Activity Report 2025
How did we strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of industry in 2025? What results did we achieve in collaboration with companies and partners? And how did we translate research into concrete innovations for the products, machinery and production systems of the future? In this annual report, we look back on a year full of progress, collaboration and impact.
Foreword of our CEO, Grisja Lobbestael
Accelerating in a world that does not wait
In my foreword last year, I already wrote that the world is changing at record speed. Since then, it has become clear that this process has by no means slowed down. In 2025 as well, companies and industry were faced with increasing trade tensions, geopolitical fragmentation, shifting supply chains, and growing pressure on Europe to become more economically resilient, technologically stronger, and strategically more autonomous. For an open industrial region like Flanders, these are not distant developments. They directly affect our competitiveness and our place in the value chains of tomorrow.
In such a context, standing still is not an option. Not for our industry, and not for Flanders Make either. For us, 2025 was a year of acceleration. We worked very deliberately towards one clear ambition: to bring innovation faster and more visibly from research to industry. Not as an abstract story, but as something tangible, relevant, and directly applicable on the shop floor. Because only when technology finds its way into industrial applications does innovation create its full value.
Hightech made human.
A new logo as a symbol of connection and collaboration
In 2025, Flanders Make unveiled a renewed identity during its annual Symposium.
The rebranding includes a new logo, a fresh visual style, and a completely redesigned website.
Through this clear and accessible communication, we strengthen the bridge between research and industry.
Our new identity reflects our ambition: to make innovation tangible and create impact together with partners. The new logo is a symbol of connection and collaboration.
Technology that connects and inspires
In 2025, Flanders Make brought people together around technology, innovation, and societal impact. Each of our events was a highlight in its own right: from the Flanders Make Symposium 2025, where business leaders, CTOs, R&D managers, and innovation partners came together to reflect on the industry of the future, to Nerdland Festival and Science Day, where we made technology accessible to a broad audience through interactive demos.
Through specialised initiatives such as the Smart Manufacturing Conference (SMAFACC) and Technology for Care and Customised Work, we also placed a strong emphasis on knowledge sharing and connection. In doing so, we brought professionals together around smart and sustainable production, digitalisation, and technology in care and customised work contexts, each time with the same ambition: to bring research and industry closer together.
Strengthening our operations through the new sector-technology approach
In 2025, we introduced a new organisational structure based on a sector-technology approach. We align our research with concrete industrial needs through a pull-push approach and work across 8 sectors and 8 technology domains.
We develop reusable technological building blocks that we flexibly combine into sector-oriented solutions.
Thanks to a clear technology classification and a focus on the entire value chain, we create more synergy, faster implementation, and maximum impact for our members and partners.
One problem. Thousand brains to solve it.
Stories that make a difference
Technology only gains real value when it works in practice. In 2025, Flanders Make proved this once again: in collaboration with companies from a wide range of sectors, research results were turned into concrete solutions with a direct impact on the shop floor.
Success stories in 2025
From insight to impact: our sustainability approach
In 2025, Flanders Make took important steps to make sustainability concrete and measurable. Through targeted actions and new insights, we are building an organisation that not only understands its impact, but also actively steers and strengthens it.
The energy and CO₂ dashboard developed in 2024 gave us, for the first time, a clear overview of our energy consumption and emissions, broken down by site and lab. Based on these insights, targeted actions could be taken immediately in 2025. For example, optimising the compressed-air system in Lommel led to structural savings of around 45,000 kWh per year, comparable to the electricity consumption of approximately 15 average households.
About Flanders Make
Flanders Make is the strategic research centre for industrial innovation. Our mission is to strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of industry by developing and transferring advanced technologies for the products, machines and production systems of the future.
We bring together the knowledge and expertise of more than 1,100 Flanders Make researchers, working across the five Flemish universities and in our department for applied research. Together with a broad network of industrial partners, we translate excellent scientific research into concrete innovations with economic impact.
Flanders Make Academy: investing in people to remain competitive
Those who want to remain competitive tomorrow must invest today in knowledge, technology, and people.
At Flanders Make, innovation therefore does not start from technology alone, but from the question of how technology makes people and companies stronger. Artificial intelligence, digital twins, smart robotics, and connected production systems do not replace people, but support operators, engineers, and decision-makers in working better, more safely, and more efficiently.
