Brightlands Heerlen celebrates 10th anniversary with new name and launch AI Valley
While Brightlands in Heerlen began ten years ago as a smart services initiative, the focus is now on the development and application of data and artificial intelligence. This shift is reflected in a new name: Brightlands Data & AI Campus.
The campus is taking its biggest step yet: the launch of the Crossborder AI Valley, a cross-border alliance with partner campuses in Aachen and Hasselt. In addition, the campus will serve as the home base for herAI.tech - a new platform for women in AI - for the next ten years. The campus’s new direction also comes with a new name: Brightlands Data & AI Campus.
A new name for a new phase
With these new initiatives, the campus is entering a new phase under a new name: Brightlands Data & AI Campus. While the organization began ten years ago as a smart services initiative, the focus is now on the development and application of data and artificial intelligence in three areas: healthcare, small and medium-sized enterprises, and public safety.
“This name is not just a cosmetic change. We’re focusing on implementing applications and solutions that are relevant and effective right now, not just those aimed at the future. Brightlands Data & AI Campus: this is our guiding light for the next ten years.”
Walter Pijls, CEO of Brightlands Data & AI Campus
The community showcase provided a glimpse of what this looks like in practice. Companies from the Brightlands ecosystem introduced attendees to the technology of tomorrow, developed and applied in Heerlen. From educational technology to applications for public safety and healthcare: ten years after its launch, the campus no longer measures its success in square meters of office space, but in national borders that are disappearing.
Crossborder AI Valley: the gateway between the Netherlands and Europe
Walter Pijls (CEO of Brightlands Data & AI Campus), Iris Wilhelmi (Managing Director of digitalHUB Aachen), and Raf Degens (CEO of Corda Campus Hasselt) unveiled the Crossborder AI Valley today: a Euregional alliance between the three campuses. This gives startups access to three campus ecosystems at once. Instead of first proving themselves locally and only then scaling up, they can implement their solutions in three countries from day one. Together, the three campuses represent more than 885 companies and partners. By way of comparison, that’s nearly four times the size of what Brightlands started on its own ten years ago.
“Innovation thrives best where borders no longer matter. With the Crossborder AI Valley, we’re opening up a market for our startups that has tripled in size overnight.”
AI power beyond the Randstad
During the morning program, Constantijn of Orange spoke with Liesbeth Wijlaars (CEO of The AI Playground) about three topics directly related to today’s event: AI capabilities outside the Randstad, European sovereign AI, and cross-border collaboration as a source of economies of scale.
He then officially opened the new Control Center of LUGN Security, a Limburg-based company that deploys drones 24/7 to monitor critical infrastructure, with clients such as NS and the Ministry of Defense. From the center, BVLOS-certified pilots operate drones at locations throughout the Netherlands. When an alarm is triggered, the flight takes off within seconds; within three minutes, the incident is visible from the air, faster than a police car typically takes to arrive on the scene. LUGN Security, founded in 2021 by Alex Hermans and Dirk Bekke, is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year and is working on its own cross-border initiative within the Euregio framework, with Heerlen as its home base.
herAI.tech becomes a Brightlands diversity partner
A Euregional alliance erases a border from the map. But anyone in the Euregio who wants to make an even greater impact with data and AI cannot limit their view to national borders alone: the gender imbalance in the field determines which AI applications are developed and for whom.
That is why Brightlands is entering into a partnership with herAI.tech as its diversity partner for the next ten years. The campus will serve as the platform’s home base. The goal is concrete: by 2036, half of the startups launching on the campus will be founded by a woman. The urgency is measurable: in the Netherlands, only 7.3% of the top AI positions at AI companies are held by women—the lowest percentage among all European countries in the study.
herAI.tech, founded by Liesbeth Wijlaars (CEO of The AI Playground), operates on two fronts: influence at the top and access at the grassroots level. A seven-member Advisory Board comprising representatives from education, the business community, government, and civil society organizations advises on direction and strategy under its own chairperson.
“Diversity in AI isn’t just a ‘nice-to-have.’ Whoever builds the systems determines who they work for.”
Liesbeth Wijlaars, herAI.tech
Source: Brightlands newsletter