A worldwide reputation for innovation
Few regions are as consistently ranked among Europe’s and the world’s finest innovation environments as Flanders is. But don’t take our word for it! Here are a few prominent examples:
- 3rd-best innovative system in the world (2020 ZEW Innovationsindikator).
- 3rd in Europe when it comes to the proportion of enterprises with innovation activities (2018 Eurostat Community Survey, published in 2021).
- 5th-best research system in the EU (2021 European Innovation Scoreboard).
- 5th in the EU for innovation linkages (2021 European Innovation Scoreboard). This means that SMEs in Flanders have great in-house innovation capacities and excel in setting up effective joint projects. It also refers to private players in Flanders co-funding public R&D expenditures, which indicates great public-private cooperation.
- 14th-most innovative economy around the globe (2021 Bloomberg Innovation Index).