About us
From 2020 to 2040, the Flemish Government will invest 20 million euros in Flanders Industry Innovation Moonshot every year, totalling 400 million euro. These funds will, through innovative research, enable the development of breakthrough technologies by 2040. Thanks to these technologies, the Flemish industry will be able to implement new climate-friendly processes and produce new climate-friendly products. These innovative products and processes will help Flanders to make the big leap: making its industry carbon circular and low in CO2 by 2050, reducing its CO2 emissions, and meeting its climate commitments.
Flanders faces a unique challenge in transitioning towards a carbon circular and carbon smart industry. Flanders is a highly developed, densely populated and intensively industrialized region. At present, most of its industries are energy-intensive and deeply dependent on non-renewable raw materials. To ensure a sustainable shift by 2050, existing industries will have to be converted and new industries will have to be created. The Moonshot initiative seeks to support Flanders’ industry innovation and transition towards a carbon circular and carbon smart industry.
A Crucial Cluster
Given the crucial role that chemicals and plastics play in reducing CO2 emissions and in providing other sectors with the necessary solutions to make their products and processes more sustainable, the Flemish government mandated Catalisti, the spearhead cluster for the Flemish chemical and plastics industry, to take the lead in putting the Moonshot initiative into practice. Catalisti’s proven track record in bringing industries and knowledge partners together as well as in setting up project consortia also contributed to this decision.
In 2018, Catalisti started to develop the strategic agenda for the Moonshot initiative in synergy with the other Flemish spearhead clusters. It organised a survey among its industrial members to collect in-house long-term innovation roadmaps and to consolidate the needs of the sector. On this basis, Catalisti developed the Moonshot initiative into more detail.
In a Memorandum of Understanding signed on 23 March 2019, the Flemish government officially mandated Catalisti to host the Moonshot initiative and to develop it in terms of organization, operation, substance and strategy. In the same year, a governance structure was set up for the Moonshot initiative, a Moonshot budget was allocated and the first Moonshot project proposals were approved. At this moment, the Moonshot took off!
Cooperation with other Clusters
In setting up and carrying out the Moonshot initiative, Catalisti closely cooperates with the other Flemish spearhead clusters: De Blauwe Cluster, Flanders’ FOOD, Flux50, SIM and VIL. This close cooperation ensures that breakthrough technologies will be efficiently and effectively adopted across various sectors of the Flemish industrial landscape. This way, cross-sectoral synergies and spill-overs can be exploited.
