Ideation: Killing flawed concepts early (TRL 2–3)

Innovation pipelines often fail because they scale the wrong ideas. Ideathons should not be generic brainstorming sessions; they are structured pressure tests where operational users, engineers and commercial innovators challenge assumptions before significant development resources are committed.

Whether the need is a satellite-based Earth Observation service, autonomous logistics or secure communications, the goal at TRL 2–3 is to translate a capability gap into a clear and actionable technical problem. By forcing participants to defend the logic, viability, and operational impact of their concepts before a single line of code is written, we eliminate unfeasible projects early. This ensures engineering hours are spent only on solutions anchored in mission reality.

The journey begins at the earliest stages of the innovation cycle where capability needs are translated into tangible opportunities. Ideathons serve as the primary vehicle for this transformation, engaging a diverse group of stakeholders in structured creative exercises. Unlike purely technical sprints, these formats prioritize logic, impact, and viability, helping to clarify complex problem spaces and challenge initial assumptions. By focusing on TRL 2 to 3, Ideathons ensure that subsequent engineering efforts are anchored in a shared understanding of the mission, effectively reducing the risk of developing “technologically sound” solutions that fail to address real-world operational priorities.

Hackathons: Forcing prototype-first learning (TRL 3–5)

Concepts that look convincing on slides often fail when connected to real systems. Hackathons create rapid prototype-first learning, forcing teams to build functional demonstrators in days rather than months. At TRL 3 to 5 then, the focus shifts to proving technical feasibility under tight deadlines.

This high-pressure environment exposes integration challenges, data bottlenecks and technical constraints early, generating evidence about what works before larger procurement decisions are made.

Wargaming: Stress-testing tech in simulated conflict

An isolated technical success in a clean laboratory means nothing if it cannot survive a contested environment. Before a technology advances, it must be subjected to the chaos of a simulated battlefield.

Wargaming acts as an operational stress test. By embedding prototypes into realistic scenarios, organizations can identify hidden dependencies, communications vulnerabilities and integration gaps before deployment. The objective is not only to validate performance, but also to reveal where a technology must be hardened to operate reliably in complex defense or space missions.

Competitions: Evidence-based selection

When multiple technical pathways exist, the ecosystem must pivot from exploration to strict prioritization. Competitions and challenges introduce standardized, data-driven benchmarks to separate viable vendors from hype.

By evaluating solutions side-by-side under identical criteria, they can generate comparable data on robustness, accuracy, and readiness. This objective filtering ensures that scarce funding, range time, and procurement resources are reserved strictly for the highest-performing technologies. It also uncovers early regulatory and security gaps that could derail future deployment.

Sandboxing: Solving the integration bottleneck

Moving a prototype out of a short-term sprint and into a formal defense program is where most innovations die. Sandboxing provides the mandatory methodological bridge.

This is not another open-ended test; it is a rigorous diagnostic exercise. Winners from previous phases are given access to representative physical or digital defense infrastructures. Operating under strict constraints – such as network segregation, classification limits, and strict interoperability standards – we use clear ‘compliance & gap sheets’ to determine exactly what it will take to make the technology procurement-ready.

Scaling: Breaking into the defense supply chain

The final step is connecting validated non-traditional innovators with the institutional buyers and Prime contractors who can scale production.

Start-up Conferences and Demonstration Days are treated as high-value matchmaking interfaces, not PR events. Startups present verified data to investors and Large System Integrators (LSIs) to secure capital and integration pathways. Concurrently, targeted delegation visits elevate the most strategic dual-use technologies directly into international policy and tactical procurement discussions, ensuring long-term sovereign adoption.

Engineering the pipeline at Verhaert Strategic Innovation

Verhaert Strategic Innovation acts as the practical interface between commercial tech frontiers and sovereign defense requirements. We don’t just consult; we build and operate the infrastructure required to navigate high-entry-barrier markets.

We de-risk the innovation journey through three operational pillars:

• Strategic sourcing: We translate complex military capability gaps into technology-agnostic challenges that commercial startups can actually understand and build for.
• Managed innovation programs: Utilizing our structured Innovation Management Grid (IMG), we run end-to-end acceleration pipelines, such as the CASSINI Business Accelerator and the Belgian Innovation as a Service (IaaS) framework, taking concepts from TRL 2 to battlefield-ready TRL 6+ prototypes.
• Compliance & scale-up support: A technology is useless if it cannot legally be bought. We guide dual-use companies through the complexities of Internal Compliance Programs (ICPs), export controls, and security clearances, making commercial software and hardware fully procurement-ready for European defense.

