Dutch universities raised €1.3bn from carrying out research for companies and international organisations in 2013, according to news magazine Elsevier.

Utrecht and Groningen topped the list, with €168m and €147m respectively. In terms of income per researcher, agricultural university Wageningen was best performer, with the equivalent of nearly €55,200 per researcher.

According to Elsevier, around 25% of university income comes from third parties, including companies, governments and EU institutions. They also earn money from adult education programmes, the paper says.

However, the difference between universities is significant. For example, 60% of Delft Universitys’ external funding comes from the corporate sector, but business income only accounts for 5% of Tilburg’s budget.