Rotterdam — A national network of five regional IX (Immersive Experiences) Labs will open across the Netherlands to give makers, companies, research institutions and public organisations shared access to high-end immersive technology and facilities. The initiative, called IX Labs NL, is being supported by the Creative Industries Immersive Impact Coalition (CIIIC), a National Growth Fund programme.
Shared infrastructure for costly technology
The network links five physical labs in Brabant, Amsterdam, Hilversum, Zeist and Rotterdam. By pooling facilities such as motion capture, virtual production stages, dome projection, spatial audio, haptics and high-end validation environments, the labs aim to lower the barrier to entry for organisations that would otherwise be unable to afford or host such specialized infrastructure.
“These facilities mean that schools, startups and multinational companies don’t each have to invest in infrastructure that is too expensive, specialised or large for them alone,” said Heleen Rouw, programme director at CIIIC.
What is IX?
IX stands for Immersive Experiences — interactive applications where digital and physical environments merge and users become participants rather than just observers. Use cases include surgical training in virtual environments, pre-construction inspections for maritime or industrial installations, and neighbourhood walkthroughs for future urban developments. The Netherlands already has considerable expertise in design, gaming and media technology; IX Labs NL aims to turn that expertise into deployable applications at scale.
Five labs, one national network
The strength of IX Labs NL lies in regional specialisation combined with national coordination. Each lab brings distinct expertise and facilities while the network routes users to the site best suited to their needs. The five founding labs are:
- BRIX Lab (Brabant, North Holland) — a federated set of public and private labs across Eindhoven, Tilburg, Breda and Purmerend, combining partners such as Enversed, MindLabs, Fontys, TU/e, H20, Tilburg University and Breda University of Applied Sciences. BRIX covers the full innovation chain from early experiments to market introduction.
- IX3 Lab (Amsterdam) — links AMAZE, the ARTIS Planetarium, ENTR and NXT Museum, enabling prototyping and production closely tied to public-facing venues, including the country’s largest fixed dome screen environment.
- MIX Lab (Hilversum) — focuses on research, training and validation in a high-end production environment with real-time 3D workflows, multi-camera virtual production, markerless motion and facial capture, spatial audio and gaussian splatting for media, entertainment, B2B and education.
- PRIME Lab (Zeist, KNVB Campus) — develops applications to improve human performance at the intersection of brain, body and environment, relevant for elite sport, healthcare, safety, business and education.
- SHINE Lab (Rotterdam, Katoenhuis) — couples high-fidelity validation facilities with public presentation and societal testing, with a focus on life sciences & health, maritime & industry and the digital built environment.
TNO will support the network with technical knowledge and expertise.
Funding, scale and impact
CIIIC is a five‑year programme that is part of the National Growth Fund; it invests in the Dutch immersive sector while emphasising public values such as privacy, accessibility and digital inclusion. The programme says it will invest in people, collaboration and infrastructure — not just individual projects — with an overall budget headline of €200 million for the wider CIIIC initiative.
By creating a federated national infrastructure, organisers say the network will increase facility availability, speed up knowledge development and sharing, and make it easier to scale projects internationally. The labs will also run programmes, matchmaking and sector-specific activities for areas including healthcare, manufacturing, media and the built environment, helping organisations unfamiliar with immersive technology to experiment and adapt it to real-world problems.
Opening and how to get involved
The labs plan to open from autumn 2026; a formal opening is scheduled for 18 November 2026. Organisers encourage makers, companies and institutions to visit the IX Labs NL website for details about facilities, programmes and how to access support.
Source: Original press release
