DESTINY: DEcarbonisation Solutions and Technology for a New Tomorrow: Societal Impact Network of the Flanders Institute for Decarbonisation Technologies (FIDT)

The urgent fight against climate change has many at the VUB looking for solutions to stop greenhouse gas emissions. DESTINY is a plan whereby these various research groups at the VUB, working together in the Flemish Institute for Low Carbon Technologies (FIDT) want to increase their impact on society. The goal is to work together to create technologies and systems that make society more environmentally friendly, socially just and economically healthy by reducing carbon emissions to zero. This large group includes experts in many different technologies needed to build a climate- neutral society such as electric vehicles, batteries, renewable energy, hydrogen, Carbon capture, biofuels and recycled materials etc. In addition, this group includes researchers active from the social, economic and environmental sciences.
The Green Energy Park in Zellik is also involved with the Institute. There, the latest technologies
can be tangibly displayed and co-designed by their future users. To ensure that these solutions are quickly and effectively utilized by companies, governments, and other decision-makers, the DESTINY project proposes 5 concrete tasks.
Over 300 employees will carry out these tasks under the direction of 2 DESTINY coordinators: one who streamlines communication, and one who oversees the joint efforts of the researchers to (even better) align their work with the most pressing challenges and ensure that their solutions are immediately known where they can make the biggest difference.