VLAIO (Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship) opens the position of Team Lead / Manager Programme for Innovation Procurement  for the purpose of Job Shadowing, offering PhD candidates (≥ 3rd year of the PhD trajectory) / postdocs affiliated with 1 of the 5 Flemish universities the possibility to see for themselves what tasks and responsibilities come with this particular job function. 

With the Programme for Innovation Procurement (PIO or PIP), the Government of Flanders has the mission to stimulate all public sector organisations in Flanders to strategically use their substantial purchasing power (> 30 billion a year) as a catalyst for innovation. In 9 years, PIP established a portfolio of more than 130 innovation procurement projects, in different policy fields and sectors. The Programme clearly demonstrates its added value (confirmed in an external evaluation, carried out in 2022). Therefore, since January 1, 2024, the initially temporary pilot programme has become a structural, permanent innovation instrument within the larger Flemish Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (VLAIO). Job Shadowing allows you to follow PIP’s Programme Manager around. As PIP acts as a kind of matchmaker or broker between (1) public needs / societal challenges, and (2) solutions developed and tested by the private and research sector, PIP has a wide network of public and private partners in all kind of sectors and domains, in Flanders and beyond.   

> Open to PhD candidates / postdocs from all academic disciplines.  Preference is given to candidates with a firm knowledge of English. A knowledge of Dutch is a plus. 

VLAIO offers a 1-day Job Shadowing experience. The dates for Job Shadowing will be decided upon in close consultation with the selected candidate. Job Shadowing will take place at the location of one of  the VLAIO partners.