Ghent is also home to one of the world's leading agri-food innovation clusters, and here too Tech Lane Ghent Science Park is the centre of gravity. Its scientific anchor is the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology, globally recognised for plant molecular biology and, together with Ghent University's Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, the source of a huge plant-biotechnology cluster.
That research base has produced a remarkable lineage of spin-offs: Devgen (acquired by Syngenta), CropDesign (now BASF Plant Science), and more recently Biotalys in precision biocontrols, Aphea.Bio in microbial crop protection and biostimulants, and Protealis in legume seed and plant-protein breeding - while BASF and Syngenta both maintain dedicated R&D centres locally.
The VIB Agro-Incubator, opened in 2021 on the former CropDesign/BASF site, gives early-stage agri-biotech companies lab and greenhouse space, with mentoring delivered in collaboration with ILVO. Just outside the city, ILVO - the Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, headquartered in Merelbeke - closes the loop from gene to plate: its Food Pilot living lab in Melle, run jointly with the Flanders' FOOD spearhead cluster, offers companies more than 50 semi-industrial production lines plus analytical and sensory labs for recipe, process and shelf-life development, complemented by fermentation and biobased scale-up at the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant in Ghent's port.