Belgium

Katrien de Schrijver of the Flemish STEM platform and member of the EU STEM Coalition discussed ‘Women in STEM’ at TEDx Ghent. In her talk, she presents the taboos that exists on the difference between girls and boys, she introduces the STEM platform and she introduces some fabulous STEM role models.

Katrien De Schrijver started her career as a teacher of English and German, but was always triggered by innovation in education. After 17 years of teaching, she pursued that passion and started working for the STEM platform, one of the founding partners of the EU STEM Coaltion.

ThinkYoung, partner of the EU STEM Coalition, in collaboration with Wilfried Martens Centre kicked off the European Maker Week with MakersTown on May 24.

The Makers are a new wave of entrepreneurs and Do-It-Yourself experts empowered by Web 3.0 tools, technology and crowdfunding. MakersTown is the first event of its kind in Brussels bringing together Makers, business leaders and European policy-makers to showcase, share and succeed. It is also a conference. European Commissioners Jyrki Katainen (Jobs, Growth and Investment and Competitiveness) and Carlos Moedas (Research, Science and Innovation) will participate in the panels.

The indicators in the report present a synthesis of research and innovation performance in Belgium. They relate knowledge investment and input to performance and economic output throughout the innovation cycle. They show thematic strengths in key technologies and also the high-tech and medium-tech contribution to the trade balance. The indicator on excellence in science and technology takes into consideration the quality of scientific production as well as technological development. The Innovation Output Indicator covers technological innovation, skills in knowledge-intensive activities, the competitiveness of knowledge-intensive goods and services, and the innovativeness of fast-growing enterprises, focusing on innovation output. The indicator on the knowledge-intensity of the economy focuses on the economy’s sectoral composition and specialisation and shows the evolution of the weight of knowledge-intensive sectors and products.