Fourth Academic Board brings together researchers from Belgian universities and experts from Elia

Elia's Academic Board, recently held for the fourth time in as many years, brought together renowned researchers from the largest Belgian universities and experts from Elia. This unique platform aims to advance energy-related knowledge and foster a collaborative ecosystem where academic excellence joins forces with expertise from a major company. In addition to this annual day of talks and discussions, a dozen webinars have already been organised with a view to maintaining links between the members of the Board.

The Academic Board has two missions:

• Encourage joint projects and synergies: The Board identifies and creates partnerships that push the boundaries of research and development in the energy sector, with the aim being innovative and concrete solutions for the Belgian energy system.
• Facilitate open dialogue: This platform promotes transparent and constructive discussions about Elia's strategic decisions, key projects and upcoming research opportunities to ensure alignment between academic work and the needs of the industry.

The 2025 Academic Board focused on presentations of university-led projects and discussions pursued by Elia experts on current strategic issues.

The following topics were addressed by the academics:

• Flexibility and the integration of renewable energies: UMONS presented the SALOME project for the dynamic monitoring of offshore wind turbines to optimise their contribution to energy markets. UGent presented IMPRUCHARES, demonstrating the advantage of hybrid energy storage for increasing fast charging capacity without overloading the network.
• Network reliability, security, and risk management: Research teams from ULiège and ULB gave a presentation on IT and physical risks. The experts also discussed the development of methods based on these risks for electricity system safety and the need for probabilistic approaches and multi-industry collaboration on this issue.
• Innovations in market design: ULiège demonstrated new frameworks enabling the safe and flexible operation of an increasingly complex network.
• Grid-forming and inspection technologies: UCLouvain and KU Leuven presented cutting-edge strategies for inspecting grid-forming HVDC converters and systems. The objective is to support the robustness and resilience of networks in the context of the growing integration of renewable energies.

Elia's experts shared their vision on various issues, including grid connections, voltage, and stability management (with an analysis of the stability challenges recently encountered in Spain and Portugal) as well as grid design and planning in the face of an uncertain future. 

"The Academic Board is much more than just a discussion forum. It bolsters collaboration between academia and industry by exploring major issues and topics in depth, identifying new research topics and promoting joint projects–all of which are key efforts in building a secure, innovative, sustainable and future-proof Belgian energy system."

James Matthys-Donnadieu, Chief Customers, Markets & System Officer at Elia

“Ensuring a successful energy transition means, above all, moving forward together. For this study day, Elia brought together the best researchers in the field of electricity to address the immense technical challenges that our networks will face in the years ahead."

Professor Damien Ernst, University of Liège

If you are a university researcher and you would like to learn more about opportunities for collaboration with Elia, then feel free to contact Lora Ivanova at lora.ivanova@elia.be or send an e-mail to innovation@eliagroup.eu.