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Complex innovation needs a local anchor

In today’s challenging innovation landscape, turning ideas into market-ready products is more complex than ever. More demanding requirements, multiple stakeholders, regulatory pressures and emerging technologies can easily slow progress. To meet the growing complexity of innovation, Verhaert and BEACON have joined forces under the new identity of BEACON | Verhaert Nederland. With a strong local presence and deep connection to the Dutch innovation ecosystem, Verhaert Nederland combines BEACON’s disciplined project management with world-class engineering and product design, creating a fully integrated innovation factory in the Netherlands.

Synergy that makes innovation work

The strength of BEACON | Verhaert Nederland lies in synergy: BEACON’s project managers guide the organization of innovation projects, including defining and prioritizing product requirements, while Verhaert’s engineers translate these requirements into functional, market-ready products. This structured, flexible approach ensures that every step – from strategy and technology development to design, production and launch – is aligned with each client’s unique challenges.

“With BEACON joining forces under the name Verhaert Nederland, we’re building on years of expertise in guiding complex innovation initiatives,” says Jan Willem Dik, Managing Director at BEACON | Verhaert Nederland. “Our strength lies in combining structured project leadership with Verhaert’s decades of experience in product design and engineering. This synergy enables us to help organizations turn ambitious ideas into successful physical products – delivered on time, on budget and ready to meet market needs. By working together, we give our clients the clarity and confidence to bring their boldest innovations to life.”

Driving innovation in the Dutch start-up ecosystem

Deeply embedded in the Dutch deep-tech start-up ecosystem, Verhaert actively supports emerging innovators. Through initiatives like the imec.istart fund – a partnership with VDL, TNO, OostNL and the University of Twente – Verhaert provides guidance, technical expertise and investment. With Verhaert Nederland, these resources are now locally anchored, enabling start-ups and scale-ups to transform ambitious ideas into scalable, market-ready products with structured support and engineering excellence.

“Breakthrough innovation often comes from the start-up ecosystem, and at Verhaert we’re committed to helping them succeed,” says Koen Verhaert, CEO of the Verhaert group. “By guiding hundreds of tech start-ups across Europe, we’ve seen firsthand how critical it is to combine bold ambition with structured support and deep technological expertise. With our MyStartUp program and partnerships such as the imec.istart fund, we guide founders to turn ideas into scalable, market-ready solutions. With Verhaert Nederland, we bring this expertise closer to home, combining our innovation factory model with strong ties to the Dutch deep-tech ecosystem to support start-ups and scale-ups every step of the way.”

Take the fast track to innovation

Ready to bring your next product to market with confidence? Connect with BEACON | Verhaert Nederland and let our locally anchored innovation factory guide your ideas from concept to successful launch. Want to learn more about the synergy that brought BEACON | Verhaert Nederland together? Stay tuned for our webinar on December 9th!

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As Europe faces complex security challenges and increasing global competition, dual-use innovation has become more crucial than ever. From cybersecurity to advanced materials and AI-powered defense systems, the technologies we develop today must serve both civil society and national security interests. Verhaert Strategic Innovation, part of the Verhaert Group, will host and lead the program’s ‘Dual-Use Technologies for Civil and Security Applications’ track, known as Evolve DualTech, helping researchers transform promising innovations into market-ready solutions that serve both civilian and security needs.

Bridging Europe’s research-to-market gap

Despite Europe’s globally recognized leadership in scientific output, the continent continues to face significant challenges in translating research into commercial success. The SPIN: Rise program aims to tackle this issue by providing researchers with targeted entrepreneurial training, strategic coaching and access to innovation ecosystems that can help bring cutting-edge technologies to market.

The Evolve DualTech track is led by experienced consultants and innovation experts from Verhaert Strategic Innovation, alongside external keynote speakers and mentors. With decades of expertise in dual-use technologies, product development and early-stage commercialization, the Verhaert team offers participants practical guidance, strategic insight and real-world know-how.