We ensure that concepts like the ‘Battlefield of Things’ and ‘New Space’ are translated into durable, deployable capabilities that secure European strategic autonomy.

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The logical case for integrated requirements

Strategic sourcing in a dual-use context is a delicate balancing act. You aren’t just buying parts; you are buying compliance, resilience, and scalability. An integrated requirements approach supports strategic sourcing in several ways:

• Sovereign reliability: Defense-grade sourcing requires ‘trusted foundries’ and friend-shoring, while commercial sourcing thrives on global cost optimization. Requirements should make it clear when each sourcing approach applies.
• Component commonality: Identifying components that can be shared across commercial and defense variants helps increase purchasing volumes and reduce overall costs. Without precise definitions up front, engineering will naturally ‘over-spec’ the civilian part, killing its market competitiveness.
• Lifecycle traceability: Dual-use contracts often require a ‘digital birth certificate’ for every component. Sourcing must define these data requirements early, or you’ll face a manual auditing nightmare later.
• Regulatory readiness: Sourcing must anticipate changes in ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) or EAR (Export Administration Regulations) status before the first purchase order is issued. 

Sourcing meets the ‘wall of silence’

Many sourcing challenges in dual-use development do not stem from supplier performance. They arise because procurement and engineering interpret requirements differently.

A commercial component may satisfy functional specifications yet lack the documentation required for defense qualification. Environmental requirements such as vibration, temperature range or electromagnetic compatibility may appear late in development, forcing costly supplier changes or requalification activities.

Cybersecurity presents another common example. If software assurance and supply-chain security are introduced only during compliance reviews, sourcing options become significantly more limited than they would have been if those requirements had guided supplier selection from the beginning.

The earlier these discussions happen, the more options remain available.

This early alignment is also reflected in collaborative initiatives such as the XR Labs, where companies, researchers, public authorities and end users use immersive technologies to co-design, test and validate dual-use solutions before they reach deployment. By refining requirements in realistic operational scenarios before supplier selection begins, organizations can make more informed sourcing decisions while reducing costly redesigns later in development.

The modular power-grid pilot

Consider a company developing portable microgrids for both disaster relief operations and military deployments.

By using an integrated requirements management tool, the sourcing team identified that 85% of the internal components could be dual-tracked. They defined a core requirement set that met 90% of defense ruggedization standards but remained cost-effective enough for civilian NGOs.

For the remaining 15% (the specialized, encrypted communications modules), they designed a plug-and-play architecture. This allowed them to use a standard, global supply chain for the main chassis while reserving hyper-secure ‘strategic sourcing’ exclusively for the sensitive modules.

The result: a 30% reduction in total COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) compared to building two entirely separate products.

A practical framework for sourcing decisions

To master strategic sourcing, you must manage and balance requirements across three distinct layers of the supply chain:

Looking ahead sourcing intelligence

Dual-use sourcing is becoming less about finding the lowest-cost supplier and more about building supply chains that remain adaptable as technologies, regulations and geopolitical conditions evolve.

That starts with requirements.

When sourcing, engineering and compliance teams establish a shared understanding of what the product needs to achieve – and why – they create far more flexibility later in development. The result is not only a more resilient supply chain, but also a product that can serve both commercial and defense markets without carrying unnecessary cost or complexity.

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Why industrialization is the strategic move for dual-use innovation

The industrialization of dual-use innovation creates a unique ‘flywheel effect’, one chain reaction that strengthens the balance sheet and national resilience together.

Transitioning from ‘hand-built’ to automated production lines drives the marginal cost down, making defense-grade technology viable for mass-market commercial adoption. That broader commercial base is what justifies investing in a more resilient supply chain. Industrialization forces the transition from ‘fragile’ specialized components to standardized and resilient sourcing that can withstand global shocks.

A standardized supply chain, in turn, is what makes the R&D math work. Development costs for dual-use platforms are steep, but scale allows amortization to be spread across high-volume commercial sales and high-reliability government contracts at once.

And finally, industrialization is what makes ‘software-defined hardware’ more than a slogan. A standardized fleet can actually receive software updates in real time. A collection of bespoke one-offs can’t be upgraded at scale, no matter how much R&D goes into it.

Dual-use innovation often stalls at the factory gate

It’s rarely the underlying technology that fails. It’s the absence of what can be called ‘industrial DNA’, the operational instincts that let a product go from clever to manufacturable.

