Five New High-Tech Labs Open Across the Netherlands to Democratise Virtual Reality
Amsterdam, Tuesday 15 September 2026
Backed by a €200 million national fund, five new labs have launched to give students and startups access to the same advanced virtual technology as major multinationals.
A €200 Million Leap for Immersive Technology
On 13 September 2026, the Creative Industries Immersive Impact Coalition (CIIIC) officially initiated the regional IX Labs NL network, establishing five physical locations across the Netherlands [2][3]. Backed by a substantial €200 million investment from the Dutch National Growth Fund (Nationaal Groeifonds), this initiative seeks to build a robust national infrastructure for research, development, and training over a five-year period [2][3]. This represents an average annual funding allocation of 40.000 million euros to drive digital innovation [3]. The programme, overseen by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, is supported by TNO, which acts as the executor to help scale these immersive technologies internationally [2][4].
Five Specialised Regional Hubs
The five physical labs are strategically distributed across the country to leverage regional expertise and existing industrial clusters [1][2][3]. The BRIX Lab, spanning Brabant locations including Eindhoven, Tilburg, and Breda, has launched with 23 initial partners to focus on virtual production, simulators, and virtual humans [3][4]. In Amsterdam, the IX3 Lab brings together cultural and entertainment heavyweights such as the ARTIS-Planetarium, AMAZE, ENTR, and the Nxt Museum to streamline real-time 3D-content workflows [3][4]. In fact, today on 15 September 2026, AMAZE is hosting the TouchDesigner Meetup Amsterdam, demonstrating the immediate active utility of these collaborative spaces [4].
Democratising Access and Scaling for 2030
A primary objective of the IX Labs NL network is to democratise access to highly expensive, specialist infrastructure [1]. According to CIIIC Programme Director Heleen Rouw, these facilities ensure that vocational education (MBO) students, startups, and massive multinationals can all access the same high-end tools without needing to fund prohibitive capital investments themselves [1][3]. By lowering the barrier to entry, the CIIIC programme hopes to shrink the gap between initial conceptual ideas, prototyping, and actual commercial or societal application [1].