“At Verhaert, we believe that innovation is only as valuable as its ability to create real-world impact,” says Eleni Anastasopoulou, Project Manager of the Evolve DualTech program at Verhaert Strategic Innovation. “As Europe strengthens its strategic autonomy through initiatives such as the ReArm Europe Plan, dual-use technologies that serve both civil and security applications have become increasingly essential. Our program is designed to empower researchers to bridge the gap between academic excellence and market application, ensuring their work translates into tangible solutions for society.”

A unique focus on dual-use innovation

The Evolve DualTech track offers a dedicated pathway for researchers developing dual-use technologies. These are innovations that hold potential for both civilian markets and security or defense applications. The track combines:

• A seven-week online training and mentoring phase covering intellectual property strategies, business model design, market validation and early-stage investment readiness.
• An immersive three-day in-person bootcamp in Brussels, where participants will engage with industry experts, investors and peers to refine their commercialization strategies.

The initiative is open to researchers at all stages of their careers, including PhD candidates and postdoctoral fellows, with no prior entrepreneurial experience required.

Part of a broader European effort

Within the SPIN: Rise program, the Evolve DualTech track is one of four specialized technology domains alongside:

• Smart manufacturing and digital factories led by Bocconi University (Milan)
• Digital health and AI-driven wellbeing led by Applejack Lab, Instituto Pedro Nunes, and PitchBob.io (Lisbon)
• Cyber-resilient societies and trustworthy AI led by SIBB (Berlin)

The SPIN: Rise program builds on the success of SPIN: Explore, which engaged over 100 researchers from 29 countries with a strong focus on inclusion and gender diversity.

“European research excellence is world class, but we continue to face challenges in translating scientific breakthroughs into market success,” says Federico Menna, CEO of EIT Digital. “SPIN: Rise addresses this critical gap by equipping researchers with practical tools to navigate commercialization.”

Applications open until mid-September 2025

Researchers and innovators interested in bringing their dual-use technologies to market are encouraged to apply before September 15th. The Evolve DualTech program will officially kick off in October 2025. 

For more information and to submit applications, please visit: Evolve DualTech Track.

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Connect with Verhaert to accelerate your innovation journey

Want to drive your innovation forward? Bringing a new product or digital solution to market comes with many challenges. The key to successful innovation lies in an agile, multidisciplinary approach. By combining user-centric design, deep scientific and engineering expertise, a broad technology portfolio, and strong business insights, Verhaert helps you navigate complexity and turn bold ideas into market-ready solutions.

At our booth, you’ll have the opportunity to explore how this approach can strengthen your product development process.

• AI & smart manufacturing – Learn how artificial intelligence is shaping the future of industrial automation.
• Digital transformation – Explore strategies for creating connected, intelligent and scalable solutions.
• From tech to impact – Explore how early-stage technology integration and testing can accelerate the path to viable, high-impact solutions.
• Fast-track product development – Discover agile prototyping and market validation strategies that help you refine and de-risk your innovation.
• Scaling for success – Learn how to efficiently transition from prototype to full-scale production, ensuring a smooth market introduction.

Claim your free ticket – Strengthen your innovation

Hannover Messe is the world’s leading industrial technology trade fair, bringing together over 4,000 exhibitors and 130,000+ visitors. This year’s theme, “Industrial Transformation – Energizing a Sustainable Industry,” perfectly aligns with our mission to create impact-driven innovations. This is your chance to explore the latest advancements and tailored solutions for your innovation challenges. Get your free ticket today and schedule a meeting with Verhaert at the Flemish Pavilion!

Hannover Messe, March 31 – April 4, 2025
Flemish Pavilion, Hall 8 (Smart Manufacturing)
Register with the ticket code cqEPw to secure your free entry!

Book a one-on-one at the fair

Visit Verhaert Product Innovation and book a personal meeting at your convenience.

Visit Verhaert Digital Innovation and book a personal meeting at your convenience.

