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Contributing to the economic and social development of Wallonia

Interview with Ms Rose DETAILLE, Walloon Public Service for Economy, Employment and Research Department of Research and Technology Development

Could you tell us about the role of the Department of Research and Technology Development? The main role of the Department is to assist and support businesses, regardless of their size, but also research centres, universities and university colleges in Wallonia, in their R&D activities. This support is aimed in particular at contributing to Wallonia’s economic and social development.

Towards this end, we have implemented some thirty mechanisms: funding support for research within companies, collaborative projects in Wallonia or abroad, grants for supporting SMEs in the patent filing process, hiring of scientific staff, etc.

To attract young people to scientific and technological disciplines, we also conduct science and technology awareness-raising initiatives through the publication of Athena, a magazine that is published five times per year, the organisation of competitions and outreach events.

What are the resources and main support mechanisms available to the Department of Research and Technology Development? The resources made available to the Department to support R&D players in Wallonia amount to between 250 and 300 million euros. In budget terms, the most important mechanisms are the support measures for businesses (66% of the 2018 budget) with 54% for SMEs and 12% for large enterprises. 22% of the budget went to universities. Last year, the three directorates of the Department financed nearly 650 projects for a total amount of

Bewood is located in 4190 Ferrières. This SME is manufacturing construction materials of aluminium and wood plastic composite. Its activities are based on circular economy : its raw materials and production waste are fully recycled. Bewood has been funded by the Walloon Region in the frame of the BELSME programme to work closely with a Flemish partner in order to improve its performance and open new markets in Belgium and abroad.

© Bewood

262 million euros, with close to 300 different beneficiaries. This is a huge budget that will help us reach our target of investing 3% of GDP in research.

How do you look back on the first year of operations of the Department for Research and Technology Development following the restructuring initiated in 2018? The results are undeniably positive. The restructuring has resulted in better communication, collaboration and work structuring within the three directorates. Furthermore, the ONTIME platform, which allows beneficiaries to submit their projects, experts to evaluate them, and technical and financial managers to monitor them on a daily basis, has been improved significantly. It has even won the “Dematerialization Champion” prize, which was awarded by e-WBS (Wallonie Bruxelles Simplification) at the end of 2018 to crown the year of administrative simplification within the Wallonia Public Service. © SPW recherche

In addition, we received co-financing from the European Commission for the BEWARE programme: more than 7 million euros, to which should be added the 14 million euros from Wallonia. The aim of the programme is to have around 60 researchers hired by our companies over the next five years.

European (co-)financing also happens to be an area that I would like to explore in greater depth. Wallonia is doing pretty well, but compared to other regions of similar size, we could do better. That is why my services, together with other services, are working on a “European strategy” for our companies: S3 (Smart Specialisation Strategy), participation in new ERAnets, … Our objective is to adopt an even more proactive attitude (as emphasised already at the start of 2019 in the publication “Walloon SMEs and European research and innovation programmes”).

Our activities are intimately linked with the collaboration among all research stakeholders, particularly in Wallonia, but also at the national, European and international level. Our team develops this collaboration on a daily basis.

Lastly, we find that our visibility in Wallonia needs to be enhanced. A proper knowledge of the administration allows a more efficient, transparent and even more human service to be offered to beneficiaries. We will further strengthen our presence in the field.

What has been the impact of the Department’s COOPILOT and Business Doctorate initiatives? Let me first remind you that the objective of COOPILOT is to contribute to the investment in, and operation of, demonstrators and pilot units developed by groups of companies, with a view

to deploying their technology on an industrial production scale. In fact, the market deployment phase of innovations and the new product and process commercialisation phase require substantial funding for their validation on an industrial scale and support for their first production and commercial application. This is where companies face a significant financing gap (the so-called “valley of death”), which largely explains why the European Union lags behind in terms of commercialisation of innovations.

Three calls have been launched in 2019, including one dedicated specifically to plastics. For the third call, eleven proposals had been received by the start of November for a budget of more than 60 million euros. All these proposals will now be evaluated and selected. Finally, the highest ranked proposals will be financed for a total amount of 25 million euros.

The business doctorate was implemented in mid-June 2018. Its objective is to enable businesses located in Wallonia to hire a doctorate for a period of four years. Clearly, the PhD student works under the supervision of a university, which is solely authorised to award the title of doctor upon completion of the doctoral thesis. This means that a partnership agreement must be signed between the company that wants to join the programme and the university that ensures the academic aspect.

The measure has met with positive response from businesses and universities, including associations that promote PhD careers. This mechanism had already been successfully implemented by our neighbours, so we could not lag behind.

By early November 2019, more than 25 applications had already been received.

Could you tell us something about CWALity 2019? This call was fairly successful. The CWALity projects are collaborative projects with a specific objective (via a list of specifications) aimed at meeting a company’s specific need, with an efficient project management structure (few partners), project management flexibility (flexible project steering), reasonable processing time, strong and effective involvement of approved research centres. The two calls resulted in the financing of 15 proposals.

Have you already planned the project call calendar for 2020? In part. The submission deadlines for the European projects in which we are involved, are known. Most of them fall in the first quarter of 2020. For the CWALity project calls or any initiatives of the Department, we are in talks with the new Research cabinet installed in September, and, finally, calls for the so-called funding facilities are permanent by nature.

What is your first impression of the action of the new Walloon Government? In all cases, we work according to the instructions given by the Minister who was appointed last September. I have already met his cabinet on several occasions and we have an excellent contact. As for now, I have carefully read the Regional Policy Declaration and am pleased to see that priority research areas have been defined: aeronautics, space, agrifood, biosourced economy, natural resources, defence, civil security (and cybersecurity in particular), energy, climate, mobility, digital, industry, health.

I have also noted that the government next year (in 2020) intends to increase significantly resources for research and industrial development.

This is a great challenge and one that I, together with all agents of the Department, am looking forward to taking on!

The SME Pastificio della Mamma, in Herstal, has received several financial support packages from Wallonia. The most recent was for the development of a new range of products to benefit the spelt sector in Wallonia.

© Pastificio della Mamma

Safran Aero Boosters (formerly Techspace Aero), a technology development company that produces modules, equipment and test benches for aeronautic and spatial engines, receives financial assistance from the Walloon Region.