modeling, on which 4.7% of Belgium's subject assignments fall.
Subject reports: Natural Language Processing Techniques, Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI), Neural Networks and Applications, Generative Adversarial Networks and Image Synthesis.
| Subject | Researchers | Share here | Share worldwide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Topic Modeling | 267 | 4.7% | 7.9% |
| Natural Language Processing Techniques | 198 | 3.5% | 4.3% |
| Advanced Neural Network Applications | 178 | 3.1% | 4.4% |
| Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) | 149 | 2.6% | 1.5% |
| Advanced Vision and Imaging | 112 | 2.0% | 1.8% |
| Neural Networks and Applications | 111 | 2.0% | 1.2% |
| Generative Adversarial Networks and Image Synthesis | 78 | 1.4% | 2.6% |
| Service-Oriented Architecture and Web Services | 64 | 1.1% | 0.4% |
Newcomers by year
Newcomers between 2023 and 2025 number 431 in Belgium, against 440 between 2020 and 2022: a ratio of 1.0, where the world sits at 1.1.
The 2025 intake for Belgium was 0.7 times the average of the three previous years, against 0.8 worldwide.
| First publication | New in Belgium | Share of the world's newcomers |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 120 | 0.6% |
| 2020 | 132 | 0.6% |
| 2021 | 142 | 0.6% |
| 2022 | 166 | 0.5% |
| 2023 | 155 | 0.5% |
| 2024 | 157 | 0.5% |
| 2025 | 119 | 0.5% |
Institutions
32% of the country's researchers sit in three institutions, led by KU Leuven.
KU Leuven is the largest, with 469 indexed researchers, 1.7 times Vrije Universiteit Brussel behind it. One institution sets the tone for the country.
| Institution | Researchers | Share of the country |
|---|---|---|
| KU Leuven | 469 | 16% |
| Vrije Universiteit Brussel | 270 | 8.9% |
| University of Antwerp | 230 | 7.6% |
Compared with its peers
Read against Denmark and Finland, the two nearest countries by headcount, the differences are in the rates, not the totals. The gap that stands out is the researchers per million inhabitants: 256 here, below the 497 of those two.
| Belgium | Denmark | Finland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Researchers | 3 021 | 2 906 | 2 850 |
| Per million inhabitants | 256 | 484 | 509 |
| In a company | 7.6% | 5.9% | 15% |
| Early career | 50% | 52% | 49% |
| Newcomers, recent against previous window | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.0 |
Common questions
- How many AI researchers are there in Belgium?
- 3 021, as of October 2026, counting every indexed researcher with an institution in Belgium. That is 0.4% of the profiles with a known country.
- Where do you find AI researchers in Belgium?
- KU Leuven, 469, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 270, University of Antwerp, 230. Together they hold 32% of the country's indexed researchers.
- What is Belgium strongest in?
- Service-Oriented Architecture and Web Services, at 3.1 times the world share.
- Is the pool of AI researchers in Belgium growing?
- Yes, at the world's pace. Between 2023 and 2025, 431 people in Belgium published for the first time, against 440 over the three years before, a ratio of 1.0 where the world sits at 1.1.
The names behind the numbers
Every count on this page is a list in the index.
Search it by subject and country, and get an alert before they come free.