Flanders

Region

Introduction

Flanders (6.4m inh. in 2014), Wallonia (3.6m) and Brussels-Capital (1.1m) are the Belgian regions. Belgium also has three linguistic communities: Flemish, French and German. Regions and communities have autonomous competencies with no hierarchy of powers, which for R&D policy implies a multi-level governance system. The governments of the region of Flanders and the Flemish community have merged into one.

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Economy

Socio-economic profile:

Flanders covers 44.8% of Belgium's territory and represents the majority of the country's industry and workforce; the region provides 58% of the national gross domestic product (GDP). Within Belgian regions, Flanders is ranked second in terms of GDP per capita with €32,801 in 2014 compared to €32,301 nationally (at current market prices). In 2014, Flemish GDP (in purchasing power standard per inhabitant in % of the EU28 average) was with 120% above the EU average (as in Belgium as a whole with 118%).

The employment rate in Flanders is 63.7%, (2014), above the Belgian (62%) but below EU28 (67.5%) average. The Flemish unemployment rate (5.0%, 2014) is considerably below the EU28 (9.0%) and Belgian (7.9%) averages. In terms of labour productivity measured by GDP per person employed, Flanders is also well above the EU28 average (129.6%). In 2013, 20% of the gross value-added in the Flemish region was industry and 21.7% was trade, transport and restaurants. Other important sectors are government, education, (health) care and communal services (19.4%). Smallest are the primary sector (1.1%) and culture, recreation and other services (1.8%). Value added generated by medium high-tech and high-tech industries, accounted for 8.6% of the total value added of the region in 2013. The employment figures in these industries follow the same trend: 4.45% of the total employment in Flanders was in medium high-tech and high-tech industries in 2013, compared to 3.9% (2014) in the EU28.

Flanders is an important logistic hub, due to its central location and its dense and integrated multimodal transport infrastructure. Major multinational automotive companies are also active in Flanders, although their position is under pressure. The Flemish network economy mainly derives its power from SMEs often acting as supplier companies. In addition, the petrochemical industry and ICTs are key sectors of the regional economy.

The exports from Flanders have a value of 80% of Belgian GDP (partly due to the trade of goods arriving in the Antwerp harbour). The share of Flanders in Belgian export is 82.4%. In 2014, Flanders exports were €293.5b. 22.5% of Flemish export is chemicals and pharma. Mineral resources are second, but declining. Neighbouring countries, France, The Netherlands, Germany and UK take more than half of the total export of Flanders.

Research, Development & Innovation

RTDI profile:

Flanders’ expenditures on R&D reached 2.5% of GDP in 2013 (of which 1.7% privately financed, 0.8% publicly); this is slightly above the Belgian (2.28%) and EU28 (2.01%) averages. In 2013, public and private R&D outlays represented a total of €5,827m of which 4,025m (69%) were business expenditures on R&D (BERD) and 1,803m (31%) were public expenditures. In 2015 the Flemish government spent €1.46b on Economy, Science and Innovation, with €498m for scientific research and € 438m for innovation.

Flanders has five universities (incl. one Dutch language university in Brussels), four large strategic research centres (IMEC (merges with iMinds in 2016), VIB, VITO and Flanders Make) and a number of smaller competence poles and research centres for specific (mainly sectoral) knowledge development and distribution. With more than 39,000 researchers (full-time equivalent), the region gathers 65.5% of the researchers in the country in 2011. In 2014, 15,796 of these were university researchers. The share of R&D personnel in the total active population (1.39%) is higher than the national average (1.35%) in 2012. The level of education of the population is relatively high with 35.4% of the population of the region aged from 25 to 64 years having a tertiary education (ISCED 5 and 6), compared to 35.3% in Belgium and 27.7% in EU27 (2012). The business sector accounted for 70% of Flanders' R&D spending in 2013 (60% in Belgium (2011), 54% in the EU-28 (2012)). Business R&D expenses in Flanders are mainly situated in high-tech sectors such as chemistry, pharmaceuticals, ICT, mechatronics, which together represent almost 80% of the total R&D expenses. The chemical and pharmaceuticals industry in Flanders alone represents 34% of total private R&D expenditures in Belgium (2013).

In terms of patenting, Flanders shows good performance: the number of EPO (European Patent Office) patent applications per million inhabitants in 2010 was 218.5; Belgium reached 200.8 and EU28 109 (in 2012). There is a strong concentration of patents in a small number of multinational companies; SMEs being rather absent with regard to patenting. The main areas for Flemish EPO patent applications are chemistry, human necessities (including medical and veterinary sciences), electricity (including electric communication techniques), operations and transport, and physics.

Regional Innovation Scoreboard results

Latest Regional Innovation Scoreboard results:

According to the Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2014, Flanders is ranked as an innovation follower, with a performance on EU average.

Flanders has an on EU average R&D expenditure in the public sector (90-120% of EU average), as well as in business sector (90-120%). Flanders performs above average in terms of innovative SMEs collaborating with others (>120%), and in terms of SMEs innovating in-house (>120%).

Innovation performance has improved over recent years, with an average annual growth rate 2004-2010 for innovation followers of 3.9%.

Governance

Governance profile:

Belgium is characterised by a multi-level governance of R&D policy as the federal government and the three regional and three language community governments all have competence for certain R&D matters. The federal level retains competence for a limited number of specific fields as regards the regional innovation systems, such as scientific research in the federal science institutes, intellectual property rights, corporate taxation measures, employment legislation and social security; the communities are competent for matters related to persons including scientific research and education; regions are competent for issues related to territorial matters such as energy policy, environment, and economic support, including innovation and industrial research. All regions (and the Communities) have close to full autonomy in managing their ‘own regional innovation system and policies’.

