Belgium
IoTBE VZW - Internet of Things Belgian - is a vibrant expert group and open innovation platform in which research, business & government come together to build a disruptive future. The IoT Innovation Center or IoTIC helps companies in the industry & service sector and the government to tackle the IoT challenges and opportunities.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and search engine Shodan, Belgium ranks among the top Internet of Things early adopters worldwide. As an IoT early adopter, Belgium plays a key role in helping the IoT technology go mainstream.
One of the important area is the Brussels High Tech ecosystem. Several companies and start-ups are active in various sub-domains, such as Smart Cities, Smart Building, Telematics, Smart Industries, etc. All the IOT software, hardware and telecom expertise are present in Brussels! IOT incubators, accelerators and fab-lab also help gather and develop all those skills. All major IOT dedicated networks are deployed in Belgium: SigFox, LoRa and of course M2M (4G/LTE), making from Brussels and Belgium a perfect testbed for IoT projects. Moreover, IoT has been declared as one of the Top 3 priorities of the regional plan for IT Entrepreneurship, in the NextTech. Brussels plan voted in 2017 by the Brussels region government.
Belgium supportive government and R&D-friendly tax system intersect to create an attractive business environment and may receive support in the form of subsidies and grants. Generally, there are 5 organization types for R&D activities that are eligible for one or more of Flanders’ R&D tax incentives: Global R&D centre, Young Innovative Company (YIC), Contract Research Organization (CRO), Manufacturing company and/or R&D consulting company.
