IDEA Consult evaluates research centre Flanders Make

On 9 May 2014 the research organisation Flanders Make was formally founded with branches in Lommel and Leuven and cooperation's with research departments of the five Flemish universities. Flanders Make was also officially recognised as a "Strategic Research Centre" (SOC) until the end of 2017. The strategic objective of the research centre is the long-term strengthening of the international competitive position of the Flemish manufacturing companies by conducting industry-driven, precompetitive, excellent, strategic and applied research in the fields of mechatronics, product development methods and advanced production technologies.

In view of the end of the agreement in 2017 IDEA Consult is performing an external and in-depth evaluation of this research organisation. This evaluation consists of an in-depth institutional evaluation and a limited systemic evaluation. In it, the ex-post perspective and the ex-ante perspective will be taken into account.

The evaluation aims to contribute to the decision of the Flemish government to either further support Flanders Make, or not, whilst also exploring how this could be done. The evaluation therefore aims to support the overall decision on whether to recognise Flanders Make as a SOC (i.e. with a recognition contained in a decree). The evaluation report is set to be completed before the end of June this year.