Ghent University and Imec are building an AI Campus Hub in Zwijnaarde

“This must become a crucial link in the European AI strategy.”

From 2027 onwards, Ghent University's science park in Zwijnaarde will become home to the brand-new AI Campus Hub. This complex is set to become the epicentre of Flanders' ambitions in the field of AI and take the existing technology ecosystem in Ghent to the next level. By bringing academia and industry together under one roof, the hope is to develop concrete and scalable AI applications. 

The rapid evolution of AI in recent years has left no one untouched. It has created a new reality and is currently redrawing the technological, social and geopolitical contours of our society. However, it is clear that Europe is currently lagging behind in this evolution. That is why we are looking for ways in which our country can take action, both nationally and regionally, to raise its profile. 

“We must realise that we are still in the early stages of AI. If we want to create truly intelligent AI, we need 100 times more computing power,” says Wim De Wispelaere, Business Developer at Ghent University/imec. He immediately points to the existing and highly valuable assets that Flanders already has at its disposal. “We have numerous top researchers in our ranks, in universities and research institutions. In addition, there is a highly developed landscape of innovative start-ups working on AI, which is also made possible by financial support from, among others, VLAIO, the Industrial Research Fund IOF and Flanders AI Research.” 

Europe's Achilles heel in this story is, for the time being, the lack of upscaling. In other words, much of the groundbreaking research is not being sufficiently translated into concrete applications that can conquer the market on a large scale. “The AI Campus Hub, which is funded by Alides with support from the EU, Flanders, the province of East Flanders and the city of Ghent, wants to change that. There is a need for a central anchor point for inspiration and adoption of AI in the business world, so that the ecosystem can take significant steps forward in terms of concrete applications and upscaling,” De Wispelaere continues. 

Walking in each other's corridors 

“We really do have a lot of players in Flanders who are working with AI, across the entire value chain. To support them, we need to enable them – literally – to walk in each other's corridors, so they can learn from each other,” says Professor Lieven De Marez, also affiliated with Ghent University and imec. “Our ambition is to create one of the largest concentrations of AI researchers under one roof in Europe. This will involve a total of around 1,000 data scientists. 75 per cent of them will come from industry, with the rest of the places going to scientific researchers,” adds De Wispelaere. 

An important aspect that will certainly receive a great deal of attention within the hub is the energy efficiency of such applications. “This is certainly one of the hot topics. Within our ecosystem, we want to focus on this at both the nano level, thinking about more efficient chips, and in terms of software optimisation. Deepseek technology shows that there are still huge gains to be made through performance improvements,” they say. 

Political momentum 

Ghent already has a strong and thriving ecosystem of start-ups working on AI, such as the flourishing Wintercircus. “This brings with it a growing demand for infrastructure, which we want to meet. In the long term, we will build a real AI community and thus consolidate Ghent's position as market leader. That is why we are also focusing explicitly on established values. Now that the permits have been obtained and the site preparations have started, we are aiming for 2027 as the opening year for this new hub in the Tech Lane Ghent Science Park,” according to representatives of Ghent University/imec. 

The political momentum surrounding AI is also providing additional tailwind. “Europe did a good job in the previous legislative period in terms of regulation and protecting citizens. That was necessary, but it is at least as important that we are now fully committed to implementation in order to increase economic strength and competitiveness. This is evidenced, for example, by the ambition to build four gigafactories in Europe focused on AI. This means that here too, there is a clear recognition that we are at a turning point and must dare to look at practical AI applications in a wide range of areas. The Ghent AI hub must become a crucial link in our European AI strategy,” concludes Wim De Wispelaere.