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Join our keynote session

“Innovation traditionally focuses on product development and intellectual property, yet today’s markets demand a broader approach that includes the 4Ps: product, price, place, and promotion,” says David Pas, Customer Success Manager at Verhaert Strategic Innovation. How do you empower a business to innovate more holistically and successfully? Find inspiration in the keynote session of David Pas on Thursday, November 7th at 8h25 in the morning ‘From ‘innovation for IP’ to ‘innovating the 4Ps’: a phenomenon or a strategic shift?’.

Let’s create new business and grow together

Innovating successfully requires you to understand user needs and set up rapid learning and validation cycles on market and tech dimensions to hit the sweet spot of innovation. With the right methodologies, tools, experts and mentors you have access to unique e-learning, funding and start-up ecosystem assets to help you overcome common innovation challenges:

1. Which strategies enhance solution-market fit for successful product launches and minimize business failure?
   Strategic pilots have achieved remarkable successes in developing and introducing new products, services and new customer experiences.
2. How do you accelerate the adoption of emerging technology and ventures, and ignite market development?
   Thematic business acceleration programs to spur start-ups and technology transfer, with a leading entrepreneurship team active in coaching, scaling and funding.
3. Which disruptive business models and technologies can fuel growth in venturing initiatives?
   Providing full-service corporate venturing ecosystems to succeed in an agile and lean manner, including training, mentoring and start-up connections.

Visit us to increase your capacity to innovate, strategically and improve the outcome of your new business initiatives.

Book a one-on-one at the fair

Visit Verhaert Strategic Innovation and book a personal meeting at your convenience.

Find us at our booth

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Discover future product technology trends

With an aging population, complex health challenges and fewer healthcare providers, meeting patient expectations is tougher than ever. Affordable, accessible and patient-oriented healthcare requires everyone to come together, deliver value and be transparent.

How does smart tech enhance the product’s effectiveness in patient outcomes? How do evolving revenue models impact product functionalities and the required technologies? What’s the latest in integrating medication into hardware devices?

Learn how cutting-edge technologies are improving patient engagement and breaking therapeutic barriers. New drug delivery platforms, sensing technologies, telemedicine, wearables – the future is now!

Get inspired to build strategic ecosystems

Shifting from volume-based to value-based healthcare means putting the patient at the heart of it all. To pull this off, we need tech to embrace a higher level of personalization, boost evidence-driven decision making as the secret ingredient in ecosystems and blend diagnostics seamlessly with treatments.

Value-based care as the norm requires creating new business models, partnerships, and methodologies to track progression and convert complex data into actionable insights for patients and healthcare providers. Let’s improve health per euro spent!

Embrace value-based healthcare

• 9h00: Welcome & event introduction
• 9h10: The intersection of technology and value-based healthcare
  Michiel Twisk, David Pas and Margo Billen share insights on how emerging technologies and improving treatments shape the future of therapeutics. Learn about patient engagement, personalization and data to develop future-proof products toward value-based healthcare.
• 9h50: From ‘as a service’ to ‘as a solution’ in life sciences
  A lively multi-stakeholder panel conversation with J&J Innovative Medicine and Heidelberg Engineering, moderated by Dany Robberecht, to discuss creating comprehensive solutions for healthcare ecosystems. How do you turn complex data into actionable insights for patients and providers? How do you develop platforms that facilitate seamless integration across different healthcare services?
• 10h30: Wrap-up

Dive into the future of value-based healthcare! Register for the webinar ‘Therapy meets Tech’ on Tuesday September 24^th to ensure you’re at the forefront of the drug delivery revolution.

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Together towards circularity

Discover how strategic pilot projects accelerate innovation in a circular economy through collaboration and user engagement. Learn from industry examples to progress towards circularity.

How do you develop sustainable products, extend product life cycles and create circular business models? How do you redefine value chains and processes to produce less waste and optimize resources? This session will provide you with essential fundamentals and practical tools to create positive change and shape a sustainable future.

In pursuing sustainable transformations, companies often notice a mismatch between their business model and product offerings. How to bridge this gap and connect circular business models with sustainable product design? Verhaert’s innovation consultants will give you practical applications and concrete insights to seamlessly integrate with your business operations.

