Strengthening the cooperation with the Vlaams Instituut voor de Logistiek

»The Antwerp harbour and the entire Flanders area are an exciting logistics region and they are important partners for us in North-Rhine Westphalia – we would like to exploit the potential for joint projects even more methodically«, explains Prof. Dr. Uwe Clausen, Director at Fraunhofer IML. Companies, RTOs and institutions in both networks shall equally benefit from that cooperation. The MoU was signed at Fraunhofer IML by Prof. Dr. Uwe Clausen, Liesbeth Geysels, Managing Director of VIL, and Thorsten Hülsmann, Managing Director of EffizienzCluster Management GmbH. »Together, we intend to strengthen the position of logistics in Germany’s and Belgium’s economies and support each other in cooperation projects or transnational projects. It is about strengthening the image of logistics as solution provider and high tech industry«, says Hülsmann.

In future, the three partners will intensively identify joint fields of action and encourage the exchange between respective players in the networks through workshops, innovation days and match-making events. The fields of action include ICT (information and communication technology) and smart devices for intelligent logistical system, synchro-modality, green logistics, urban logistics, mobility and autonomous transports. Also the activities with joint applications for research projects at EU level shall be intensified – in particular with respect to Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.

VIL is a non-profit organisation with nearly 500 active members from different sectors of logistics (haulage contractors, shipping agents, harbours and airports, logistic estate companies and research institutions). Main research fields are cooperative logistics, green logistics, e-commerce and smart logistics. VIL sees itself as open-innovation platform and seeks the status of a leading edge cluster in Flanders.