Digital Innovation Hubs

Back

DIH Profile

Réseau LIEU – LIaisons Entreprises-Universités

Hub Information

Hub Name
Réseau LIEU – LIaisons Entreprises-Universités
Local Name
Réseau LIEU – LIaisons Entreprises-Universités
Evolutionary Stage
Fully operational
Geographical Scope
Regional

Description

The LIEU network brings together the Knowledge Transfer Offices (KTOs) of Belgian French-speaking Universities and Higher Education Institutions. The mission of the KTOs is to stimulate and facilitate cooperation between scientific communities and companies in terms of collaborative research, services and knowledge transfer. The LIEU network aims to create a forum where businesses and researchers can enter a dialogue to build trusting relationships. The advisors of the LIEU network act as go-betweens for businesses and researchers, analyzing the business’ needs in order to direct them to the best available solution, and facilitate their cooperation with appropriate academic researchers. The main services provided to companies are divided in three categories: • INFORM: provide to company a concise and consolidated information on the available scientific skills, services and facilities, • COOPERATE: provide to company a tailored support to find a research partner and to establish a business/research partnership, • NETWORK: organize business/research events to stimulate new contacts and give an opportunity to learn about technological and societal advances. The LIEU network forms a unique ecosystem that successfully promotes interactions between various research and innovation professionals. Therefore, LIEU maintains close relationships with all the members of the Walloon Digital Innovation Hub (DIH Digital Wallonia.be), especially the RTOs, the incubator/accelerator, the industry and cluster organizations, the economic development agencies and the regional government.

Le réseau LIEU regroupe les bureaux de transfert de connaissances (en anglais, Knowledge Transfer Offices - KTOs) des universités et des hautes écoles belges francophones. La mission des KTOs est de stimuler et faciliter la coopération entre les communautés scientifiques et les entreprises en termes de recherche collaborative, de prestations de services et de transfert de connaissances. Le réseau LIEU vise à créer un espace de dialogue où les entreprises et les chercheurs peuvent créer des relations de confiance. Les conseillers en transfert technologique du réseau LIEU agissent comme intermédiaires pour les entreprises et les chercheurs, en analysant les besoins des entreprises afin de les orienter vers la meilleure solution disponible et ainsi faciliter la coopération avec les équipes de chercheurs les plus appropriées. Les principaux services proposés aux entreprises sont divisés en trois catégories: • INFORMER: fournir aux entreprises des informations concises et consolidées sur les compétences, les services et les installations scientifiques disponibles, • COLLABORER: fournir aux entreprises un accompagnement sur mesure pour trouver un partenaire de recherche et établir un partenariat commercial / de recherche, • RENCONTRER: organiser des activités de rencontre pour stimuler de nouveaux contacts et donner l'occasion de connaître les avancées technologiques et sociétales. Le réseau LIEU forme un écosystème unique qui favorise l'interaction entre les professionnels de la recherche et de l’innovation. Par conséquent, LIEU entretient des relations étroites avec tous les membres du Walloon Digital Innovation Hub (DIH Digital Wallonia.be), en particulier les centres de recherche agréés, les incubateurs, les pôles et clusters d’entreprises, les agences de développement économique et le gouvernement régional.

Contact Data

Coordinator
LIEU network
Year Established
2003
Location
Passage des Déportés 2, 5030, Gembloux (Belgium)
Website
http://www.reseaulieu.be/en
Social Media
Contact information
Olivier VANDE VYVER
director@reseaulieu.be
+32 (0) 81 62 2

Organisation

Organizational form
(part of) Public organization (part of RTO, or university)
Turnover
-
Number of employees
50-100

Technologies

  • Micro/nano electronics
  • Sensory systems
  • Photonics and imaging technologies
  • Communication networks
  • Cyber physical systems
  • Robotics
  • Internet of things
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Mobility & Location based technologies
  • Interaction technologies
  • Cyber security
  • Advanced, or high performance computing
  • Big data, data analytics, data handling
  • Virtual, augmented and extended reality
  • Simulation, modelling and digital twins
  • Gamification
  • Cloud computing
  • Additive manufacturing
  • Laser based manufacturing

The activities of the hub are well aligned with the french national initiative for digitising industry, Alliance Industrie du Futur.

Market and Services

Sectors

TRL Focus

  • TRL1 - Basic principles observed and reported
  • TRL2 - Technology concept and/or application formulated
  • TRL3 - Analytical and experimental critical function and/or characteristic proof of concept
  • TRL4 - Component and/or breadboard validation in laboratory environment

Services provided

  • Ecosystem building, scouting, brokerage, networking
  • Collaborative Research
  • Concept validation and prototyping
  • Testing and validation
  • Education and skills development

Service Examples

Technology optimisation

Client profile: A small-sized company working in the home-care for elderly people and using digital solutions wanted to optimize its technology by bringing a new dimension to its R&D policy.

Client needs: The first step for this company was to discover the potential (in terms of research and innovation) of the regional universities and higher education institutions. A first contact with the LIEU network allows the knowledge transfer officers to analyze the request and better understand the specific needs of the SME. A meeting was then organized with researchers from different universities, each of them bringing a complementary expertise aligned with the advanced digital skills sought.

Provided service: Convergences appeared with the research laboratories and, in a second step, the LIEU network was active in implementing a fruitful collaboration, especially by setting up a well-balanced consortium of companies and laboratories and by identifying possible ways of regional and European funding. The submission of an European project under the H2020 program was identified as the ideal solution to achieve the collaboration. Consequently, a research project has been submitted in collaboration with the University of Namur.

Thanks to its expertise, the LIEU network supported the company throughout its interactions with the researchers, by addressing all the facets of a company-university research collaboration, from the identification of relevant actors to the management of the intellectual property aspects of such a collaborative project.

