“When you talk about space, you talk about cyber”
As one of the people personally championing the new innovation cluster, Vermeire finds the timing anything but coincidental. “A great deal has changed for me over the past year, including the acquisition of Starion and Nexova Group, my employers, by Sopra Steria. As a result, we have evolved from a company with several hundred specialised space and cyber engineers into part of an international group with tens of thousands of employees. The integration is still ongoing, but the strategic direction is crystal clear: our expertise in cybersecurity, space and critical infrastructure needs to be harnessed more effectively.”
Geopolitical mementum
The broader scale-up has also created momentum for an ecosystem focused on the two domains. For Vermeire, the choice of location to spearhead the ecosystem was obvious. “In and around Redu-Transinne, you find a combination of assets that rarely exist side by side in one place. These include, of course, the ESA Cyber Security activities, but also the European Commission’s Galileo-related infrastructure. The area thus hosts highly advanced cyber ranges, digital twin test environments, state-of-the-art quantum labs and highly secured infrastructure.”
Bringing these elements together has become more important than ever, in his view. “When you talk about space, you talk about cyber. And when you talk about cyber today, you also talk about critical infrastructure,” he explains. Vermeire believes that this way of thinking needs to move further into the mainstream. “Positioning, navigation and timing, financial transactions, mobility, disaster management, Earth observation, defence and communications all increasingly rely on space applications. If disruption occurs at that layer, the impact is felt across infrastructures that are essential for the safety and security to both our economy and our society.”
So while space is more generally associated with exploration, satellites and scientific missions, for cybersecurity professionals its relevance is very concrete. The initiative also fits within a much broader European and geopolitical context. As sovereignty, defence capabilities and strategic technologies move back to the centre of the agenda, many countries are accelerating their space and cyber programmes. For Belgium, Vermeire sees this as a ‘now or never’ moment. “The point is not to create competition between regions, but to more effectively organise the strengths we already have,” he says.
Complementarity and cluster development
Vermeire is keen to avoid turning the innovation cluster into a closed project run by a small group of companies. “The hub will follow the model of existing clusters and will be open to the broader Belgian industry landscape. Redu may be the centre of gravity, because the physical links with ESA and Galileo are located there, but that does not mean every relevant player has to be based there as well. In the same way that maritime technology is not developed exclusively at the coast, a space and cyber cluster should be able to connect Belgian expertise from different regions.”
Following its formal establishment, the initiative is aiming to launch its first pilot projects later this year. Belgium has a strong technology base, specialised companies and international infrastructure. The challenge now is to turn those assets into an ecosystem that can move quickly. Vermeire sees an important role for the Cyber Security Coalition in that process, not simply as a network, but as a bridge to partners that can strengthen the initiative’s cyber dimension. “Large contracts in defence, space or critical infrastructure can hardly be carried by one party alone. They require complementarity, trust and fast access to reliable expertise. A coalition lowers the threshold for finding partners and turning collaboration into concrete action. We experience that every day.”
