Videos

3.5 liters of wastewater for 1 kg of vegetables? 🥕💧

Every time vegetables like carrots or beans are processed, wastewater is generated - full of sand, dirt, and potentially pesticides. This water often ends up in our rivers and streams. Perry Hoendervangers (VITO) is testing two new approaches to help vegetable processing companies treat their wastewater and protect our rivers and lakes.

"Leave it to the experts. You don't understand the technical stuff." A thought city planners sometimes have. But urban designer and researcher Jan Lim (KU Leuven) argues for something different: meaningful citizen involvement. "City planning isn't just technical. It's also political... These choices shape the kind of city we live in. So citizens need to talk about them."

Would you rub fossil fuels on your face? Because chances are… you already do.

Paulien Leemans explains how glowing skin doesn’t have to come at the planet’s expense. By reprogramming bacteria, she turns waste like used cooking oil into sustainable skincare ingredients. From greasy leftovers ... to glowing skin.

In 2018, the Morandi bridge in Genoa collapsed, killing 43 people. The culprit? Rust. To prevent tragedies like this, Vincent Vangrunderbeek investigates how rust develops on steel surfaces, in order to help us move from random checks to smart, preventive maintenance of bridges and buildings.

Who will care for us... if our nurses themselves are unable to work? No less than 1 in 4 nurses in Flanders suffer from physical complaints due to heavy physical labour, irregular shifts and high work pressure caused by staff shortages. Together with home care organisations, Jente Bontinck and her colleagues are looking at how they can identify pain complaints earlier and prevent them from getting worse. Because good care starts with caring for the caregiver.

We talk a lot about education. But do we listen enough to the people who stand in front of the class every day? 👩‍🏫📱 Researcher Stéphanie Vanderheeren and her colleagues launched Teacher Tapp in Flanders for this very purpose. In this free app, more than 1,000 people from the education sector – from teachers to headteachers – answer three short questions every day about classroom practice or current affairs. The app provides a unique insight into what is going on in education and stimulates discussion, from the staff room to parliament.

Can two millimetres really make the difference between pain and comfort? Researcher Inge Van den Herrewegen and her team are developing a smart app that turns 50,000+ scientific studies on insoles into an easy-to-use tool for foot specialists.

Can artificial intelligence and virtual reality transform the way we teach and learn? Researcher Carl Boel explores how these technologies can make learning safer, more immersive, and more personalized - without replacing teachers.

"VKF", "ablation"... Do you always understand what is written in your medical report? Researcher Kathleen Van Royen explains how she is working on a solution with the help of AI: an application that automatically translates your medical report into clear, understandable language.

We are producing more clothing than ever before, but wearing it less and less... How can we give clothing a second, third, or fourth life? And how can fashion companies respond to this in a sustainable and profitable way? Fien Demarest is working with Flemish fashion companies to investigate how circular business models—such as resale, rental, and repair—really work in practice.

Every class has at least one student with a learning disability such as dyslexia or dyscalculia. Unfortunately, some schools do not always allow these students to use aids such as laptops with reading software or calculators. That is why HOGENT developed ‘Dysparcours’, an empathy tool that helps teachers, care coordinators, and parents to better understand what children with learning disabilities experience.

Thousands of logistics vacancies remain unfilled in Flanders and the Netherlands. Researcher Eline Bens (AP University College) shows how the Interreg project 'Warehouse Heroes of Tomorrow' focuses on practical learning materials, knowledge clips and a virtual warehouse environment to prepare low-skilled and foreign-language newcomers more quickly for the warehouse of the future.