Catalisti advances the Innovation Roadmap with expert interviews and technical workshops
Catalisti is moving into the next phase of developing the Innovation Roadmap for the chemical and plastics industry in Flanders. Following the questionnaire organised in December 2025 and building on the draft roadmap, we are now deepening the dialogue with selected stakeholders to sharpen priorities and strengthen the roadmap’s focus for the years ahead.
The expert interviews and technical workshops are important steps in the roadmap process. This way we want to gauge what is truly important for the ecosystem and translate expert feedback into clear choices—so that the final roadmap is both ambitious and actionable.
A roadmap that sets direction for the coming decade
The Innovation Roadmap is designed to set the direction for the next decade, guiding Catalisti’s role as an innovation broker for the chemical and plastics industry. It brings together three complementary perspectives—context, cluster, and technical—to ensure innovation priorities are grounded in reality, aligned across the ecosystem, and translated into concrete programmes along the value chain.
By consolidating input from industry, knowledge partners and other stakeholders, the roadmap helps ensure that regional resources are focused where they can deliver the greatest impact—through innovation, collaboration and stronger value chains across the cluster.
This roadmap is about making choices together. The insights we gather now will directly shape where we focus our efforts—so innovation funding, partnerships and projects can deliver the greatest impact for the Flemish chemical and plastics ecosystem.
— Aron Deneyer (Innovation Broker, Catalisti)
Consultation
The first major step in our consultation process was the launch of a questionnaire at the end of last year. The response rate was very strong, providing valuable input that will help us better prepare the next phases of our work. The results of the questionnaire will be shared in the Spring of 2026.
To move forward, Catalisti is now combining two complementary consultation formats:
- In-depth interviews, focusing mainly on the cluster perspective of the roadmap—how we strengthen collaboration, value chains, and Catalisti’s role as a central actor in the innovation ecosystem.
- An Innovation Roadmap Workshops on 24th of March 2026, dedicated to sharpening the technical perspective—the innovation topics that span circular feedstocks, energy, processes, unit operations and products.
Participants in the workshops will be able to choose which sessions they would like to contribute to, ensuring the discussions benefit from the most relevant expertise in the room and enabling deeper, more focused exchanges.
Aligning the broader context with essenscia
In parallel with the interviews and workshops—and beyond these moments—Catalisti will continue to align closely with essenscia on the context perspective of the roadmap. This helps ensure coherence with wider sector priorities and the evolving policy, economic and market environment that shapes innovation choices.
From consultation to implementation
All findings gathered through the questionnaire, interviews and workshop discussions will feed directly into the next iteration of the Innovation Roadmap, which is expected to be finalised in summer 2026. The roadmap will then be implemented in Catalisti’s work from early 2027 onward, translating shared priorities into concrete brokerage activities, collaborations and innovation trajectories.