In Flanders, innovation is governed by the administration of Economics, Science and Innovation (EWI), under responsibility of the Minister of Work, Economy, Innovation and Sports.

EWI is responsible for monitoring, evaluating, preparing and implementing policy. Policy design and monitoring is also done by the politically appointed Ministerial Cabinet. For policy execution (but also with a role in policy preparation in their respective fields) there exist a number of agencies, covering a broad spectrum of policy areas: competitive scientific research (FWO), R&D, innovation and entrepreneurship support to companies (VLAIO, a merger of former agencies IWT (Innovation Agency) and AO (Entrepreneurship Agency), financial participations, guarantees and loans (PMV) and internationalisation support and FDI (FIT: Flanders Investment & Trade). The Flemish Council for Science and Innovation (VRWI) advises the Flemish Government on the preparation and the evaluation of its science, technology and innovation policy.

Policy

Policy trends profile:

The Policy Note 2014 – 2019 on Employment, Economy, Science and Innovation is the guiding policy document and draws up the plan to make Flanders one of the top five regions in Europe in terms of employment (76%) and R&D expenditure (3%). The policy contains three pillars:

Investing to create potential: focusing on entrepreneurship, a culture of innovation and innovation policy, investing in the knowledge base and excellent research;
Activating to unlock potential: setting goals and targeted measures to maximise the use of the knowledge and innovation potential in the creation of jobs. Encouraging entrepreneurship and supporting employees to remain active in the labour market;
A value-oriented policy focusing on: sustainability, accountability, excellence, customer focus, flexible, integration and synergy and a tailored approach.

Although the policy note has a stronger focus on market and society driven research than earlier policy documents, there has been a large continuity in science and innovation policy over the past 10-15 years. Relevant elements from this continuous policy are:

The target to dedicate 3% of GDP to R&D (first target date was 2010, this goal has not yet been achieved although government efforts have increased almost consistently over the past 10 years);
Boost creativity and innovative capacity, for instance by increasingly involving the non-academic higher education institutes in innovation projects;
Put more focus on 'spear heads', i.e. innovation policy focussed on themes where Flanders has a strong knowledge position and good economic prospects (‘backing winners’);
More attention to output of research policy than to the research itself;
Stimulate students to study sciences, and give researchers better prospects;
Increase investments in higher education institutions up to 2% of GDP.

Activities linked with Advanced Manufacturing

Activities linked with Advanced Manufacturing:

For the region of Flanders 'Advanced manufacturing' has been a topic of policy and research attention for years, but it has recently received a boost as part of the reliance activities for the province of Limburg after the (proposed) closure of Ford Genk, which led to a loss of more than 10.000 high level industry jobs in a small region. A number of already existing and new initiatives was bundled in the set-up of a Strategic Research Centre for Advanced Manufacturing (Strategisch Onderzoekscentrum Maakindustrie), called Flanders Make. The decision to support the centre was taken by the Flemish Government in May 2014. Until 2017 €50m has been made available.

The Research Centre has to support Flemish companies in multiple industries with industrial research and product development and production technology and processes in order to help them compete in international markets. The aim is thereby to support 500 small and large businesses to grow into real factories of the future in the long term.

The research integrates existing activities of Flanders' DRIVE (car industry, Lommel), FMTC (mechatronics, Leuven) and the manufacturing department Sirris (collectively technological centre of the manufacturing industry Sector, Leuven, Diepenbeek and others).

Flanders Make also conducts basic research with research groups within the five Flemish universities. The Flemish universities have a good academic position in themes that are very relevant for the manufacturing industry (such as mechatronics, electronics, automation technology, 3D printing, product design, and organisation).

The results of Flanders Make must find their way to the manufacturing companies, using a broad implementation program (called: ‘Made Different’).

Complete Regional Profile

Economy

Research, Development & Innovation

Latest Regional Innovation Scoreboard results

According to the Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2014, Flanders is ranked as an innovation follower, with a performance on EU average.

Governance

Policy

Investing to create potential: focusing on entrepreneurship, a culture of innovation and innovation policy, investing in the knowledge base and excellent research;
Activating to unlock potential: setting goals and targeted measures to maximise the use of the knowledge and innovation potential in the creation of jobs. Encouraging entrepreneurship and supporting employees to remain active in the labour market;
A value-oriented policy focusing on: sustainability, accountability, excellence, customer focus, flexible, integration and synergy and a tailored approach.

The target to dedicate 3% of GDP to R&D (first target date was 2010, this goal has not yet been achieved although government efforts have increased almost consistently over the past 10 years);
Boost creativity and innovative capacity, for instance by increasingly involving the non-academic higher education institutes in innovation projects;
Put more focus on 'spear heads', i.e. innovation policy focussed on themes where Flanders has a strong knowledge position and good economic prospects (‘backing winners’);
More attention to output of research policy than to the research itself;
Stimulate students to study sciences, and give researchers better prospects;
Increase investments in higher education institutions up to 2% of GDP.

Activities linked with Advanced Manufacturing

The results of Flanders Make must find their way to the manufacturing companies, using a broad implementation program (called: ‘Made Different’).

Repository

Support Measures

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Policy Documents

Organisations

European Commission - Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

Flanders

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Economy

Research, Development & Innovation

Latest Regional Innovation Scoreboard results

Governance

Policy

Activities linked with Advanced Manufacturing

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