As the global race for technological leadership accelerates, the central challenge for Flanders is to identify where to invest to maximize long-term competitiveness, resilience, and prosperity. This CEPS report aims to inform that choice by assessing Flanders’ position across 38 Key Strategic Technologies using machine-learning and economic-complexity methods applied to large-scale data on publications, patents, and startup investments (2020–2025). The analysis highlights world-class strengths in life sciences and biotechnology, alongside persistent gaps in translating scientific excellence into technological leadership and high-growth startups. These weaknesses are most acute in foundational digital technologies. Based on these findings, the report identifies clear priorities: consolidate leadership where Flanders is strongest, pursue selective moonshot investments where leadership is within reach, remove barriers to deep-tech scaling, leverage industrial champions, and position Flanders more clearly within European technology networks.
This report was commissioned and published by VARIO – The Flemish Advisory Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. This report is part of the VARIO-advisory report ‘Strategic choices for Flanders’. The research and analysis of this report ‘Flanders’ competitiveness and investment opportunities in key strategic technologies’ is conducted by CEPS.
