On 28 June the Vanguard Initiative held its annual High-level Directors’ Meeting in Brussels. During the meeting, the Directors took several steps forward in strengthening the cooperation within the network. The Directors also unanimously elected the Region of Navarra as new Chair of the Vanguard Initiative.

A matchmaking event within the demo-case for Nanowires will be held on the 17th of May, in Lund, Sweden. The objective is to showcase the potential of companies working with nanowire-focused products, and to facilitate engagement of international partners in joint efforts, creating new inter-regional value chains spanning throughout Europe. The event offers opportunities for bilateral meetings between actors in the field of material sciences and nanotechnology. Read more and register here.

On 22 February 2018, national representatives from 25 EU member states, Commission officials and cluster policy experts met in Brussels during EU Industry day to share experiences and discuss how to better use and develop clusters for driving industrial change and growth. Wallonia was one of the participating regions at the forum and was given the opportunity to give input on how to design and implement effective cluster policies that can create cluster-driven growth.

The regions of Wallonia, Flanders and Brussels recently published the Belgian position paper on the EU’s industrial strategy, as communicated by the European Commission in September. Belgium welcomes the Communication on a renewed EU industrial strategy, but requests a further long-term consolidation of this strategy in line with strategic objectives to be set for 2030. In its position paper, Belgium underlines the importance of interregional innovation investments and collaboration, pointing to the Vanguard Initiative’s experience.