Three patterns repeat themselves:

• The bespoke trap: Designing products that require artisan-level assembly, making it impossible to ramp up production when a major contract lands.
• Regulatory misalignment: Failing to build ‘compliance by design’, leading to commercial products that cannot meet defense security standards, or vice versa.
• Process immaturity: A focus on the product rather than the process of making the product, leading to inconsistent quality and unpredictable lead times.

The proof: Scaling autonomous logistics

Consider the evolution of autonomous Last-Mile Delivery (LMD) drones. Initially developed for specialized commercial delivery, these systems have immense dual-use potential for medical resupply in contested environments.

By industrializing the core platform, a leading manufacturer moved from building 10 units a month to 1,000. They achieved this by using modular chassis designs. In the morning, the line produces ‘commercial’ units optimized for weight and cost. In the afternoon, the same line produces ‘hardened’ versions with encrypted comms and ruggedized sensors.

This industrial synergy ensures that the defense sector gets cutting-edge tech at commercial speeds, while the commercial sector benefits from the extreme reliability required by defense standards.

The result is a manufacturing platform that serves both commercial and defense markets without maintaining two entirely separate production ecosystems.

The industrialization framework for dual-use innovation

Industrializing a dual-use product means that leadership needs to align four dimensions of the business model at once.

None of these is a one-off project you finish and move past. They’re operating disciplines that have to mature together because a certification strategy without a matching manufacturing strategy is just paperwork.

The next step to industrial leadership

Industrialization is ultimately what transforms promising technology into deployable capability. Organizations that design for manufacturability, certification, supply chain resilience and production readiness from the outset are better positioned to scale across both commercial and defense markets.

If there’s one shift worth internalizing, it’s this: your production floor is not support infrastructure for the innovation. It is the innovation, once you’re past the prototype stage. The code, the sensors, the materials science, all of it depends on whether you can actually build the thing at scale, to spec, twice a day, every day.

Wondering whether your platform is ready to move beyond the prototype stage? We’d be glad to walk through a Production Readiness Review with you, a practical way to assess your industrial readiness and identify where your manufacturing strategy, processes and supply chain can be strengthened before a major contract puts them to the test.

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The stakeholder complexity

A common pitfall for early-stage ventures is viewing the ‘user’ as a monolithic entity. In reality, the MedTech landscape is a web of competing interests. A solution might offer clinical excellence for a doctor, but if it fails to address the ‘economic pains’ of a hospital administrator or the efficiency needs of a technician, it will likely stall.

One of the biggest eye-openers we see when mentoring accelerator cohorts is the stakeholder mapping exercise. In MedTech, the ‘customer’ is rarely a single individual. Founders are pushed to move beyond their initial assumptions and clearly identify who holds decision-making power, who will actually use the solution, and who is financially invested in it. This often exposes critical gaps between the perceived value of a solution and how it’s evaluated across the healthcare ecosystem.

Refining a value proposition requires a shift from technical features to the ‘job to be done’. This perspective moves beyond functional utility to explore emotional and social drivers, such as peace of mind, risk reduction, and productivity. By mapping the specific ‘pains and gains’ for every stakeholder, a startup can evolve its narrative from a product pitch into a strategic market fit.

Identifying the opportunity gap

To bridge the gap between a founder’s vision and market reality, an objective validation methodology is required. This often involves utilizing opportunity algorithms to identify underserved needs. The process is deceptively simple but strategically profound: by measuring how important a specific outcome is to a respondent versus how satisfied they are with current solutions, startups can pinpoint the exact ‘attributes’ where the market is failing.

These gaps are where the most compelling value propositions are built. It is rarely about starting over from scratch; rather, it is about:

• Slicing attributes: Breaking down the solution into specific benefits that address validated needs.
• Challenging assumptions: Moving from ‘we think’ to ‘we know’ through structured respondent feedback.
• Story fine-tuning: Rephrasing the core solution to resonate with the person who holds the decision-making power.

Iteration as a competitive edge

The journey from an initial concept to a final pitch is rarely a straight line. It is an iterative cycle of presenting, challenging, and restructuring. The goal of this refinement process is to ensure that by the time a startup stands before an audience, they aren’t just selling an idea, they are solving a validated market pain. When a founder moves past the ‘baby syndrome’ and embraces the reality of the healthcare landscape, they turn their innovation into a sustainable business.

