Why join a Moonshot Industrial Advisory Board?
Moonshot Flanders is an industry-driven innovation programme with a clear mission: accelerating the transformation of our Flemish industry towards climate neutrality through breakthrough technologies. To achieve this, it promotes collaboration between knowledge institutes and the industry. Each year, Moonshot Flanders invites companies to join its innovation projects through Industrial Advisory Boards (IABs)— consortia of industry partners with a shared interest in a project topic that gather annually. This year, 18 Moonshot projects are seeking industrial partners. What advantages can you gain from joining the Moonshot Industrial Advisory Board?
1) Early access to project results
Companies participating in an IAB can closely follow project results and breakthrough technologies presented by the academic consortia during the annual meetings. This allows companies to assess the relevance of new developments for their own activities at an early stage. To protect these findings, IAB members are bound by confidentiality, as set out in the Advisory Board Agreement (ABA).
2) Providing industrial guidance
By participating in a Moonshot IAB, companies have the opportunity to steer projects towards maximum industrial relevance. Through direct dialogue with academic researchers, they can help define priorities, flag practical constraints, and ensure that new technologies can be implemented within the industry once the project concludes. Any potential hurdles to industrial implementation are therefore identified and addressed at an early stage.
3) Identifying business opportunities
IAB meetings bring together companies with a shared interest in the same innovation topic or value chain, from large industrial players to SMEs and start-ups. This diversity makes them the ideal setting for building connections with potential business or research partners and exploring future collaboration opportunities.
Interested in participating?
Companies interested in participating are invited to complete and sign a Letter of Intent (LOI). In this LOI, applicants indicate why they are interested in the specific project and how the results could contribute to their company's existing and future activities. The LOI also incorporates the Advisory Board Agreement (ABA), which outlines the participation guidelines and ensures confidentiality.
This year, 18 Moonshot projects have reached the full proposal stage and are seeking industrial partners. These include 13 Early Stage Innovation (ESI) projects, focusing on disruptive research at low technology readiness, and 5 Later Stage Innovation (LSI) projects, which aim to scale up research that has already demonstrated feasibility at laboratory scale and are therefore closer to industrial implementation.
For Early Stage Innovation (ESI) projects, participation in the Industrial Advisory Board is free of charge. For Later Stage Innovation (LSI) projects, participation may involve in‑kind or financial support.
Companies are invited to submit an LOI for one or more projects of their choice, preferably by Friday, 5 June 2026. The final deadline for submission is Tuesday, 1 September 2026. By the end of the year, a final selection of the 18 Moonshot projects of call 2026 will be made by VLAIO (for ESI projects) and by the Flemish Government (for LSI projects).
Download the LOI templates and discover the 18 Moonshot projects seeking industrial partners.