In the period 2010-2019 the number of PhD diplomas obtained per year by PhD students at the ETRO department doubled. This remarkable achievement can be attributed to the strong collaboration with the national and international network.

Although the total publication output started to slightly decrease in the last two years, the journal publication output shows a steadily increase. More in particular it doubled over the considered period. This was a strategic decision of the department to focus more on journal papers than conference papers. The presence at conferences is important, especially for the juniors, to discuss scientific discussions with the peers, but taking into account the carbon footprint of travelling, it is important to be selective in the conference participation.

Looking to the longer-term trend (period of 20 years) of the number of journal publications per professor, we observe a tremendous growth over the last two decades. This puts in perspective the growing importance of journal publications for the department. It is clear that this increase is based on a growing funding means obtained by the department at national and international level, partially resulting in a growing number of PhD students.

The consequence of a growing number of publications in high impact journal papers leads to a steady increase in the number of citations for the department, expressing the expanding visibility of the R&D activities of ETRO on a global level.

The following graphs shows the evolution of the number of spinoffs created by the department and the number of employers in the spinoffs. The success rate for survival of the spinoff companies is still an amazing 100%. A multiple of spinoff companies have been acquired by multinational companies. However, after all these acquisitions the expertise of the original spinoff has been kept in Belgium in a local R&D center of the multinational company. Over a period of 15 years the number of employers grew from 3 till more just above 200. This job creation is an utmost importance return of investment from the funded academic R&D activities towards society.