This is exactly the type of transformation we aim to drive when mentoring MedTech startups. Programs like the MedTech Accelerator are designed to support founders through this journey.

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Material matters: A stream-by-stream overview

Every material comes with its own set of trade-offs. Finding the right fit and innovation potential requires balancing performance with environmental impact:

• Aluminum: It is highly recyclable, but the initial production is incredibly energy-intensive. Current innovation focuses on increasing recycled content, lightweighting and improving collection infrastructure to reduce the carbon footprint.
• Cardboard: While renewable and widely recycled, issues such as deforestation and non-recyclable coatings remain. The goal is to source alternative fibers, simplify recycling processes and reduce the amount of material used.
• Glassware: It offers infinite recyclability but suffers from high transport costs due to its weight and fragility. Innovators are looking toward lightweighting, reusable packaging systems and logistics optimization to offset these hurdles.
• Plastics: Though the versatility and cost-effectiveness are unmatched, their reliance on fossil fuels is a major drawback. The industry is now pivoting toward bio-based plastics, improved recyclability and closed-loop systems.

The pitfalls of sustainable packaging innovation

More than just swapping materials, sustainable packaging requires systemic solutions. We generally see hurdles fall into three categories:

1. Technological hurdles

Sustainable materials don’t always offer the same performance as traditional packaging. Issues such as weaker barrier properties, reduced durability or limitations in print quality mean that further innovation is needed. At the same time, manufacturers are under pressure to scale quickly, even though adapting existing production lines to new materials can be both costly and technically complex. In addition, ensuring that sustainable packaging is genuinely recyclable or compostable usually requires substantial investment, not only in infrastructure but also in educating consumers.

2. Market challenges

Cost remains a major obstacle. Sustainable packaging solutions are often more expensive, which makes it harder to keep products affordable. Consumers may also avoid switching if they feel sustainability undermines convenience, appearance or product protection. On top of this, sourcing alternative materials and integrating them into existing supply chains often increases complexity and risk.

3. User challenges

For sustainable packaging to work in practice, it must be easy to use, easy to open and simple to dispose of. Clear and understandable labeling is crucial to helping consumers correctly recycle or compost packaging. Finally, widespread adoption relies on these solutions being consistently available across different retail channels, rather than limited to niche or premium offerings.

Piloting your way to success

Rather than jumping straight to a full-scale launch, FMCG companies can use strategic pilots at different points in the innovation journey to test assumptions and learn what truly works.

• Front-end innovation: Test consumer preferences for different materials, formats, and functionalities to guide early-stage innovation.
• New product development: Evaluate the performance of new sustainable packaging solutions in real-world conditions, ensuring they meet both consumer and product needs.
• New product introduction: Assess the feasibility of integrating sustainable packaging into existing manufacturing and distribution processes, optimizing for efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

For these pilots and, more broadly, sustainable packaging innovation to succeed, multidisciplinary teams are essential.

• Material expertise: Deep knowledge of sustainable packaging materials and their properties.
• Technology scouting: Advanced tools to scout for out-of-the-box solutions at all technology readiness levels.
• Concept design: Creative concept and usability design to increase adoption rates.
• Consumer research: Conducting in-depth consumer research to understand preferences and behaviors.
• Target-based costing: Drive material selection, design, and manufacturing processes to meet the cost target while maintaining functionality and sustainability
• Pilot project design and execution: Designing and executing strategic pilots to de-risk innovation and ensure market success.
• Technology integration: Integrating cutting-edge technologies to optimize packaging performance and sustainability.

Ultimately, the circular packaging economy is not about finding a single ‘perfect’ material. It requires continuous optimization across the entire value chain. Lasting impact emerges where material expertise meets consumer-centric design. At Verhaert Strategic Innovation, we support FMCG companies in working through the challenges of sustainable packaging by combining deep technical expertise with a data-driven, pragmatic approach, helping create solutions that work for both consumers and the planet.

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Answering the investor’s core questions

A perfect business plan anticipates and answers every fundamental question a financier has before they decide to commit capital. If the plan is comprehensive and positive, it gives investors confidence that you understand the challenges ahead.

1. What are you solving?

The first priority is defining the customer problem and the solution your business offers. Investors need clarity on the market gap you’re filling. This should be supported by a concise, compelling “elevator pitch” that summarizes your value proposition quickly.

2. How do you make money?

This moves beyond the product and into the business model. You must clearly detail how revenue is generated and what your business execution plan looks like. Investors want to see the strategy—the milestones and building blocks—that will lead you to the defined ‘endgame’ or ultimate vision of the company.

