Advisory report 10: Innovative benchmark countries and regions for Flanders

At the request of the minister-president of the Flemish Government Jan Jambon and Flemish minister of Economy and Innovation Hilde Crevits (January 2020), VARIO selects five benchmark countries - Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands, and seventeen benchmark regions. The benchmark regions are in Scandinavia - 2 in Sweden, 1 in Finland, 1 in Denmark, and in the Blue Banana - 7 in Switzerland, 4 in Germany, 2 in the Netherlands.

Although Flanders belongs to the Blue Banana, a vast megapolis from Wales to Northern Italy, for the moment Flanders is still a Strong Innovator +. This is a category in the Regional Innovation Scoreboard (RIS2019) just below the Innovation Leaders.

This is the first advisory report of a triptych. The second Advisory Report (N°13) provides a qualitative set of 20 key indicators to monitor the progress of Flanders. The third Advisory Report (N° 14) takes a closer look at seven weak links in the Flemish innovation system that need to be addressed in the next ten years to bring the innovation system to a higher level.