For many companies, Belgium remains attractive from the R&D point of view.

The most flourishing sectors in terms of research
Number one: the pharmaceutical sector. The 154 innovating companies working in the country invested over one billion euros in research and development (R&D) in 2006. Then come the chemical, petrochemical and plastics sectors (584 million euros) followed by telecoms (406 million). The pharmaceutical sector represents 5,600 researchers, that is 17.5% of total employment in the sector, and annual growth in the number of researchers of 6.7 %.

Belgium's great research centres
Companies like GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutica and UCB are among the top 10 in R&D in Belgium. And Solvay is transferring a centre of 275 researchers to the American company, Abbott. Foreign groups like Pfizer, Amgen, Baxter and MSD (Belgian subsidiary of the American giant Merck) also have a very significant presence.
In petrochemicals, Total's research unit in Feluy must be mentioned. With 500 employees, it is the group's largest research centre. Proctor & Gamble employs 450 people in its European research centre in Brussels. As for Toyota, the car manufacturer, it employs several hundred engineers in its European research centre in Zaventem.

What is the future of research in Belgium?
Even if it faces sizeable challenges, Belgium remains fertile soil for the research world. Belgium is making appreciable efforts, in particular at the tax level, to support research, in particular in the pharmaceutical sector.

L.V.D. - 18/11/2009 - L'Echo.be