3. What can I expect?

Ultimately, the investor is asking: “What can I expect from the business?” This is where you address market dynamics, competition, and what you expect from the investor in return. A good plan demonstrates why your assumptions are reasonable, often because they are based on actual experience or solid market research.

Setting the scene: market, team and competition

This section serves as your comprehensive opening argument, setting the stage for the entire proposal by establishing the credibility of your opportunity and the capability of your management team. This is where you connect the dots between a market need and the people who can exploit it.

• The market opening: Investors need to understand the size of the opportunity and the market dynamics they are operating. This demonstrates that you’re not just building a product, but a sustainable business. Make sure to detail your existing customers and key achievements to date, providing evidence that your solution already resonates.
• The team and organization: Investors invest in people first. The plan must include key team members and an organizational chart to demonstrate that the right expertise and experience are in place. Highlight the core team’s relevant track record and explain why this specific group is uniquely qualified to build the company you are trying to create.
• The competitor overview: Providing a clear overview of your competitors, including their key information and financials, shows realism. It proves you understand the landscape. Additionally, you highlight what makes your solution superior, why customers will choose you and how your competitive advantage will be maintained as you scale.

Visualizing the business engine

This section is critical for proving profitability. You need a visualization of the business engine: what money, effort and resources you put in, and what you get out in terms of money, preferably per ‘unit’ sold. This validates the underlying economics of your venture.

A crucial metric here is the relationship between customer lifetime value (CLTV) and customer acquisition costs (CAC). As a rule of thumb, investors typically look for a business where the CLTV is greater than 3 times the CAC. You must define your own relevant KPIs (revenues, margins, cash burn, run-rate) that show how your underlying value drivers develop.

Proving viability and need

The financial section is where the plan moves from being aspirational to actionable.

The forecasts

A funding-ready plan must include a robust financial plan with a projection for the next five years. This five-year time horizon allows investors to properly assess the return potential and the journey to scale. Ideally, this covers the income statement, the balance sheet and the cashflow statement.

Analysis of need

A clear analysis of cash need/cash burn is non-negotiable. The plan must explicitly answer, “How much money do you need and for what?” This shows you have thought about your working capital requirements and initial operational costs.

Valuation and structure

Finally, the plan must clearly lay out the business’s valuation, the sources and uses of funds, and the resulting shareholder/financing structure. This provides the blueprint for the investment deal itself.

The living document

The best business plans are positive and comprehensive, including all necessary information to truly understand and value the business. They provide assurance that the team is organized, the market is understood, and the financial requirements are calculated.

A business plan is not a static paperweight, it’s a foundation for the ‘Next steps’ and an ongoing dialogue with potential investors. By providing this level of detail, you transform a pitch into a professional proposal, significantly increasing your chances of securing the necessary capital.

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Tip 1: Start with the problem, not the technology

It’s easy to fall into the trap of being fascinated by your own technology. As a researcher, you know every detail of how it works, but the market doesn’t. What matters is the problem it solves and why it’s better than existing solutions.

Trick: Begin with the pain points. Ask yourself what real-world challenges your technology could address. Look across industries and societal needs, is it inefficiency, cost, safety, accessibility or something else? Frame your technology as the answer to a tangible problem.

Example: If your breakthrough is a new sensor material, instead of highlighting sensitivity, ask: ‘What if we could detect pollutants in real-time at levels previously impossible?’ or ‘What if this sensor could make autonomous vehicles safer in bad weather?’.

Tip 2: Identify what makes your technology unique

You know your technology inside and out. Now distill it to the core features that set it apart and the advantages those features bring. Don’t just list what it is; explain what it does better and why it matters.

Trick: Use a simple Feature-Advantage-Benefit framework.

• Feature: What does your technology have? (ex. uses quantum entanglement)
• Advantage: What does that feature do better than alternatives? (ex. enables unhackable communication)
• Benefit: What does that advantage mean for the user or market? (ex. ensures complete data security for sensitive transactions)

Where possible, quantify comparisons. Instead of ‘Our battery lasts long’ say ‘Our battery lasts 50% longer than the leading competitor, extending drone missions by an extra hour’.

Tip 3: Think beyond the obvious: The ‘What else?’ game

Your initial research might have a clear primary application, but truly impactful technologies often have ripple effects into unexpected areas. Thinking broadly can uncover entirely new markets.

