From costly technology to shared infrastructure
The National Growth Fund’s CIIIC programme enables the IX Labs to provide creative professionals, researchers and other organisations with access to high-quality facilities and technologies, including motion capture, virtual production, spatial audio, haptics and dome projection.
Thanks to these facilities, companies, researchers, educational institutions and public authorities no longer need to invest themselves in infrastructure that is too costly, specialised or extensive for their individual needs. This means that, for example, a vocational education provider, a start-up or a multinational can all access the same high-quality facilities.
What is IX?
IX stands for Immersive Experiences: experiences in which the digital and physical worlds come together. You are not simply a spectator; you become part of the experience. Think of a surgeon practising an operation in a virtual environment, a port operator inspecting an installation before it is built, or residents walking through a neighbourhood that has yet to be constructed.
The technology behind these experiences is developing rapidly. The Netherlands has a strong pool of talent and expertise in IX, as well as in fields such as design, gaming and media technology. What is still lacking, however, is sufficient access to the infrastructure needed to put this knowledge into practice and scale it up.
Five labs, one network
The strength of IX Labs NL lies not only in its regional locations, but above all in the collaboration between them at a national level. Each lab has its own areas of expertise and facilities. By connecting these capabilities, they create a single nationwide infrastructure: users can go to the location that best matches their needs and, where necessary, be referred to another lab. This network is just the beginning. CIIIC will further expand the network with additional labs, learning communities and other partnerships that emerge with the support of the programme.
Building a nationwide network creates a complete ecosystem with greater impact than individual initiatives can achieve on their own. It increases access to facilities, accelerates the development and sharing of knowledge, and creates opportunities for international scaling. In this way, it shortens the path from idea to experiment, prototype and real-world application.
The labs are also more than just places equipped with advanced facilities. They organise programmes, projects, matchmaking activities and events for sectors including healthcare, manufacturing, media and entertainment, education and the built environment. This also gives organisations that are not yet familiar with immersive technology the opportunity to discover what it can do for them.
Discover IX Labs NL
Curious about what immersive technology could mean for your organisation, sector or societal challenge?
More information about the five IX labs
Visit the IX Labs website to learn more about the five labs and the national IX Labs NL network. Save the date: 18 November 2026 marks the official opening of the labs.