Connect SME: Cross-border collaboration

Connect SME: Cross-border collaboration

What does ConnectSME stand for?

Brainport Smart District is one of the six testing grounds in the Netherlands and Flanders that participate in ConnectSME. The aim is to stimulate innovation trajectories of SMEs and SMEs to bring their innovations to the market faster and thus maximize CO2 reductions.

In order to achieve the European climate targets, it is important that sustainable technological innovations find their way to the market more quickly. For many SMEs and SMEs developing sustainable technologies in Flanders and the Netherlands, it is difficult to bridge the so-called ‘Vallei of Death’. A significant amount of capital is often required to bring the innovative product to commercial scale, while potential customers do not yet dare to invest in the innovative products. In addition, it is important to select the right technologies that will maximize CO2 reductions in the long term.

How does it work?

With a consortium of six living labs and two clusters, the ConnectSME project facilitates demonstration projects for sustainable technological innovations in Flanders and the South of the Netherlands. The living labs provide a development and demonstration environment for innovative technologies, according to a user-oriented, open innovation ecosystem.

Selected SMEs and SMEs receive vouchers with which they receive advice and the opportunity to demonstrate and develop their innovation in this physical test environment. By removing barriers to cross-border cooperation, ConnectSME wants to improve the market introduction opportunities of innovative technologies in the border region of Flanders-Netherlands.

Who can participate?

The ConnectSME project focuses on Flemish and Dutch SMEs and SMEs.

Do you recognize yourself in the points below?

Then be sure to register:

  • You are active in the border region. More information at www.grensregio.eu
  • You develop technology that promotes CO2 reduction and climate objectives
  • With your technology you focus on energy or is related to it
  • You have already developed your innovation and are looking for a way to scale it
  • Your innovation is new in the border region

Read more?

Download the flyer about ConnectSME with more information or contact Martijn de Kort. 

EIGENAAR PROJECT

ConnectSME

PARTNERS

Thorsite (VITO), Snowball en Green Energy Park in Vlaanderen

The Green Village (TU Delft), Future Energy Lab Metalot (TU Eindhoven) en Brainport Smart District in Nederland

PROGRAMMALIJNEN

Wijk met energie

MEER INFORMATIE

grensregio.eu/projecten/connectsme

Data Governance

verantwoord omgaan met data

Data Governance

Data Governance: Responsible use of data within Brainport Smart District

How do we handle data in a safe and responsible manner? Partly as a result of the discussions surrounding the Corona App, data use is increasingly the subject of a broad public discussion. Within Brainport Smart District (BSD) we have been working on the subject for some time, with the question in mind: how are we going to give residents of BSD maximum say in the use of data in their smart residential and working district?

verantwoord omgaan met data

Project Data Governance
During the BSD Business Network Event on June 25, 2020, Cathalijne Dortmans, alderman in Helmond and chairman of the Brainport Smart District Foundation, discussed extensively how we want to ensure that the use of data in BSD takes place in the most responsible way with maximum control for residents. Peter Portheine, director of the BSD Foundation, explained that the subject of data is already a high priority in the programming of Brainport Smart District. A separate Data Governance project has been set up with the objective of guaranteeing the responsible use of data and technology.

Residents are not part of a tech company’s experiment
What makes Brainport Smart District unique is that the area to be developed is both literally and figuratively a greenfield. BSD is a neighborhood in the making: both the houses and the (digital) infrastructure are still under development. It is also unique that BSD arose from a collaboration between government organizations and knowledge institutions and that we are not affiliated with one or a few tech companies. This is often the case in other places where experiments are carried out with smart cities or districts.

Principles and agreements in a Data Manifest
BSD is made together with several companies. We have drawn up a Data Manifesto (document in Dutch) to conclude cooperation agreements with these companies. It lays down about twenty principles and intentions regarding the processing and use of data and the access to and use of the digital infrastructure. Parties participating in the development of BSD are asked to make maximum effort to realize the ambitions of the Data Manifesto. By entering into a collaboration agreement with BSD, they are also expected to endorse the ambitions in the Data Manifesto.

Moral Compass
The Data Manifesto is a living document. We are innovating and not everything can be determined in advance. What is state of the art technology today may be obsolete tomorrow. One of the tasks of the Data Advisory Team (formerly the Data Governance Board) is to ensure that we conduct the right discussions regarding the use of technology and how we continue to act within the framework of the law.

But it’s not just about technical and legal issues. It often concerns issues of a completely different order. For example: will we behave differently if we know that our behavior can be monitored? What are the conditions under which technology can be used and who determines these conditions? Does the end justify all means? This requires the deployment of external experts in the field of ethics, sociology, behavioral sciences, big data, etc. By setting up an Ethics team in which all these disciplines are represented, we at BSD have a moral compass that ensures that we are on the right course keep sailing.

Ethics Team and Data Advisory Team

The Ethics Team has now been assembled and all members were appointed by the Foundation Board in December 2020. The appointment of the Data Advisory Team will take place shortly.

EIGENAAR PROJECT

Brainport Smart District

PARTNERS

PROGRAMMALIJNEN

 Digitale wijk

DOWNLOADS

Data Manifest Brainport Smart District

Reglement van orde Data Governance Board

Ethisch Team BSD

Modular and sustainable homes in Telkesveld

telkesveld

Modular and sustainable homes in Telkesveld

The district of the future welcomed its first residents in spring 2022. Developer mHome is building a total of 52 homes in Telkesveld. These are modular, sustainable and comfortable 3-room homes, suitable for 1 or 2-person households. The prefabricated rental homes are made exclusively of sustainable and natural materials. The starting point is to develop buildings that are circular, energy-efficient and comfortable. As a result, an ‘mHome’ has a healthy indoor climate and a direct positive impact on both the mental and physical health of its occupants.

