Jean-François Romainville is Senior Expert in innovation policy and industrial change at IDEA Consult, where he has worked since 2013. He has more than ten years of experience in coordinating European and interregional innovation ecosystems, with a strong focus on advanced manufacturing, industrial modernisation, smart specialisation and technology deployment.

His recent work has focused on interregional innovation ecosystems and funding mechanisms. For example, he has acted for more than ten years as network manager of the Vanguard Initiative 3DP Pilot, coordinated the design of VInnovate, an interregional funding instrument developed on behalf of the Vanguard Initiative, and served as funding programme manager for the VInnovate Calls in 2024, 2025 and 2026. He also coordinated the development and implementation of the I3 3DOP project.

Jean-François has led and contributed to studies, expert assignments and policy-support projects for European, national and regional authorities. His European Commission-linked work includes assignments for DG REGIO, DG GROW, DG COMP and the Joint Research Centre (JRC), covering interregional innovation partnerships, industrial modernisation, advanced manufacturing demonstration facilities, monitoring of innovation strengths and technology deployment, smart specialisation, competition policy, cultural and creative value chains, and cross-border market access.

His expertise combines policy analysis, stakeholder facilitation, consortium and ecosystem coordination, funding instrument design, call management and the activation of public funding for innovation deployment across European regions.

Jean-François holds a Master in Economics from the University of Namur and a Research Master in Economics, specialised in advanced microeconomics, from the Economics School of Louvain. Before joining IDEA Consult, he worked as a researcher in industrial economics at CEREC, University of Saint-Louis, Brussels, and as a teaching assistant in economics, game theory and methodology of economic sciences.