Flemish Advisory Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

VARIO advocates for a sharper strategic agenda within innovation, economic and entrepreneurship policy, as excessive fragmentation undermines the impact of investments. It is not VARIO’s role to determine strategic domains itself; this responsibility lies with political decision-making. However, the council provides a well‑founded decision-making framework to support the Flemish Government in this task and calls for a portfolio approach in strategic investment decisions. Entrepreneurship and international value chains must be embraced to strengthen economic dynamism.

In January, VARIO organized a study trip to the United Arab Emirates, where, together with a group of external stakeholders, it visited universities, companies, investors, government agencies, and more. The report provides an overview of the visits and the key takeaways for Flanders. VARIO will incorporate the insights gained into its future advisory work.

A healthy innovation economy relies on the interaction between breakthrough research introducing radical new ideas and technologies, and incremental research refining those ideas, in order to make them applicable and scale them up. Flemish scientific research is highly innovative and resonates internationally. The international competition is, however, increasing. VARIO therefore calls for a research culture that tolerates risk.