Connect. Learn. Innovate.

The Agoria Connect & Learn session takes place on Tuesday, June 11 from 16h to 19h at Verhaert in Kruibeke. Participation is free, but registration is required due to the limited number of available places.

• 16h00: Welcome & event introduction
• 16h15: The opportunities of the circular economy (Els Fonteyne, Expert Circular Economy at Agoria)
  Global challenges demand a shift to circular economy models, turning crises into opportunities. Explore the Butterfly Model and the European Green Deal’s role. Beyond recycling, discover design principles: use less, use longer, use again. Maintain value to ascend the ‘Value Hill’, finding value beyond company boundaries. Prepare for tomorrow’s circular economy ecosystem today.
• 16h35: The importance of strategic pilot projects in a circular economy (David Pas, Coordinator Strategic Innovation at Verhaert)
  Strategic pilot projects play a significant role in transitioning from vision to actionable plans through conceptualization and validation. Creating a roadmap toward circularity focuses on 5 pillars and their role within the value chain, from business models to product lifecycle and end-of-life responsibilities.
• 17h15: Company tour
• 17h45: Networking

Filled with knowledge-sharing and networking fun, we’re eager to connect, learn, and innovate with you!

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Vulnerability of the archipelago

Guadeloupe, like many Caribbean islands, faces high climate change vulnerability due to its geography, limited land area and reliance on tourism and agriculture. Combined with limited resources for adaptation, the island also struggles with biodiversity loss and water scarcity, exacerbating its climate challenges. How can we adapt to climate change and ensure the island’s long-term sustainability?

Reducing water usage by tourists

Every year more than 850.000 people visit Guadeloupe, and with an average water consumption of 84 to 2.000 liters per tourist per day, this poses a real threat to clean water availability. As part of one of the solutions implemented by the TransformAr project, we’re developing a nudging experiment together with ADEME Guadeloupe. This experiment aims to make tourists more conscious about their water usage and encourage them to use less water.

Material nudging kit ©Verhaert

In preparation for the experiment, we hosted a panel discussion on the engagement of visitors with various stakeholders of the tourism industry, like hotel managers, tourist accommodation owners and industry representatives. This event also kicked off the full-scale nudging experiment aimed at reducing the water consumption of tourists in Guadeloupe. This experiment involves a ‘nudging kit’, comprised of a shower sensor, nudging stickers and an informational brochure, to be installed in hotel rooms. These materials will remind them and give some tips to conserve water.

Kick-off of the full-scale experiment

If you spend just 1 minute less in the shower, you’ll save about 10 liters of water. With that statistic in mind, the potential of this experiment could already have a big impact on the overall tourist water usage. Having concluded the pilot phase in February 2024, the nudging kit has now been installed in about 100 bathrooms across the island. This full-scale experiment will run until August 2024 and give valuable insights into the effectiveness of nudging strategies in promoting sustainable tourism practices in Guadeloupe.

Want to stay in the loop about this project? Make sure to sign up for the bi-monthly newsletter!

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Ecodesign balances sustainability and profitability

Sustainability takes a central position within R&D and innovation, think about meeting stricter regulations and standards in terms of environmental protection, delivering long-term impact, efficient use of available materials and energy, and meeting the growing consumer interest in sustainable products and services.

Nevertheless, many companies struggle to find solutions that are both sustainable and profitable or to integrate sustainability into their core business. For that reason, Verhaert brought together experts from C-Battery, Circular Valley, DEME, UAntwerp, VITO and in-house teams to share success strategies and best practices to overcome the sustainability paradox in different domains.

Joris De Lamper, Manager of Innovation Acceleration and host of the seminar adds: “Ecodesign is not only a moral duty to future generations, it’s also a source of innovation and competitive advantage. How can we make the right trade-offs and design solutions that take into account environmental, economic, and technological factors? That’s the question we wanted to answer during this event. By giving each other the most specific strategic management advice possible, we can work faster toward various sustainability goals.”

