Flanders has a long history as a cluster cradle, developing clusters in fields like biotech, chemistry, digital technologies, energy, and advanced manufacturing over the past 30 years. Clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected companies and institutions that benefit from agglomeration effects. They create ecosystems for innovation by bringing together suppliers, customers, universities, and government agencies. Clusters foster growth through interaction effects as collaboration between organizations leads to knowledge spillovers and new ideas. They also attract talent by becoming talent magnets within their fields. Flanders has successfully built clusters through consistent government support programs and instruments that bring together the different players within a triple helix of government, industry, and academia.

1. Flanders, a Cluster Cradle
TCI Meeting
October 9th, 2019
Koenraad Debackere, KU Leuven

2. CLUSTERS: WHAT?
Agglomeration effects
Clusters
Ecosystems
Hotspots

3. Clusters:
Additionality and Complementarity
Back to the origins (Porter, HBR 1998)
Clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected companies and
institutions in a particular field. Clusters encompass an array of linked indus-
tries and other entities important to competition. They include, for example,
suppliers of specialized inputs such as components, machinery, and services,
and providers of specialized infrastructure. Clusters also often extend
downstream to channels and customers and laterally to manufacturers of
complementary products and to companies in industries related by skills,
technologies, or common inputs. Finally, many clusters include governmental
and other institutions – such as universities, standards-setting agencies, think
tanks, vocational training providers, and trade associations – that provide
specialized training, education, information, research, and technical support.
3

5. • Create an ecosystem developing technological breakthroughs, including equipment suppliers
to facilitate new technology transfers
• Some key figures
1 400 sqm of dedicated platform
~ 100 equipments
DESIGN
• CAD models
• Simulation
software's
• Process control
software's
• Topological
optimization
MATERIALS
• Polymers (binder,
wire, powder)
• Metallic alloys
(powder)
• Magnetic materials
• Ceramics and
composites
• Recycled materials
3D PRINTING
• Powder bed fusion
• Stereo lithography
• Binder Jetting
• Fused Deposition
Molding
POST-
TREATMENT
• Thermal treatment
• Debinding and
sintering
• Surface treatment
• Cleaning
CONTROL
• Non Destructive
Control
• Chemical and
Physical Properties
• Health Security
Environment
A large value chain, from prototyping to mass production
Building a 3D Printing Cluster

6. FLANDERS, A CLUSTER CRADLE
Long history
Concepts and instruments evolved
Underlying dynamics stayed

7. Flanders, a Cluster Cradle
• A 30 year history, consecutive governments
• Fields, e.g.:
– biotech & lifetech
– chemistry
– digital
– energy
– industry 4.0
– logistics
– materials
– nanotech
Valleys
(1990s)
Competence
Poles (2000s)
Lightweight
structures
(2010s)
Clusters
(2020s)
Including
appropriate
instruments:
SPC IBN ICON
COOP

8. Flanders, a Cluster Cradle
• Turning the Triple Helix into a Triple Leverage:

9. CLUSTERS: HOW?
Building blocks
Success factors

10. Maastricht
Utrecht Eind
hove
n
Leiden
Leuven
Entrepreneurial
Heterogeneous
Supported
Networked

11. © Roberto Verganti | www.verganti.com
Stock of technologies
Science
Innovation
Value
Network
Organization
Changes in soc iety
Market Creating
Innovation
(RISE Report, EIC, 2018)

12. Crossing Boundaries,
European Leverage
HUNGARY
HeadquartersInnoStarsCo-Location Centres
So what exactly is EIT Health?
EIT Health is a network of best-in-class health innovators backed by
the EU.
To ensure a strong network, EIT Health maintains a regional structure
that stretches across Europe.
While our headquarters are located in Munich (Germany), our
network consists of six Co-Location Centres (CLCs) in London (UK/
Ireland), Stockholm (Scandinavia), Barcelona (Spain), Paris (France),
Mannheim and Heidelberg (Germany/Switzerland) and Rotterdam
(Belgium/Netherlands).
With the aim of driving the potential of emerging innovation clusters,
EIT Health has also included the “EIT Health InnoStars” to its
network. These regional clusters consist of industry partners,
academia, and health providers linked to seven regions in six
countries – Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Wales.
‹nr.›
MUNICH, GERMANY
UK / IRELAND
GERMANY
FRANCE
SPAIN
WALES POLAND
CROATIA
BELGIUM / NETHERLANDS
ITALY
PORTUGAL
SCANDINAVIA

13. Crossing Boundaries,
European Leverage
We connect all relevant healthcare
players across European borders –
making sure to include all sides of the
“knowledge triangle,” so that innovation
can happen at the intersection of
research, education, and business. We
bring together healthcare professionals,
entrepreneurs, and citizens, offering
them new opportunities and resources.
1. We identify unmet clinical
and economic needs within
complex healthcare systems.
3. Our value: ensuring that
innovation always addresses
the needs of the market and
society.
2. Based on these needs, we initiate
innovation by bringing together
education, business, and research.

14. CLUSTERS: WHY?
Connectivity and growth
Interaction effects fostering growth
Talent magnets

15. Clusters:
Interaction Effects
The blessing of interacting (Varga, Springer 1999)

16. Clusters and Inventor Productivity
E. Moretti (Berkeley, IZA Discussion Paper 12610, 2019):
One of the most remarkable and consequential aspects of the economic
geography of the US is the strong degree of geographical clustering of the
high-tech sector. High-tech firms and workers appear to concentrate in a small
number of expensive labor markets, such as San Francisco, New York, Boston
and Seattle, and not in less expensive locations. The top ten clusters in the
computer science, semiconductors, and biology and chemistry fields account,
respectively, for 70%, 79% and 59% of all inventors in their field in 2007. These
shares were significantly larger in 2007 than in 1971, pointing to increasing
geographical agglomeration of inventors.
I find an economically important effect of cluster size on an inventor’s
productivity. An inventor moving from a small cluster to a large cluster enjoys
an increase in annual productivity, as measured by the number of patents
produced in a year or number of citations.

17. Innovism in Economic & Cluster Thinking:
• Deirdre McCloskey, Joel Mokyr, et al. … innovism as origin
of economic growth:
Q = I(D,B,R) • F(K,sL)
D = Diginity accorded to innovators
B = liBerty of innovators
R = Rent or profit to innovation
(I exemplifies innovism, captured by the innovation function,
F is the “normal” production (output) function, K = capital, sL
= labor multiplied by an education-and-skill coefficient)

18. Science – Innovation – Education - Market:
Talent is a & w! What clusters attract!
World Economic Forum, ‘New Vision for Education: fostering
social and Emotional Learning through Technology (Mar. 2016)

20. THANK YOU.
QUESTIONS?
Clusters: being versus becoming …
Entrepreneurial discovery journeys …
From policy making to policy learning and policy experimenting …
From Triple Helix to m-Helix …