Activity report 2025 - Foreword

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.

From potential to implementation

That is precisely where our role lies. Flanders Make builds the bridge between science and practice, between potential and implementation. In 2025, we further sharpened that role, not only in what we do, but also in how we organise and communicate. With a renewed organisational structure, a stronger industry-oriented positioning, a new website, and a refreshed visual identity, we clearly show what we stand for: an open, agile, and impact-driven partner for the industry of tomorrow.

That ambition also aligns with the direction Europe is setting. The European research and innovation agenda for 2028–2034 centres on five key levers: strengthening competitiveness, accelerating the digital and clean transition, developing strategic sectors, and translating research into impact more quickly. For Flanders Make, this is a clear confirmation of what we work on every day: translating technology into industrial implementation more rapidly, so that the Flemish manufacturing industry becomes stronger and more future-proof.

In 2025, this also became visible in practice. Through initiatives such as Manufacturing of the Future, our Symposium, the opening of the Infinity Lab, and our contribution to SMAFACC, we brought companies into contact with solutions that are already making a difference today: digital work instructions, autonomous robots, artificial intelligence, digital twins, and advanced planning systems.

Sustainability and digital transformation

At the same time, innovation for us is about more than digitalisation alone. The transition towards a circular and climate-neutral industry has become a strategic condition for lasting competitiveness. Companies that invest in circularity, remanufacturing, more efficient material use, and lower emissions are not only building sustainability, but also resilience. That is why we further strengthened this course in 2025, with the explicit support of our Board of Directors.

In addition, we are accelerating the step from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0. This means that we are not only focusing on digitalisation, automation, and industrial AI, but also on the conditions needed to deploy these technologies broadly and sustainably. Reusable AI applications, sound data governance, interoperability, and strong cybersecurity are essential in this respect, especially for SMEs. Technological progress only has impact when it is also accessible and implementable in the reality of smaller production environments.

But technology alone is not enough. Innovation must also work for people. That is why people remain central to Flanders Make. New technology must support and strengthen them. In a context of labour shortages, user-friendly, safe, and human-centred solutions, combined with training and upskilling, are more important than ever.

Building impact together

What struck me most again in 2025 is that we do not do this alone. The strength of Flanders Make lies in collaboration: with companies, researchers, governments, and educational institutions. This connectedness is not a secondary condition, but the core of how we create impact.

For me, 2025 has made it clear that Flanders Make is more relevant today than ever. Because we translate technology into applications. Because we help companies accelerate. Because we make innovation tangible. And because together, we are building an industry that is more productive, smarter, more sustainable, and more resilient.

I would like to sincerely thank everyone who contributed to this. Thanks to this joint effort, we are laying a strong foundation to continue building in 2026 on innovation that moves our industry forward and strengthens it internationally.

Grisja Lobbestael
CEO, Flanders Make