IMEC  Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC) is an international research & development and innovation hub, active in the fields of nanoelectronics and digital technologies. Luc Van den hove has served as President and CEO since 2009. In September 2016, IMEC merged with the Flemish digital research center, iMinds. IMEC employs around 4,000 researchers from more than 90 countries; it has numerous facilities dedicated to research and development around the world, including 12,000 square meters of cleanroom capacity for semiconductor processing. The IMEC headquarters are located in Leuven. In 1982, the Flemish Government set up a program to strengthen the microelectronics industry in Flanders. This program included setting up a laboratory for advanced research in microelectronics (IMEC), a semiconductor foundry (former Alcatel Microelectronics, now STMicroelectronics and AMI Semiconductor, and a training program for VLSI design engineers. The latter is now fully integrated in the IMEC activities. IMEC was founded in 1984 as a non-profit organization led by Prof. Roger Baron Van Overstraeten. The name IMEC is an acronym of the original full name: Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum VZW. It is supervised by a Board of Directors, which includes delegates from industry, Flemish universities and the Flemish Government. Since 1984, IMEC has been led by Roger Van Overstraeten, Gilbert Declerck (as of June 1999), and Luc Van den Hove (as of July 2009). In February 2016, it was announced that IMEC would be merging with the Flemish digital research center, iMinds. The goal was to strengthen Flanders’ international authority as a technology hub. Luc Van den hove lead the merger between IMEC and digital research center iMinds in 2016, intending to combine IMEC’s background in developing cutting-edge chip technology with iMinds’ artificial intelligence and security expertise. Van den hove’s objective was "to turn IMEC into a unique and world-class research center to develop disruptive technologies and solutions in a broad range of application areas such as health, smart cities and mobility, logistics and manufacturing, energy, education and infotainment." Van den hove also claimed that by combining iMinds’ expertise in software, A.I. and ICT with the miniaturization power of chip technology would allow IMEC to offer ‘total solutions’ to virtually every industrial market.