IX Labs Fase 1

A key part of our programme and Action Line 3: Facilities is the development of a national network of regional IX Labs, making state-of-the-art facilities and expertise accessible to makers, companies, knowledge institutions, and government organisations.

With this IX Labs Call Phase 1, five large-scale regional IX Labs will be selected. These labs will strengthen the infrastructure for research, development, and experimentation in immersive experiences, and foster collaboration and knowledge exchange within the regions.

Call opened

In collaboration with TNO, the CIIIC call for the establishment of a national infrastructure of IX Labs opened on 15 October 2025. Parties can register as an IX Lab with the appropriate supporting evidence and be admitted to the dialogue phase, in which alignment takes place with TNO and other participants. The dialogue phase is intended to further develop the substantive proposal for the IX Lab into a fully-fledged proposal that functions within a national infrastructure. Based on these proposals, TNO will select a maximum of five IX Labs to form a consortium with.

Funding indication per IX Lab

A maximum of €2,880,000 is available per IX Lab for the entire duration of the CIIIC programme up to 2029:

• Phase 1: maximum subsidy of €2,115,000
• Phase 2: maximum subsidy of €765,000

Participants must provide their own contribution to the costs; the maximum subsidy rate is 47.4%.

Important Deadlines

Download the updated Call for Applications (PDF) (version: November 17, 2025) for all important information about the process.

1: Application 

• Application deadline: November 26, 2025
• Each intended participant must only submit the Participant Application Document via this application form
• No other documents need to be filled in yet
• The dialogue phase then starts from early December 2025

In this phase, the consortia are not yet final; for this reason, separate parties register to participate in the dialogue phase. In the dialogue phase (December 2025 - February 2026), the composition of consortia can still change.

2: Optional: Comment on Cooperation Agreement

• Any comments on the Draft Cooperation Agreement should be submitted by early January at the latest. This is not mandatory.
• Download the drafted Draft Cooperation Agreement
• Download the Comment Table (for making change suggestions for the cooperation agreement)

3: Proposal Submission

• Deadline: February 6, 2026
• Application for this call can be made by filling out the form on the same pagethat will then contain an adjusted form.

At that time, two documents must be uploaded

• The Proposal Document (the document that must be submitted once for all participants of a consortium jointly)
• And the CIIIC AL3.1 Budget and Business Plan.xlsx (model budget and business plan – corrected version uploaded on November 17, 2025) 

Previous Information

• The full pre-announcement of the call, including objectives, participation criteria, financial frameworks, and next steps, can be downloaded here: Download the pre-announcement (PDF)
• Change 17-11-2025: As of today, a change has been made to the conditions of this call: based on feedback from the IX community, in consultation between CIIIC, TNO, and the Ministry of OCW, it was decided to remove the condition that 50% of the own contribution must come from private funds. Download the updated Call for Applications (PDF). The Excel file with the budget and business plan has also been updated; the revised version is available for download here.
• Update 19-11-2025: On November 12, a meeting took place with various parties interested in participating in this call. Read the full report or download the pdf.