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Welcome to

Energy Mission build by Living Labs for industry & built environment

10.17.2023

Thor Central Genk

Register

Get your early bird tickets

price will go up on June 30th

It is time for the 4th challenging edition of
Energy Mission

Since 2020, we embarked on our mission-oriented and cross-sectoral energy transition journey. We showed solutions and financial opportunities for the built environment, industry and electrification. The successful conferences brought together over 500 engaged stakeholders from the quadruple helix.

Agenda

Energy Mission 2023 will take place on 17 October in Genk, Belgium. The venue Thor Central, located in the middle of Thor Park, offers a unique location to inspire, share and connect.
 
Thor Park itself is one of the advanced European living labs on energy transition. It transformed from a coal mine into a state-of-the-art technology park.

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Program

Morning


The living lab ecosystem - example of oPEN Thor Living Lab

Morning


International Keynote
TBC

Morning


The living lab ecosystem Deep dive Build environment

Morning


The living lab ecosystem Deep dive Sustainable industry

Afternoon


The living lab ecosystem Deep dive Built environment

Afternoon


The living lab ecosystem Deep dive Open data, AI, digital innovation

Afternoon


Matchmaking

Afternoon

EIT InnoEnergy Education Director
Frank Gielen
International keynote
Innovation ecosystems in the EU

Afternoon


A roundtrip of EU energy living labs

Afternoon


Closing and reception

Speakers

Björn Crul
Moderator
Björn Crul
Frank Gielen
EIT InnoEnergy Education Director
Frank Gielen
Prof.Dr.ir. Gielen has extensive experience with R&D in the telecommunication and software technology sector as well as in raising venture capital, university-industry collaborative research and spin-off creation. Prof.Dr.ir. Gielen held a number of technical and management positions in the software industry. He started as a software architect with AT&T Bell Labs in the USA and was director of software technology at Alcatel. In 1998 he joined Tellium, a US based start-up company in optical network technology, as the VP of Software Engineering. Tellium had a successful IPO on NASDAQ in 2001. He then returned to Europe in 2001 as the CEO for Tellium EMEA. From 2010 to 2015 he was the Director of the Incubation & Entrepreneurship at iMinds, the leading digital incubator and business accelerator in Flanders. The iStart incubation programme of iMinds was ranked number 4 in UBI’s global ranking of university accelerators in 2015. Prof.Dr.ir. Gielen was head of the EIT Digital Professional School with the ambition to lead the innovation of professional development and executive education for companies, organisations and individuals going through a digital transformation. Since 2017 he has been the Education Director at InnoEnergy. Currently he is also a professor of software technology entrepreneurship at the University of Ghent.
Leen Govaerts
Unit Manager (EnergyVille/VITO)
Leen Govaerts
Leen Govaerts has longstanding experience in research on energy and sustainable urban development. At present, she leads the Smart Energy and Built Environment department of Research and Technology organization VITO and is also a member of the executive committee of EnergyVille – a research collaboration between the Belgian research partners KU Leuven, VITO, imec and UHasselt in the field of sustainable energy.
Frederik Loeckx
Managing Director (Flux50)
Frederik Loeckx
Frederik Loeckx is Managing Director of Flux50. He graduated in 1996 as electrical engineer at the University of Leuven with a master thesis on data security and public key infrastructures. In 2001, Frederik obtained a Master in Business Administration from the Vlerick Leuven Ghent Management School. Frederik started his career at Utimaco, a data security specialist. Between 2002 and 2006, he worked as advisor on innovation strategy and innovation projects at the Flemish government. In 2006, Frederik Loeckx founded Triphase, a spin-off of the university of Leuven, operating internationally with research systems for smart energy systems and grew the company to 16 people on own accounts. Up to 2016, Frederik was CEO of the company. On behalf of Triphase, Frederik was founder and member of the board of Smart Grid Flanders, the predecessor of Flux50, for 6 years, as well as present in several innovation advisory groups in Flanders.
Jozef Poortmans
Professor
Jozef Poortmans
Jozef Poortmans graduated in 1985 as a Civil Engineer in Electro-mechanics and joined imec shortly afterwards. After his PhD on bipolar transistor technology he joined the solar cell technology group in imec where he was responsible for the advanced solar cell activity. In 2003, he became responsible for the entire solar cell activity in imec. Because of his impact in the domain, he was appointed imec Fellow in 2013. From 2016 he was responsible for coordinating the research activities of the 4 R&D partners within the EnergyVille collaboration and combines this with his part-time professorship at KUL and UHasselt.
Daan Six
Research program manager (EnergyVille/VITO)
Daan Six
Daan Six received his master’s degree in commercial engineering in 2004 from the University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium. Since 2008, he is with the Energy Technology Unit of the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) and EnergyVille, Belgium. Since 2018 he is research program manager and coordinates several research roadmaps on energy market design, flexibility, thermal systems and electrical storage in the built environment. Since 2021 he is coordinating the Open Thor living lab initiative by EnergyVille, Thor Park and City of Genk
Marlies Van Holm
Managing Technological Research (EnergyVille/VITO)
Marlies Van Holm
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Bridging the gap

