Our network and partnerships
By linking our expertise to that of other organisations, we can move even faster in the transition to a sustainable world. On this page, you can read more about our partners and their areas of expertise.
Synergies with VITO
VITO actively pursues joint innovation trajectories around specific themes. Our partners can be companies, governments or knowledge partners, both within Flanders and beyond.
These are organisations in which VITO plays an important substantive and operational role.
Specialising in advanced renewable energy research and intelligent energy systems - such as smartgrids and advanced heat networks - for industry and cities, EnergyVille, as a research partnership between VITO, KU Leuven, UHasselt and imec, aims to become the reference point for renewable energy.
The Vlaams Kenniscentrum Water (Vlakwa), an independent department of VITO since 1 January 2016, stimulates cooperation between the various (water) actors in Flanders to arrive at a single Flemish water programme, and this given the great strategic, industrial and social importance of water in Flanders.
G-STIC, founded by VITO, accelerates the implementation of technological solutions for the SDGs and provides critical insights into the levers of change that are needed to market these innovative technologies at scale. G-STIC is hosted jointly by ten independent non-profit research and technology organisations from 5 different continents.
Partnerships & joint ventures
In order to valorise our expertise into technologies, products and services that are really useful for society, we are looking for partners who explicitly profile themselves in a particular theme from their social or economic task.
Flanders Circular is the hub and inspiration for the circular economy in Flanders. It is a partnership of governments, companies, civil society and knowledge community taking action together.
InnoEnergy is the European company dedicated to promoting innovation, entrepreneurship and education in the sustainable energy field by bringing together academics, businesses and research institutes. Our goal is to make a positive impact on sustainable energy in Europe. We do this by creating future game changers with a different mind-set, and bringing innovative products, services and successful companies to life.
The KIC Raw Materials, initiated by the EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology) and funded by the European Commission, brings together research institutions and companies to foster radical innovation and entrepreneurship related to raw materials.
VITO, TNO and ECN work together in Shared Research Centre Biorizon. This research centre works together with industry on technological development for the production of aromatics from biomass. Aromatics are one of the most important building blocks for the chemical industry. By replacing fossil raw materials with biomass, Biorizon makes an important contribution to the creation of a sustainable economy.
Together with the University of Antwerp, VITO established the Centre for Proteomics (CFP) in 2009. The aim: to combine all the expertise needed for multidisciplinary, translational proteomic research. Today, the research team focuses mainly on the early detection of certain cancers. It wants to unravel the mechanisms behind cancer development, which can provide new targets for developing new therapies and for classifying cancer subtypes to enable more targeted therapy in the future.
Priority clusters and thematic initiatives
Partnerships between companies, knowledge centres and government (triple-helix), which develop and implement an ambitious long-term strategy and competitiveness programme.
Flux50 is a partnership between the Flemish government, the research community and industry to make Flanders a smart energy region. Flanders aims to be a region where production and consumption of renewable energy are smartly coordinated. The driving forces behind the project are Smart Grids Flanders, Voka, Agoria, VCB, Pixii-Kennisplatform Energieneutraal Bouwen, Living Tomorrow, Energyville, UGent and iMinds.
VIL's ambition is to achieve in Flanders what Singapore did in Asia: become the No. 1 Power house in Europe. This ambition will translate into additional jobs, growth in added-value activities, increase in the number of import and export transactions and make Flanders the leader in the World Logistics Performance Index.
Catalisti should stimulate sustainable innovations in chemistry and plastics by setting up intensive partnerships. Not only cooperation between the triple helix partners, but also cooperation between the different subsectors such as (basic) chemistry, plastics, biotechnology, and finally cooperation between companies.
MateriNex facilitates and manages sustainable materials research in Flanders by stimulating cooperation between industrial and academic stakeholders. The aim is to strengthen the materials research innovation ecosystem and ensure its excellence. MateriNex offers Flemish companies active in materials research support for their high-risk long-term research.
The focus of the agri-food industry spearhead cluster is to bring out the un(der)exploited economic potential of agri-food companies. Not only is the agri-food industry a major economic player in Flanders, it has also made great strides in terms of innovation in recent years.
The Blue Cluster aims to make full use of the assets of its location on the North Sea to develop a strategy for a competitive and sustainable blue economy in Flanders. This is based on an ecosystem approach that emphasises the connection between ecology and economy. It also embraces Industry 4.0 by focusing strongly on digitalisation and smart networks.