Multimedia processing

Client profile: To keep museums attractive, it is crucial to rethink cultural exhibitions and their relationship with the public in the light of digital revolution. 2015 constituted a turning point for the Ville de Mons, being selected as the European Capital of Culture. This drove the city to develop a new and more modern cultural offer for which it required digital expertise.

Client needs: The Numediart Research Institute from UMONS benefits from an internationally reknown expertise in multimedia processing (audio, image, speech, motion capture, video, etc.). It also has a long-term experience in project management with artists and various actors from the cultural sphere.

Provided service: The path to digitalization of the Mons museum cluster was built with a series of collaborative projects with Numediart, mainly through Mons2015 and ERDF subventions. These projects also contributed to the economical growth of local companies involved in the development of the various prototypes (see below). Some of the major achievements are:
• GIANTPLAY: Monumental interactive game projected on a building (MONS 2015; in collaboration with DragOnSlide)
• YOU-MOTION: Autonomous interactive installation to allow the visitor of the exhibition to see his facial emotion in extreme slow motion  (BAM exhibition “Premiers vidéastes”; in collaboration with i-Movix)
• Reg’Art: Autonomous interactive installation to allow the visitor of the exhibition to have a feedback on the way he looked at a painting. This was compared to an automatic prediction of gaze trajectory based on the specificities of the painting (in collaboration with iTtention)

Beside the creative thinking and prototyping stages, Numediart was also involved in the testing and evaluation of the installation and specialized (through the living lab CLICK’, see further) in a user-centric approach. All these projects resulted in a very high press coverage and helped to raise the Pôle Muséal as an internationally reknown museum cluster in terms of technology integration.

Customer: Pôle Muséal de Mons - Directeur: M. Xavier Roland - 065/40.53.25 - polemuseal@villedemons.be

Created in the framework of the ERDF DigiSTORM project, CLICK’ is the Walloon Living Lab dedicated to the Cultural and Creative Industries. At the heart of the creative Walloon ecosystem, the CLICK’ benefits from the expertise of the Numediart Research Institute (UMONS) and of two research centers: CETIC and MULTITEL. CLICK’ is the ideal partner for any project holder wishing to develop innovative products or services in that domain and to help artists or cultural institutions on their way to digitalization. The work methodology proposed by the living lab is composed of a series of stages, from creative thinking to prototyping, testing and validation. Later stages of project coaching are ensured by “La Maison de l’Entreprise (LME)”, an additional partner of the ERDF project. Connected to the CLICK is also the Fablab Mons who has recently obtained ERDF subvention to widen its offer to industry, ranging from 3D printer and laser cutter to Internet of Things sensors and networks. Hands-on workshops should soon be organized to help local companies in creating and prototyping IoT devices.

Technology transfer

Client profile: Ion Beam Applications (IBA) has become the leader in proton therapy by developing its expertise in particle accelerators for cancer treatment. IBA has designed and equipped the majority of clinically operating proton therapy centers around the world.

The Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) is the Belgian largest French speaking university. Among its numerous education and research entities, the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics (ICTEAM) has strong skills in key fields of information and communication technologies, electronics, computer science and applied mathematics.

Client needs: To continue to improve the accuracy of proton therapy, IBA decided to develop innovative advanced solutions for image- and dose- guided proton therapy. IBA tackle this challenge through the reinforcement of its collaboration with UCL and the creation of a new multi-disciplinary research unit (iMagX.R), initially launched as part of a public-private partnership cofounded by the Walloon region. The research environment provides a smooth connection between academic and industrial research while the links with IBA treatment centers ensure close contact with the clinical world.

The digitization is at the heart of this long-standing collaboration, with a team that gathers competences in medical physics, signal processing, radiation oncology, and software development. Based on the co-developed software tools and platform, the collaboration successfully researched and engineered in-room imaging solutions that lead to a world premiere: the first proton therapy guided by volumetric imaging in the treatment room at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Provided service: The LIEU network, through one of its member i.e. the Louvain Technology Transfer Office (LTTO) of UCL, has been involved in various stages of this successful knowledge transfer. In particular, the LTTO team supports the iMagX.R project in the setting up of the research projects, in the management of the intellectual property rights (patent protection, software distribution) and in the identification of additional funding required to increase the technology readiness level of the obtained software solutions.

Contact (iMagX.R project): info@imagx.org - http://www.imagx.org/

Funding

  • Horizon 2020
  • European Social Fund
  • European Regional Development Fund
  • Regional funding
  • Private funding
  • Other

Customers

Number of customers annually
26-50
Type of customers
  • Start-up companies
  • SMEs (<250 employees)
  • MidCaps (between €2-10 billion turnover)
  • Large companies, multi-nationals

    • Partners

    • Ephec
    • Université de Liège (ULg)
    • Université de Namur (UNamur)
    • HELMO
    • HE Albert Jacquard
    • HE Bruxelles Brabant (HE2B)
    • HE de la Province de Namur
    • HE Robert Schuman
    • HE Charlemagne
    • HE en Hainaut
    • HE de la Province de Liege
    • Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles (USL-B)
    • ICHEC-ISFSC
    • HE Louvain en Hainaut
    • HENALLUX
    • Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
      University
      https://www.ulb.be/
    • Université de Mons (UMons)
    • HE ville de Liège
    • HE Léonard de Vinci
    • HE Lucia de Brouckhere
    • HE Condorcet
    • Université catholique de Louvain (UCL)
    • HE Francisco Ferrer
    • Higher Education Institutions (represented by Synhera): HE Libre De Bruxelles Ilya Prigogine
    • HE Galilée
    Last updated: 03/09/18 12:44