Shaping Belgium's Hydrogen Future in 72 Hours: the Hydrogen HiveMinds Ideathon
- ETF BE-HyFE
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
Last week, we wrapped up something quite special: the Hydrogen HiveMinds Ideathon.
A three-day deep dive where 29 researchers, spread across 8 multidisciplinary teams, came together to shape Belgium’s hydrogen future. Not with abstract discussions, but by building concrete, forward-looking business cases across three key pathways:
Hydrogen as an energy carrier
Hydrogen as an industrial feedstock
Hydrogen to boost EU competitiveness
It’s not often you get this mix of talent, time, and focus in one room. That’s what made Hydrogen HiveMinds feel like a once-in-a-lifetime format.
From strangers to teams in 72 hours
What stood out immediately: many of the participants didn’t know each other beforehand.
Yet within hours, team spirit was established, leaders emerged, and ideas started flowing. Over three days, their initial concepts evolved -sometimes drastically- into well-argued, grounded business cases. Seeing that transformation was one of the strongest aspects of the event.
What happened over the three days?
Day 1 – Setting the stage
We kicked off by getting to know each other, getting the event rundown and pitching initial ideas.
From there, teams started building their future-thinking framework, working through:
The challenge (what problem/opportunity are we tackling?)
Signals (policies, trends, research developments shaping the context)
The future (where is this heading?)
The intent (what does a desirable future look like?)
The intervention (how do we steer towards it?)
By the end of the day, the first ideas were already being reshaped with these new insights
Day 2 – From idea to business case
With a solid foundation in place, teams translated their concepts into structured business cases, focusing on context, the problem statement and their solution, taking into account criteria like feasibility, impact, adoption & acceptance, scalability and enablers. We closed the day with a pitching workshop, giving participants practical tools to sharpen their story and delivery for the next day.
Day 3 – Pitching under pressure
The final day brought everything together. After a morning of refining and rehearsing, teams stepped into a real “Dragon’s Den” setting, pitching their ideas to a jury. What started as early-stage ideas had, by then, evolved into credible pathways for Belgium’s hydrogen ecosystem, shaped by research, discussion, and critical mentor input. We wrapped up the afternoon with jury deliberation, the announcement of the winners, and a well-deserved networking reception.
The value of mentors
A key ingredient throughout the event: our mentors from industry and policy. Their role went far beyond occasional feedback. They helped teams interpret signals and trends, challenged their assumptions, grounded initial ideas in real-world constraints and helped strengthen the business case logic.
This was consistently highlighted by participants as one of the most valuable aspects of Hydrogen Hiveminds, so a sincere thank you to all mentors for their time, insights, and engagement. You made a real difference!
Energy matters too
Three intense days require more than just brainpower. To keep the energy high, we provided coffee corners with snacks throughout the day, joint lunch breaks in the sun (can you believe it, in March in Belgium!) and lighter moments with games and mini-challenges like:
an airtag hunt under the chairs
a very competitive 'guess how many candies in the jar' competition
and an epic rock-paper-scissors battle
Small thing, but they helped reset the room, spark interaction, and keep things fun.
The ideas
Across the three pathways, teams tackled a wide range of challenges:
1) Hydrogen as an energy carrier
Hush2O explored making liquid hydrogen shipping viable by valorising regasification energy and building a Chile–Belgium supply chain
The Bumblebees addressed grid congestion by turning ports into hydrogen hubs using reversible seawater electrolysis
HyNova developed “FlexH2”, converting renewable surplus into domestic hydrogen supply
🏆Winning team BeeHydro integrated hydrogen technology into their biomass and waste-to-energy power plant of the future to reduce emissions and increase flexibility.
2) Hydrogen as industrial feedstock
H2ERA proposed to introduce electrolysers into hospitals, using both the H2, oxygen ànd heat produced, creating “hospital hydrogen valleys”.
🏆Winning team H2Power worked on electrochemical brine valorisation for ammonia production, turning waste streams into valuable resources for fertilizers.
3) Hydrogen to boost EU competitiveness
🏆Winning team H2 O-optimizers introduced the HyScore label, combining origin and quality indicators to strengthen Europe’s hydrogen market position
BEIS (Belgian Evaluatory & Intervention Sysem) proposed a system to connect pilot projects, industry, and policymakers for faster learning cycles
Each of the teams stood out with a strong combination of innovation, feasibility, and system-level thinking. An extra applause for the winning teams! 👏
What participants gained
Beyond the ideas themselves, Hydrogen HiveMinds was also about skills and growth.
Participants walked away with:
Experience in multidisciplinary teamwork under time pressure
Hands-on use of a future-thinking and ideation framework
Stronger business case development skills
Pitching and storytelling capabilities
Exposure to real-world industry and policy perspectives
New professional connections and potential collaborations
The ability to translate research into impact-oriented thinking
Looking back
Hydrogen HiveMinds was never meant to be just another event. It was an experiment in bringing researchers together, giving them the right structure, the right support, and just enough pressure to push beyond the obvious.The result? Eight teams, dozens of ideas, and a shared glimpse of what Belgium’s hydrogen future could look like. And that’s exactly where the real value lies.
It takes as village...
Events like Hydrogen HiveMinds don’t happen without a strong collective effort.
We would like to thank our mentors Jan Rongé (Solhyd), Peter van den Mooter (Agfa - Zirfon), Ghislain Detienne (Fluxys), Florian Fettweis (Sirris) and Senne Gabriels (FPS Economy) for challenging the teams and strengthening their ideas with real-world insight.
Our jury Isabel François (WaterstofNet), Cédric Brull (Cluster Tweed), Pieter Deleu (FPS Economy), Chris Dhulst (Bekaert) and Abdala Al Durry (Fluxys) for their engagement and thoughtful feedback.
The organizing teams of BE-HyFE (Marijke, Sophie, Linsey, Arne, Isabel) and KreativDistrikt (Hugo Espinosa and Arturo Ortega) for bringing this complex format to life.
And of course our funding partners FPS Economy for believing in the concept and for making it all possible.
Your contributions were essential to the success of these three days.
Curious about all the event picture? Then have a look here (click the image):
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