Social innovation

When it comes to the development of the Telkesveld neighborhood, everything revolves around the residents. Indeed, everyone is welcome and residents can add something to the community in their own way. Examples include maintaining a communal garden, doing chores for neighbors and contributing ideas on the layout of the communal space located in the neighborhood. Together with the residents, mHome builds a neighborhood in which local residents seek each other out to shape their living environment and bring it to life. This ensures that the Telkesveld project fits in very well with The district of the future.

Modular building method

The nonsubsidised rental homes come in two housing layout types. Both types have an area of about 52 square meters. Only the layout differs, as the homes are built stepwise with the modules placed on top of each other. The homes are modular and easy to link together, similar to building with Lego bricks. A high degree of standardization is combined with flexibility and creativity. In addition, the mHomes are easily repositionable and reusable, so a unit that first functions as a visitor center, for example, can later be used as a home or a home can be converted into an office.


For more information about the homes and registrations, visit the Telkesveld website.

OWNER PROJECT

mHome

PARTNERS

ORO | Twinstone

PROGRAMME LINES

Participation | Circular district

FOR MORE INFORMATION

mhome.nu

Wij zijn IN (We are IN)

Wij zijn IN (We are IN)

Wij zijn IN (We are IN)

How do you want to live in society as it is today and in the future? The Wij zijn IN living concept focuses on collaboration between and with (future) residents who want more than a standard residential product.

Innovation, collaboration and sustainability are key in the ambitions of the Brainport region. That is why Wij zijn IN wants to develop the living concept for BSD together, in which the starting principles are technology, data and focus on the future.

From the start the (future) residents will be involved in the design and in the decision-making on BSD and the use of new technology. Residents are actively involved in and jointly responsible for their own environment.
The feasibility of the proposal is currently being investigated. If the outcome is positive, the proposal may well become a reality.

Join in! (Dutch only)

The first step on the way towards making Wij zijn IN a success is to attract (future) residents. The more people join in and get on board, the bigger the chance that the concept continues.

Register with WijzijnIn.nl and fill IN the questionnaire!

If you register, you will be kept informed on the project and involved in new developments.

OWNER PROJECT

Cedrus Vastgoed en Pauwert Vastgoed

PARTNERS

TU/e

PROGRAMME LINES

circular district | participation | social and safe district | healthy district | digital district | mobile district | district with energy

FOR MORE INFORMATION

wijzijnin.nl

The greenhouse homes of CC-Studio

The greenhouse homes of CC-Studio

The greenhouse homes of CC-Studio

KasCo is a circular residential area in which food, energy and living go hand in hand. Here, you can live in a low-energy home in a greenhouse with fresh fruit and vegetable just outside your door.

The frame of the greenhouse home is made of wood and can be taken apart. Separating the bearing frame and the inside layout makes the house extremely adaptive. This allows residents to create a unique, personalised home within the uniform shell.

The wind and waterproof shell offers many additional benefits: breathing outer walls, ample outside space in the greenhouse and integration of plants (urban farming). And the concept is already a reality: the first KasCo has been built in Amsterdam.

The feasibility of the proposal is currently being investigated. If the outcome is positive, the proposal may well become a reality.

OWNER PROJECT

CC-Studio

PARTNERS

PROGRAMME LINES

participation | healthy district  | district with energy

FOR MORE INFORMATION

kasco.cc

BSD Smartwalk route

BSD Smartwalk route

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BSD Smartwalk route

Embedded Fitness develops interactive exercise concepts. The company connects sensors and communication technology to fitness equipment so people are challenged to get fit in a fun way.

In BSD, Embedded Fitness focuses on developing a Smartwalk route lined with SmartStones (posts with beacons inside) that can connect to a smartphone, so that users can walk a particular route through the district. The posts give feedback with LEDs to users that have selected a game or exercise on their app.

The posts work with low-power components and can be charged with solar cells, so that the system is energy-neutral.

Embedded Fitness has been recognised nationally as a SportInnovator centre for Bewegen in het Onderwijs (Exercise In Education). The centre acts as a breeding ground for knowledge institutions, businesses, authorities and schools, in order to contribute positively with evidence-based technological innovations to sports participation to increasing enjoyment of exercising, and to improving the learning performance of young people.

The feasibility of the proposal is currently being investigated. If the outcome is positive, the proposal may well become a reality.

OWNER PROJECT

Embedded Fitness

PARTNERS

TU/e, Fontys Hogescholen, GBO Design

PROGRAMME LINES

participation | healthy district | digital district

FOR MORE INFORMATION

BSD Smartwalk

Ageing in place with LIVin Concepts

Ageing in place with LIVin Concepts

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LIVin

Ageing in place

The total complex of factors – the shift from inpatient care to outpatient care, the ageing population, the increase of the number of people with dementia and the number of single person and two person households in addition to changing demands and wishes in the area of hybrid residential/care environments – must be brought together and translated in a new concept for homes for life: LIVin.

LIVin fills in the gaps between ‘living’ and ‘care’. Livin Concepts invests sustainably in homes as a carer and in the direct surroundings as a social ecosystem so that the home and the surroundings both contribute to preventing, solving and ameliorating the ailments that come with increasing age.Our choices for modular timber construction, energy-neutral construction with energy generation through solar panels, use of natural building materials, energy-efficient systems, use of domotica, wall finishings and use of colour reflect what we are trying to achieve: Sustainable living in a safe environment at an affordable price.

The feasibility of the proposal is currently being investigated. If the outcome is positive, the proposal may well become a reality.

OWNER PROJECT

LIVin

PARTNERS

COFFR, Eindhoven University of Technology, Vivent Het andere wonen

PROGRAMME LINES

social and safe district | participation| healthy district

FOR MORE INFORMATION

livinconcepts.nl