New Moonshot projects approved

VLAIO, the Flemish Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, has approved 13 new Moonshot projects. This is the second series of projects to get approval since Moonshot took off in 2019. Within the projects, Flemish knowledge institutions will carry out industry-driven, strategic basic research that will help make Flemish industries carbon-circular and low in CO2 by 2050. To fund the projects, the Flemish government set aside over 19 million euro in subsidies. The projects were realized with support from VLAIO and under the direction of Catalisti, the spearhead cluster for the Flemish chemical and plastics sector.

In 2020, Moonshot launched a first series of 12 research projects, aiming to make Flemish industries more sustainable by 2050. Concrete results have already emerged from these projects in recent weeks. Researchers at KU Leuven and UAntwerpen have, for example, discovered an innovative and CO2-free production method for ammonia as part of the P2C project.

A second project series

A second series of 13 Moonshot projects has now also been approved by VLAIO, worth 19 million euros in subsidies. These approved projects will start from 1 March 2021 onwards and have a duration of 18 to 48 months. These are all cSBO projects that focus on strategic basic research at Flemish universities and knowledge institutions, where disruptive innovative ideas will be scientifically developed and then, in a later phase, deployed on an industrial scale. To this end, Moonshot actively involves industries, and in particular the chemical, petrochemical and steel sectors, in its operations.

With this new series of Moonshot projects, we are again pursuing promising innovations that will contribute to a climate-friendly Flemish industry and help us realize the 2050 climate ambitions. In this respect, all projects are in line with the recommendations from the recently published roadmap study/context analysis. – Jan Van Havenbergh, managing director Catalisti

Research in 4 trajectories

The new projects all fit into the four research trajectories (MOTs), which represent the most promising transition paths towards the 2050 ambition: a Flemish industry that is carbon circular and low in CO2.

More projects in the pipeline

New Moonshot projects will come out of the pipeline every year. The Flemish government will provide 20 million euro in financial support for this purpose, each year until 2040. Between 2020 and 2040, this will amount to no less than 400 million euro in future-oriented subsidies.