Interreg Meuse-Rhine (NL-BE-DE)

Acronym

Title & Summary

ULiège

coordinator 

The IMPRESS project aims to develop and validate an implementation toolkit for three previously validated safety interventions. IMPRESS explores the conditions for implementation, an aspect that has received little attention in the IMR but has recently been promoted by the WHO and the OECD. Another novel feature is the collaborative development with patients, who are involved as decision-makers to ensure the relevance and sustainability of the initiatives. By strengthening skills, cooperation, and learning across countries, IMPRESS directly contributes to the IMR’s challenge: healthier citizens. The project aims to improve access to safe care, support staff resilience, and promote the cross-border transfer of health innovations.

The primary focus is on the patient-caregiver partnership working together to strengthen safety and resilience. The pilot phase will involve at least ten sites in the IMR, 300 professionals, and 1,500 patients, prior to wider rollout.

Urban areas in the Meuse-Rhine region are highly vulnerable to climate-related risks. In Belgium, extreme precipitation is projected to increase by 7% by 2030–2060 and by 14% by 2060–2080. The number of heat waves will rise from 2 per year under current climate conditions to 5–11 per year in the future. Climate risks are amplified in urban areas by the urban heat island effect, which leads to an increase in surface temperature (+7 °C) and air temperature (+2–3 °C). All regions and cities in the Meuse-Rhine region face similar climate challenges. 

NBS4U will provide a practical toolkit for evaluating and comparing nature-based solutions (NBS) suitable for urban areas, covering urban, peri-urban, and village settings. The tool will help identify optimal locations for implementing de-impermeabilization measures. The project will monitor the observed effects of NBS implemented in 7 living labs dedicated to local climate adaptation and will propose solutions to engage local communities, both private and public, in these projects. 

The living labs are designed as a cross-border community of practice, involving various pilot actions (green roofs and walls, de-impermeabilization, swales, etc.) to share experience and technical support among municipalities. Each living lab will be supported by the pooling of resources from the four research centers associated with the project. With its 3.88 million inhabitants, the Meuse-Rhine region is the ideal size for testing and deploying innovative NBS, provided that their applicability in various legal and technical contexts can be demonstrated. 

One of the project’s main innovations is thus to deploy solutions in vivo to observe their real-world effects in living labs established within various urban areas across the Meuse-Rhine region. To this end, NBS4U will test innovative and agile governance solutions, implemented by local governments or local communities, in order to reduce administrative costs and accelerate the deployment of nature-based solutions. 

The project’s main target groups are municipalities, local communities, public administrations, research centers, and service providers. 

Coordinateur : Jacques Teller ; 

Contacts ULiège : Roland Billen, Grégory Mahy et Manal Ginzarly 

Poly-DREAM

The overall aim of Poly-DREAM is to boost the R&I, productivity and resilience of these market-focused SMEs by helping them use cutting-edge technologies for product development and manufacturing. To increase SME productivity, Poly-DREAM will establish a cross-border value chain and R&I ecosystem focused on Additive Manufacturing (AM, 3D printing).

To achieve this, Poly-DREAM provides a market-focused platform with complementary know-how, infrastructure and hands-on training related to advanced additive manufacturing and polymer technologies. Only by pooling the MR region's specialist knowledge and infrastructure can Poly-DREAM develop an advanced, market-driven platform that will create momentum for region-wide collaboration and business cohesion.

Poly-DREAM's innovative approach lies in its market-driven support for SMEs to use sustainable polymer AM to maximize their productivity (creating demonstrators and business cases with high market potential). Poly-DREAM's services to SMEs involve joint R&I to select the most suitable polymers, formulations and AM methods, through to scale-up, demonstration testing by SMEs (TRL7) and profitability creation. By leveraging our cross-border resources and complementary expertise, Poly-DREAM promotes the adoption of Industry 4.0 through cutting-edge MA technologies.

Technologies, infrastructures, demonstrators and business cases will be developed for SMEs in the Meuse-Rhine region, in particular for those active in the healthcare and biotech sectors.

Poly-DREAM will provide SMEs with state-of-the-art R&I in MA for product development, scale-up and business development.

Acronym

Title & Abstract

Partner ULiège

CAREMORE

CHOOSE2REUSE (C2R)

CROSSCIRCULAR 

CYPRESS

Europe faces a challenge in terms of digital competitiveness and sovereignty. Europe accounts for 5% of global AI (artificial intelligence) computing capacity, and 92% of cloud services rely on non-European providers. 

The ETCETERA project turns this challenge into an opportunity. By leveraging the computing needs of the Einstein Telescope (ET) as a driver of innovation, the project will design and validate AI workflows for multi-GB/s data streams, petabyte-scale storage, and rapid analysis for timely alerts. These solutions also support the regional transition to Industry 5.0 for data-driven monitoring, automation, and simulation.

The project supports the Interreg Meuse-Rhine program by strengthening cross-border innovation capacity and building a shared digital infrastructure. It contributes to the major societal challenge of “Industrial Transition” by accelerating the adoption of trustworthy AI and advanced data processing (specific objective: as selected in the application).

