Alain Thielemans

Advisor international and national/regional R&D – Defence, Manufacturing & Space at Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO), Brussels, Belgium

Alain Thielemans hold a M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the VUB (1997)

He is experienced in large R&D initiatives like living labs and (spearhead)clusters and is currently involved in operationalizing R&D funding under Flemish Innovation and Industry Strategy for Security & Defence (VISD). In this context he is coordinator of the VLAIO defence R&D calls.

He is vice president of the AAL Association, a co-funded European partnership (H2020 / art 185 TFEU) since 2017 and member of the board (Treasurer) of The European Network of leading national innovation agencies TAFTIE under the VLAIO presidency 2026.

Before joining VLAIO (previously IWT) in 2008 he held various positions in R&D and operations management in the electronics and chemical industry.