Trick: Play the ‘What else?’ game. Gather a diverse team (colleagues, industry contacts, even outsiders) and ask: ‘If this technology existed, what else could it be used for?’ Look for analogies: if it solves problem X in one industry, could it solve a similar problem elsewhere?

Example: A precise navigation system developed for autonomous vehicles could also improve robotic surgery or warehouse automation.

Dual-use lens: For technologies with dual-use potential, explicitly consider both commercial and defense/security applications. If it’s effective for medical diagnostics, could it also enhance battlefield triage? If it improves supply chain logistics, could it be applied to military readiness? This approach ensures you’re capturing all possible high-impact opportunities.

Tip 4: Validate with the market, not just the lab

Even the best hypotheses need market validation with real users. Assumptions alone won’t tell you whether your killer application is truly valuable.

Trick: Conduct customer discovery interviews. Talk to potential users, experts, and decision-makers. Ask about their pain points, current solutions, and what they wish existed. Listen more than you speak — their feedback will reveal if your application hits the mark, or uncover problems you hadn’t considered.

Example: If your material could improve dental implants, speak with dentists, surgeons, and manufacturers. Is the real issue cost, durability, biocompatibility, or something else entirely?

Tip 5: Iterate, prioritize and focus

Once you’ve identified potential applications and unique advantages, refine your list. You can’t pursue everything at once.

Trick: Evaluate applications using clear criteria: market size and growth, competitive landscape, feasibility, team alignment and potential impact. Don’t be afraid to pivot — the first idea you considered may not be the most viable or impactful. Start small, test, learn and scale up.

Finding the killer application that creates real-world impact

Transitioning from technology research to real market impact requires more than scientific insight, it demands a strategic approach to uncover the applications that truly matter and demonstrate tangible value. At Verhaert Strategic Innovation, we help organizations identify their technology’s killer application and translate its unique strengths into new business opportunities. So the question is: which of your innovations could unlock its full potential in the market and make a real difference in the world?

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Technology transcending boundaries

Cutting-edge technologies are increasingly dissolving the traditional divide between civilian and defense applications, creating shared innovation pathways and accelerating progress across both domains. Dual-use technologies are those developed with a primary purpose in one sector but capable of delivering significant value in another. This convergence reflects a larger trend: challenges in society and security are becoming more interconnected, and the solutions required are often technologically similar.

Dual-use innovation is becoming a key driver of technological progress, economic resilience and strategic capability. This enables industry to benefit from high-performance technologies traditionally associated with defense, while defense ecosystems gain access to the agility, creativity and entrepreneurial drive found in commercial and academic research environments. Dual-use technologies are advancing innovation and strengthening both societal well-being and security readiness.

What is dual-use technology?

Dual-use technology is about innovations that are designed for civilian use but also possess the capability to be applied in defense or security. The defining feature is not the technology itself, but its adaptability across sectors. A single development, whether software, hardware, material or scientific method, can support public benefit while also enhancing national security, operational resilience or strategic capability.

The strength of dual-use technologies lies in their scalability and adaptability. A single technology breakthrough can now impact multiple sectors, from public health to national security, from energy to space exploration. Therefore, broadening their market potential but also accelerating innovation cycles, allowing research to translate more rapidly into practical solutions.

Here are some examples:

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning: Powering predictive analytics in healthcare, smart manufacturing, and environmental monitoring, while also enabling advanced surveillance, targeting, and autonomous defense systems.
• Drones and autonomous systems: Transforming logistics, agriculture, and filmmaking, while equally essential for reconnaissance, border monitoring, and tactical support.
• Cybersecurity: Safeguarding personal data and critical infrastructure, and forming a foundational component of national defense, intelligence operations, and digital resilience.
• Advanced materials: Used in lightweight composites for commercial aviation, consumer electronics, and renewable energy systems, as well as in high-strength armour, aerospace components, and protective equipment.
• Biotechnology: Driving breakthroughs in disease treatment, diagnostics, and public health, while also enabling biodefense, rapid-response medical countermeasures, and resilience against emerging biological threats.

Dual-use highlights the shared technological foundations that can serve multiple sectors. Making dual-use technology a very powerful catalyst for economic growth, cross-sector collaboration, and strategic autonomy. Allowing government, industry, and research institutions to leverage investment more efficiently, collaboratively and ultimately ensuring that advancements in one domain strengthen capability in another.