Cross-border cooperation is essential because strengths are distributed: Belgium excels in data science and embedded computing, the Netherlands in algorithm optimization and AI hardware co-design, and Germany in high-performance and distributed computing. ETCETERA pools these capabilities through joint developments, pilot projects, shared infrastructure, and training.

The novelty lies in the integrated approach. Instead of isolated regional pilots, ETCETERA links ET to digital transformation and connects the AI Factory initiative into an interoperable ecosystem. The result: validated prototypes that reduce time-to-market and adoption risk.

Target groups include data-intensive product/service companies, research organizations, and computing infrastructure providers. Without ETCETERA, the region risks missing out on the momentum surrounding ET and AI Factories, losing competitiveness in high-performance computing and AI, and forgoing skilled jobs as well as the attraction of talent and future investment.

Demand is evidenced by support from industrial partners and regional innovation platforms, confirming interest from SMEs and support for the rapid adoption of tools 

The Meuse-Rhine (MR) region is establishing itself as a hub of innovation in muscle stem cell therapy, thanks to the FIT project, which brings together universities and SMEs around patentable technologies. This initiative aims to develop treatments for a variety of muscle diseases, based on cross-border clinical trials and personalized tools. Within three years, the aim is to position the MR region as a world leader in this field.

Flood Wisdom improves flood forecasting and management capabilities in the Meuse-Rhine region, by developing innovative tools such as an early warning system. This strategic project brings together 12 partners and implements collaborative solutions to reduce the risks associated with extreme weather events, in response to climate change.

Following the Blue Zone model (areas where people live longer thanks to a healthy lifestyle) and preventive medicine concepts, the project aims to explore the variables influencing a healthy IMR lifestyle, develop targeted practical guidelines for local actors to facilitate healthy IMR lifestyle behavior and improve health literacy at local level, especially among selected vulnerable groups.

The main objective of LivLabPRoFruit (Living Laboratory for Precision and Robotic Fruit Growing) is to create and operate an open living laboratory in which agrotechnology companies and fruit growers actively cooperate (i) to optimize the development process of technological components and machinery for precision and robotic fruit growing, and (ii) to accelerate the adoption of these applications in practice. The project focuses on pear cultivation (the most economically significant in Belgium and the Netherlands) and blueberry cultivation (generally increasing demand), as well as viticulture (growing acreage in our region). All of these crops are labor-intensive. This project will strengthen research and development capabilities by providing technology companies with a framework to innovate more effectively and successfully. It will promote and accelerate the adoption of new applications. It will contribute to making the MR region smarter.

MAS4TE aims to create a cross-border energy exchange platform for prosumers. Based on blockchain and artificial intelligence technologies, it facilitates local energy trading and storage by integrating citizens into decentralized energy management, contributing to the energy transition in the Meuse-Rhine region.

PFAS-resolve

REAL

REAL’s primary objective is to take the first step toward Industry 5.0 together with micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the Meuse-Rhine region. Industry 5.0 is inherently interdisciplinary. For its successful adoption in the MR region, it is essential to break down the silos of knowledge and innovation that currently exist across borders. Within the consortium, academic partners bring together cutting-edge interdisciplinary expertise. Ecosystem partners engage SMEs, provide real-world feedback, and identify, engage, and connect innovation hubs (e.g., POM Limburg, Brightlands, etc.). REAL will integrate and translate Industry 5.0 technologies into concrete, practical solutions for SMEs. These solutions will be compiled into the REAL TOOLKITS, offering easy access to SMEs. SMEs also need strategic and practical support, as they cannot change everything at once. This is supported by the REAL COMPASS.

REAL will test the COMPASS and TOOLKITS in 16 SMEs and implement them in an additional 60 SMEs, thereby directly supporting 76 SMEs. REAL will achieve these figures through massive mobilization (partner network + events/communication + innovation silos), followed by an implementation strategy that transforms mobilization into concrete action. REAL plans a post-project strategy including the creation of an I5.0 network bringing together innovation hubs and accelerators.

Coordination : PXL ; Contacts ULiège : Nathalie Crutzen, Didier Van Caillie, Audrey Lebas

RE-USE

RE-USE aims to accelerate the reuse of materials in construction to promote a circular economy. By overcoming obstacles related to data, legal aspects and practical implementation, the project is developing tools for integrating reuse into construction projects, in collaboration with regional and cross-border pilots.

RM@H

This project focuses on improving patient care via (1) the integration of home telemonitoring and (2) the use of this data and the improvement of data flow, cooperation/communication between primary care (GPs, care organizations) and secondary care (hospitals), cross-border and the patients themselves.

VIAVIA

VIAVIA will link tourist routes around the Roman remains of the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion (Via Belgica, Römerstrasse, Fruitspoor), creating a coherent, immersive tourism product. Nine cultural "hotspots" will be connected through multilingual storytelling, digital experiences and local initiatives to enrich the visitor experience and stimulate the regional economy.

Acronym

Title & Abstract

Partner ULiège

Innovative flow chemistry for sustainable formulations: The main challenge of this R&D project for the formulation, characterization and engineering of biochemicals is to introduce new degradable packaging technologies for rapid, low-cost formulation. The three main objectives are (1) to set up an open technology platform; (2) to develop R&D infrastructure, technologies and protocols for the production of biodegradable capsules; and (3) to synthesize degradable biomaterials meeting end-user demands.