Do not undermine the foundation of growth and productivity

For a small, open economy like ours, the knowledge base is the most important economic resource. Our prosperity relies on what we know, develop, and valorize. That is precisely why the Flemish Government wanted to increase investments in research and development to 5 percent of GDP, bring public investments up to 1 percent, and simultaneously place a stronger emphasis on economic valorization.

Today, however, the Flemish Government is announcing a saving of 35 million on the Special Research Funds (BOF) of the universities and the Fund for Scientific Research (FWO) – Flanders. For the second year in a row, the government is choosing to cut into fundamental research. Yet, in the broader domain of science and innovation, this is precisely the government's most important core task. Fundamental research is uncertain: not every project becomes a patent, not every patent a product, and not every technology a successful enterprise. Not every research project ‘yields returns’ economically, socially, and culturally. But without continuous investment in fundamental research, the scientific breakthroughs that create economic and societal added value will not occur either.

Flanders still possesses an excellent research base, highly regarded internationally. Our researchers deliver top-tier scientific performance. They form the breeding ground for new technology, innovative companies, and collaboration with industry. They create societal added value. Flanders owes this excellent position to years of sustained investments in knowledge, including through the BOF and the FWO. The results can be seen. Our universities are among the strongest research institutions in Europe. They score high on publications, doctorates, international collaboration, patents, and cooperation with companies. In European research programs, we play in the top league. For instance, Flanders receives a proportionally higher amount of resources from Horizon Europe – the interim balance stands at 3.13% – than would be expected based on the size of our ecosystem.

Furthermore, the figures show that our universities are already fully creating economic value today. In 2024, they realized 378 million euros in contract income with the private sector and more than 200 patents were granted. In 2025, nearly 250 licenses were concluded. Between 2022 and 2025, 100 new spin-offs were created, employing hundreds of workers. Moreover, 15 percent of research funding in Flemish higher education comes from companies. This is once again well above the European average.

But valorization does not begin with a patent, license, or spin-off. It begins years earlier: with research for which no one could predict in advance which economic and societal applications would emerge. And this is where the problem lies. Since 2009, the relative share of government investment in fundamental research has been shrinking. It is precisely there, at the very base of knowledge building, that the blows are being dealt once again today.

Saving on fundamental research provides immediate budgetary gains. The economic and societal cost of this only becomes visible much later. No one will count the innovations that never emerge, the spin-offs that are not founded, or the productivity gains that consequently fail to materialize. But it is precisely those invisible losses that determine our prosperity and well-being in the long term. Budgetary discipline is necessary. However, the choice to once again cut back on fundamental research is difficult to defend. Flanders possesses an internationally excellent knowledge base that creates significant economic and societal value. We therefore call upon the Flemish Government to make that lever even larger, rather than further weakening its foundation.