Why researchers need to think like entrepreneurs

Moving dual-use research from concept to meaningful real-world capability isn’t just a question of scientific rigor—it demands strategic awareness, adaptability, and a willingness to engage beyond the traditional academic sphere. While academic outputs remain essential, they represent only the first step in realizing the broader impact of an innovation. To ensure that research reaches its full potential beyond the laboratory, researchers must also understand how their work can be positioned, developed, and deployed in real-world environments across multiple sectors.

This is where an entrepreneurial mindset becomes critical. It enables researchers to think not only about what they have developed, but who it is for, why it matters, and how it can be brought to market responsibly. Beyond scientific excellence, dual-use innovation requires navigating funding landscapes, compliance and regulatory requirements, partnerships with industry or government, and the practical steps from prototype development to scalable implementation.

Closing the research-to-market gap
Many strong innovations stall in the lab because commercialization requires skills beyond research. Pairing scientific expertise with entrepreneurial thinking allows technologies to move from prototypes to viable, market-ready solutions.

Recognizing broader opportunities
An entrepreneurial mindset helps researchers identify multiple use cases, engage with industry, and align their innovations with real market and end-user needs across both civilian and defense domains.

Navigating regulatory and ethical complexity
Dual-use technologies often involve sensitive legal and ethical considerations. Entrepreneurial awareness supports informed decision-making, responsible development, and compliance from the start.

Accelerating real-world impact
When researchers actively drive development—securing funding, forming partnerships, and building implementation pathways—their work reaches users faster, which is especially critical in defense and public-sector contexts.

Strengthening investment and talent attraction
Clear commercialization potential makes research more compelling to investors, industry partners, and skilled collaborators, enabling stronger ecosystems around emerging technologies.

Enabling cross-sector collaboration
Dual-use innovation depends on collaboration between academia, government, and industry. Entrepreneurial researchers are better positioned to build and sustain the partnerships required to bring solutions to scale.

Researchers can cultivate this mindset by gaining a foundational understanding of business, market dynamics, finance, and intellectual property; building networks with investors, industry leaders, policymakers, and fellow entrepreneurs; and embracing calculated risk-taking and iterative learning. It also involves applying problem-solving skills to real-world challenges and communicating the value and potential of their technology clearly to a diverse audience.

28 DIGITAL x Verhaert

We are proud to partner with 28 DIGITAL to provide this much-needed support to researchers and highlight the strategic importance of dual-use technologies. The intersection of cutting-edge science and dual-use innovation holds exceptional potential, opening pathways for meaningful real-world impact. When researchers adopt an entrepreneurial approach, they can move their breakthroughs from concept to tangible solutions that address both civilian and defense needs—shaping a future where their work serves a broader purpose. The journey from scientific discovery to societal benefit is fundamentally entrepreneurial, and researchers are at the center of this transformation.

Check out Verhaert Strategic Innovation‘s new pre-incubator program ‘SPIN: Rise Evolve DualTech‘, in partnership with 28 DIGITAL’s SPIN: Rise initiative, which will support researchers across Europe with hands-on entrepreneurship learnings and mentoring.

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How space data adds value

There are 3 core space technologies that offer practical benefits in other sectors: GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems), Satcom (Satellite Communication) and Earth Observation (EO). Each category provides unique, actionable insights that are revolutionizing how businesses assess risk, optimize operations and connect with customers. Below is a closer look at how these applications create tangible value.

Enhanced risk assessment

Insurance companies can use EO data to gather valuable insights for assessing risks and estimating potential damages associated with natural disasters, climate change and property damage. This allows insurers to accurately price policies, optimize claims processing and mitigate potential losses.

Another example can be found in banking, where EO data can be used to monitor economic activity, assess infrastructure development and evaluate the financial health of businesses. This information can aid credit risk assessment and investment decisions.

Improved operational efficiency

For logistics and transportation, GNSS technology enables precise tracking of assets and fleets in real-time. As a result, this helps optimize routes, reduce fuel consumption and improve delivery efficiency, ultimately saving costs and overall efficiency for transportation and delivery services.

Similarly, supply chain management can benefit from EO data to monitor supply chains, track shipments and identify potential disruptions. It enables companies to move from reactive crisis management to proactive, data-driven optimization.

Enhanced customer service

Other than efficiency, space tech enables telecommunications companies to reach even new market segments. The technology enables reliable communication networks, even in remote areas, ensuring connectivity for businesses and their customers.