Our key challenge for the 2023 conference: how to bring all these promising innovations to the market? How to get the end user, the citizen, to accept them or even design them themselves? How to bridge the final gap to a broad application?
 
Without any doubt, “energy living labs” play a crucial role in this last mile to the market. These living labs are state-of-the-art, open innovation ecosystems where energy technologies are tested and improved in real interaction with end users and in real interaction with other components. After this phase, the innovations are ready for a go-to-market.

Your front row seat to Innovation in Action

What and who will you find at Energy Mission – Empowered by living labs?

  • Examples of living labs both for industry (e.g. power-to-X, hydrogen, energy and chemistry) and for the built environment
  • Industrial partners explaining how they found specific added value by joining living labs
  • Investors showing how they can support the innovations coming from living labs
  • Experts illustrating the benefits and challenges of AI and big data services at living labs
  • An interactive roundtrip along several advanced living labs in the EU
  • Examples of energy living lab ecosystems and practical ways how to participate, involving actors from quadruple helix: industry/finance, research, government, end-users.

Come to explore what an energy living lab ecosystem can mean for you and learn how to bridge the last mile to the market together!

Register now

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Presenting partners

Sponsors

Silver sponsors

Venue

Thor Central
Thor Park 8000, 3600 Genk, Belgium
Navigation: André Dumontlaan 67 3600 Genk, Belgium

Visitors’ parking is available
Please let us know should you need to charge your electric car.
Warning! 
It is not allowed to park in front of the building: on the gravel, in the little ‘park’ or on the road in the whole of Thor Park. Parking guards check Thor Park very regularly for offenders.
A lift for disabled people is available.

Going to the venue from your hotel to Thor Central
Easy bus connections: www.delijn.be/en
From Genk railway station: Bus stop ‘Thor Park’ served by City Line G1 takes 15 minutes to arrive at Thor Park Between 6h and 20h, every half hour. Between 7h and 9h, every 15 minutes

Bus stop “Waterschei Mijn” served by other bus lines following school hours/days (lines 1, 31, and 33)

Bus stop “Waterschei Bascule” at 1 km of Thor Park served by: • City line G7 Genk - Zutendaal: frequency of one bus per hour in both directions • Regional line 8 Genk - Overpelt: frequency of one bus per hour in both directions with additional service during rush hour • Regional line 9 Genk - Lanklaar: various trips per day • Regional line 11 Genk - Maaseik: frequency of one bus per hour in both directions with additional service during rush hour • Regional lines 1, 31, 33, 40 and 45 with a number of services per day

Contact

Koen Vanhove
PCO conrad consulting
Koen Vanhove
Managing Director Sponsorship Manager
Stijn Paredis
PCO conrad consulting
Stijn Paredis
Event Manager