This human-centred approach requires new knowledge and skills. Through the Flanders Make Academy, we support companies in upskilling and reskilling, enabling employees to understand the technologies of tomorrow and apply them effectively in their own industrial context.
In this way, we are building resilient, agile, and future-proof companies.
Our testing infrastructure
Additive manufacturing
Open and modular additive manufacturing platforms for research into the 3D production process.
Testing of mechanical connections and joining techniques.
For lighter, stronger products through optimised and automated joining processes.
Battery testing lab
For performance, ageing, and fast-charging tests to support optimal battery development for electrified applications.
Drivetrain testing
For hardware-in-the-loop and system-level testing to analyse and optimise the performance, durability, and efficiency of electric drivetrains and their components.
Testing electr(on)ic components
For mechanical and thermal tests of electr(on)ic components.
Testing physical and physiological stress
For mechanical and thermal tests of electr(on)ic components.
Make Lab
Mobile research lab filled to the brim with cutting-edge technology.
Testing of polymers
Lab for product and raw material testing and polymer material identification.
Manufacturing metrology lab
To ensure product quality and precision through advanced 3D measurement, surface analysis, and dimensional verification.
Autonomous vehicles for sensor testing
For testing of sensors and algorithms used in autonomous vehicles.
Testing of fatigue, failures and damage mechanics of components
For maximum durability, safety, and performance through advanced fatigue, fracture, and vibration analysis.
Development and prototyping of photonic components
State-of-the-art pilot line for freeform optics.
Vehicle testing
4-poster and climate chamber for vehicle (component) testing.
Digital model-based factory design and control processes
Digital Twin control room for digital models of factory designs and control processes.
Motor Testing
For realistic and flexible testing of electric motors to optimise efficiency, durability, and control through advanced thermal analysis and lifetime prediction.
Mechanical Component Testing
For material- and system-level validation to optimise durability, efficiency, and reliability of components and drivetrains.
Robot gripper technologies
For the selection, development, and optimisation of customised grippers, robot tooling, and sensor technology.
A unique community
Innovation Ecosystem
As a member of Flanders Make, you have access to a research group of over 1,100 engineers, scientists and researchers who help shape your innovation journey. What’s more, you’ll be the first to see the results of our research projects, and you’ll be the first to know what’s going on and which topics will dominate the research agenda in the future. There are several types of membership.
Becoming a member of Flanders Make offers numerous benefits for businesses.
Board of Directors
- Geert Van Poelvoorde - Independant Director
- Grisja Lobbestael- CEO
- Thomas Beauduin - Industrial Director
- Geert Bruyneel - Industrial Director
- Katrien Wyckaert - Industrial Director
- Jolyce Demely - Independant Director
- Julie Lietaer - Independant Director
- Jan Vercammen - Independant Director
- André Bouffioux - Director nominated by the government
- Koen Christiaensen - Director nominated by the government
- Koen Debackere - University representation
- Ignace Lemahieu - University representation
- Elke Piessens - University representation
- Wim Verrelst - Government Representative
- Peter Cabus - Government Representative
- Annie Renders - Observer
- Erwin Dewallef - Observer
Advisory Councils
Giacomo Bianchi - Italy
Jochen Deuse - Germany
Kurt Nielsen - Denmark
Micheal Cassidy - Ireland
Odd Myklebust - Norway
Russell Harris - United Kingdom
Tauno Otto - Estonia
Ton Peijnenburg - Netherlands
Werner Kraus - Germany
Roel Pieters - Finland
Bie De Backer
Carl Eeckhout
Eric Verhelst
Frans Van Giel
Eleonora Brighenti
Herman Van der Auweraer
Jan Anthonis
Laurent Van Thournout
Marc De Samber
Paul Snauwaert
Veerle Van Wassenhove
Karel Vergote
Andy Vanaerschot
Karel Viaene
Year result 2025
Conclusion
Flanders Make achieved an operating result of +EUR 191,021 for the 2025 financial year.
For the 2025 financial year, a positive financial result of EUR 1,710,051 was realised.
Tax on the result for the 2025 financial year amounts to EUR 356,172.
This results in a profit for appropriation for the financial year of EUR 1,544,901.