Another example is financial services. GNSS improves customer convenience not just by making mobile banking and payment transactions possible anywhere but by ensuring those transactions are processed with unparalleled speed, security and global operational reliability, improving customer convenience and accessibility.

Innovation and new business opportunities

Space data allows fintech companies to reach new markets and develop innovative financial products and services, such as location-based insurance or microloans for farmers. This is because of novel, accurate and often instant data points about assets, activities and regions that were previously data-poor.

Consulting companies can use their domain expertise to leverage space data and provide valuable insights and consulting services to clients. This decision-making support can apply to various sectors, such as agriculture, urban planning and environmental management.

Leveraging space data for your business

Successfully integrating space data requires a structured approach to ensure maximum benefit. The key steps include:

• Data assessment: Ensuring datasets meet requirements to address specific business challenges.
• Strategic sourcing: Scouting and set-up processes for collaboration with data providers and technical specialists.
• Strategic consulting: Providing guidance on how to leverage space data for business growth and innovation.

Embracing these strategic steps positions businesses for success, but sustaining a competitive edge in the rapidly evolving space data field requires a broad network to scout new application opportunities. This is why Verhaert Strategic Innovation is a key partner in initiatives like CASSINI, making us uniquely positioned to connect businesses with cutting-edge space technology and the talent driving its next phase of development.

The post Reaching for the stars to improve your bottom line: How space data benefits financial and service industries appeared first on Verhaert Masters in Innovation.

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Moving beyond traditional waste management

Traditional waste management often focuses on disposal – landfilling or incineration. While these methods are necessary for managing certain waste types and reducing immediate volume, they inherently treat waste as an endpoint. This approach fails to recognize the potential value locked within waste streams, leading to resource depletion, high energy consumption for manufacturing new materials and significant environmental impact. The circular economy offers a critical alternative by treating waste as a potential raw material.

ILvA, the intermunicipal waste processing association for the ‘Land van Aalst’ region, is taking a bold step towards a circular economy with its Schendelbeke composting site. With support from VLAIO (Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship), they’re using strategic sourcing to transform the site into a hub for producing valuable resources from organic waste.

Strategic sourcing facilitates this transformation in 3 ways:

1. Innovation partnerships

ILvA is using an ‘innovation partnership’ procurement model. This allows them to collaborate with companies to co-develop and test innovative technologies for processing organic waste, specifically focusing on converting woody and reed-like fractions of green waste into biochar.

2. Focus on biochar

Biochar, a charcoal-like material, is produced through pyrolysis (heating in the absence of oxygen). It has numerous applications: soil improvement, carbon sequestration, water filtration and even as a renewable energy source. Because this production process requires highly specialized technology, ILvA utilized its innovation partnership model to secure the precise, cutting-edge pyrolysis equipment and expertise.

3. Pilot project

The project involves a pilot phase to test and validate the biochar production process at Schendelbeke. This pilot structure is used to manage the inherent complexity and uncertainty of new technologies. It allows for real-world optimization and ensures the chosen solution is technically effective, financially scalable, and ultimately de-risks the significant public investment before committing to full, industrial implementation.

A game-changer for climate and resource management

This project has the potential to be a game-changer for waste management and contribute to a more sustainable future:

• Reduced greenhouse gas emissions: Producing biochar from organic waste can sequester carbon in the soil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional composting or landfilling.
• Valuable resource creation: Biochar is a valuable soil amendment that can improve soil fertility, water retention and crop yields.
• Circular economy model: The project demonstrates a shift from a linear “take-make-dispose” model to a circular economy where waste is used as a resource.

Guiding the transition

Verhaert Strategic Innovation played a crucial role in the early stages of this project. This involved essential strategic sourcing expertise in:

• Stakeholder engagement: Organizing workshops and market consultations to gather technical and market input from potential users of biochar and technology providers.
• Technology scouting: Identifying and evaluating different pyrolysis technologies to assess their suitability and alignment with project goals.
• Strategic guidance: Providing strategic guidance to ILvA in developing the procurement strategy and facilitating the selection of the right innovation partner.

A model for circular transition

The ‘Circulaire Ecogrondstoffenhub Schendelbeke’ project is a shining example of how strategic sourcing can be used to drive the transition to a circular economy. By embracing innovation, fostering collaboration and leveraging the expertise of partners like Verhaert, ILvA is creating a model for sustainable waste management that can be replicated across Flanders and beyond.

The post From waste to resources: How Schendelbeke’s circular eco-hub leads the way appeared first on Verhaert Masters in Innovation.

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