Full circular life cycles: optimally closing the cycles

Sustainable design is about innovation on several fronts. As an organization, you can’t get stuck in a certain ‘sustainability tunnel’ as this makes it much more difficult to respond to external changes. Many companies lack a common framework to sharpen their perspective and definitions around sustainability.

Karine Van Doorsselaer, professor of materials science and ecodesign at UAntwerp, refers to the ‘butterfly diagram’ of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. This visualization showcases the circular economy and provides a clear blueprint for companies to work toward. It also maps the entire product life cycle to assess the total environmental impact. To efficiently close the cycles, it’s recommended that the consumer has as little responsibility as possible. This way you avoid contaminated waste streams due to improper sorting behavior. An alternative to making the circular system successful is to introduce an end-of-live incentive toward the end user, as with deposit systems.

Competitive business models

To be competitive against current linear economic business models, you need strong partnerships throughout the value chain. Only when each stakeholder enjoys added value within the model will the likelihood of adoption increase.

Product-as-a-service business models are very interesting in the context of sustainable design. Indeed, the producing party benefits from designing them according to other design drivers, for example, design for disassembly and design for repair. Even though this switch can be investment-intensive, companies can draw strength from strong partnerships and adopt hybrid models as an intermediate step.

“The Sustainability Paradox was the ideal combination of inspiring success stories, practical insights, and interactive discussions with both speakers and participants,” concludes Damien Feuillan, seminar participant. By connecting the Belgian ecosystem across borders with new partners such as Circular Valley, Verhaert created a platform to share key success factors and potential solutions. Together for sustainable innovation!

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Cooperation as a driving force for innovation, inside and outside the organization

Wit-Gele Kruis West Flanders believes it’s important that innovation stays close to the day-to-day lives of its nurses and helps to relieve them. The idea of a nurse to develop a new organizer that is orderly, practical, and hygienic was picked up by the organization. Through an intensive process, the idea was further developed in collaboration with a master’s student in product development, MakerHealth Howest and Verhaert, among others.

The secret of successful innovation: a holistic approach

Creating products that meet the users’ needs, desires, and requirements, is valued highly at Verhaert. An extensive analysis of the needs of home nurses is therefore an important part of the development process. Structured workshops were organized with stakeholders from various domains to identify in detail both user needs and logistical and financial considerations during the design phase.

After an iterative validation phase of several prototypes, Verhaert proceeded to product engineering, optimizing the final production design. By considering technical, production-related, and user aspects, Verhaert ensured technical feasibility (viable) as well as successful fulfillment of users’ needs and desires (desirable). The organizer provides functional and ergonomically access to any type of care product and can be integrated with the nursing bag, making it the most practical and complete solution on the market.

A circular life cycle

The demand for environmental awareness is increasing day by day. Sustainability and ecology are important drivers in the product development process. The all-in-the-box offers an efficient storage solution design with a circular business model in mind. The product is fully geared toward circularity, with opportunities for refurbishment and 100% recycling. The organizer is made of mono-material, making recycling at end-of-life simple and feasible. Polypropylene with a closed cell structure, also offers durability and robustness with significantly less weight. In addition, flatpack delivery on a euro pallet minimizes fuel consumption and reduces CO2 emissions. Production is also set up with attention to the inclusion of social employment.

Innovative healthcare logistics gains a new dimension

The all-in-the-box solution optimizes the logistics process and reduces costs by limiting expired materials. Nurses are pleased too, as this solution allows them to focus more on patient care. This innovation extends to the broader healthcare sector, where, upon positive validation, the product can be made available to other (home) care organizations.

“The real added value of this development was born from our co-creative workshops. Each stakeholder, whether it was the care provider, logistics department, or financial services, provided unique contributions from their expertise. Thanks to this iterative approach with the integration of concept and prototype validation, we were able to put all the pieces of the puzzle together smoothly,” says Gerd Van Cauteren, Coordinator DesignLab at Verhaert Masters in Innovation.

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