Key Benelux Sectors

The Benelux Region

Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg

Key Benelux Facts

With just 2% of the EU population, Belgium accounted for 18% of its biotech market capitalization.

Belgium and The Netherlands have been recognized as the most globalized countries in the world.

Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg are ranked among the top 25 most innovative countries in the world.

Catholic University – Leuven (KU-Leuven) in Belgium is ranked the 7th most innovative university in the world. For three years straight, it has been recognized as Europe’s most innovative university.

Belgium is No. 2 in European pharmaceutical exports, behind only Germany. It also ranks 2nd in Europe in the number of drug clinical trials per capita. 80% of trials are driven by private industry.

The Benelux area is one of the wealthiest in Europe – with GDP per capita at nearly twice the European average. Nearly 80% of Europe’s buying power is within 500 miles of Brussels.

The Belgian region of Flanders has more solar cells per square kilometer than anywhere in Europe.

Wageningen University and Research – The Netherlands – Ranked No. 1 globally for Agricultural Sciences by US News and World Report; No. 85 best overall global university.

The Netherlands and Belgium rank 7th and 8th respectively in exports per capita, according to Wikipedia and the World Factbook of the CIA.

The Netherlands and Belgium rank in the top 25 trading countries for imports and exports for the Carolinas and Georgia.

NOTE: Most descriptions below are pulled directly from the related association’s website.

Clean Tech

From Cleantech Flanders:

10,874 companies in Flanders are committed to sustainable technologies. 49% of these companies are primarily focusing on sustainable energy, 20% on mobility, 16% on water and 15% on sustainable materials. All of these companies achieved an added value of four billion euros for the Flemish economy in 2016, a figure which was only beaten by the food sector (5.5 billion euros) and the chemical sector (96 billion euros).

Cleantech is also experiencing growth in the field of turnover and number of employees. The turnover in cleantech increased by 12.5% between 2008 and 2016, while its general turnover only increased by 0.75%. The number of employees in cleantech has increased by 5.9%, while the number of employees in general industry has only increased by 2.3%. For SMEs in cleantech, an even more significant increase was noted, namely 13%.

Flanders is hoping to ensure that 50% of the electricity produced stems from renewable energy sources by 2030 and that this figure will be 100% by 2050. In terms of mobility, Flanders would like to only be selling electric cars from 2030 onwards.

Sector Groups

Cleantech Flanders – Cleantech Flanders accelerates the implementation of cleantech at companies through co-creation, collaboration, matchmaking, events and knowledge sharing.

Flux 50 – Flux50 is the membership organization that helps Flanders gain international recognition as a Smart Energy Region. Flux50 facilitates cross-sector collaboration between energy, IT and building companies to enhance the competitiveness of the Flemish smart energy industry in the transition towards low carbon systems.
To bring innovative and fully-integrated energy products and – services to the international market, Flux50 sets up and coordinates living labs in five ‘innovator zones’: (1) energy harbors, (2) microgrids, (3) multi-energy solutions at district level, (4) energy cloud platforms and (5) intelligent renovation.

Solarise – The objective of this project is to facilitate the large-scale deployment of solar electricity/heat generation in the 2 Seas and support the EU to meet its target of 20% energy consumption from renewables by 2020. The consortium tests and demonstrates a series of innovative solar solutions on historical/public buildings and households (with focus on low income families) in both urban and rural settings. Each demonstrator reduces the cost of solar energy generation in combination with innovative storage technology to enhance efficiencies and greater use at point of generation rather than export to the grid.
SOLARISE brings together partners from business, academic and public sectors and citizens to stimulate change in the current situation and delivers a comprehensive business case that looks at future financing and investment opportunities in solar generation.

TWEED – (Technology of Wallonia Energy, Environment and sustainable Development) aims to play a major role in the business development of sustainable energy sectors.
Its first mission is to pave the way for the setting up of high quality and industrial-size projects in the fields of production and exploitation of sustainable energy, profitable enough to attract appropriate financial means.
“Sustainable energy” covers the following areas:
— Renewable energy sources ;
— The implementation of new processes in order to achieve energy savings, energy efficiency or the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, including CO2, at industrial level and in the tertiary sector ;
— The development of products pursuing the same goals, for industry, the tertiary sector or individuals («green» services and goods).

Potential Partners

VITO – Flanders’ Institute for Technological Research: a leading European independent research and technology organization active in the areas of cleantech and sustainable development.

VIB – Flanders’ Institute for Biotechnology conducts basic research with a strong focus on transforming scientific insights into pharmaceutical, agricultural and industrial applications.

Imec – Europe’s leading research center in micro- and nanoelectronics as well as digital technology – Imec works with global leaders in in solar cell production to maximize solar efficiency using photovoltaic technology.

EnergyVille – Officially launched in September 2016, EnergyVille unites the research institutes of KU Leuven, VITO and imec to investigate sustainable energy and intelligent energy systems. It strives to become one of the top five European institutes in innovative energy research.

Flanders’ Smart Hub – A knowledge region in the center of Belgium encircling Brussels, the capital of the European Union. Its hallmark technologies focus on health, food, logistics, media, creative industry and cleantech.

Sampling of Events

Flemish Cleantech Companies Pitch to the Chinese Brussels, Feb. 5, 2019

World Energy Outlook – Brussels, Feb. 5, 2019

Cleantech Forum – Leuven, March 21, 2019

Agriculture Technology

The Netherlands is the world’s second-largest exporter of food as measured by value, second only to the U.S. That’s amazing, considering the U.S. has 270 times the landmass of the Netherlands.

“Even a lot of people in the Netherlands don’t realize that agriculture is that strong,” says Ernst van den Ende, managing director of Wageningen University & Research (WUR) Plant Sciences Group.

So how do the Dutch do it?

WUR, located 50 miles southeast of Amsterdam, has helped to key the country’s agricultural success.

–Successful Farming, Feb. 21, 2018