On May 9 and 10, on the initiative of the CHU de Liège, ULiège-RISE and Bridge 2 Health (B2H), a federating structure for players in the Liège life sciences ecosystem, La Grand Poste hosted the first edition of Hacking Health Liège, a hackathon dedicated to innovation in the healthcare sector. For 16 hours, caregivers, patients, entrepreneurs, practitioners and students joined forces to come up with concrete solutions to the sector's current challenges. The winning projects will receive support to encourage their development.
With the organization of this Hacking Health Liège, the local life sciences ecosystem aims to strengthen the bridges between university hospitals, academia, research, industry and patients.
"This event is part of the drive to amplify an already well-established dynamic in an area recognized for its excellence in health, research and interdisciplinarity, particularly within the CHU de Liège. In view of the enthusiasm generated by this first edition, our ambition is clear: to make this event a permanent fixture on the Liège healthcare innovation scene," commented the Liège University Hospital.
Nearly 100 people registered for the first edition of the event. Twenty or so ideas emerged at the very start of the hackathon, leading to the creation of 10 multi-disciplinary teams who worked hard for 16 hours, with the support of coaches, experts and mentors, and a few liters of coffee. The topics covered included patient quality of life, personalized care, prevention and much more.
"Beyond the numbers, the event was driven by a real collective energy, driven by the desire to innovate in line with needs in the field", Sophie Ismaïl, B2H Communications Manager.
Four teams distinguished themselves by proposing solutions around themes such as cancer risk assessment in healthy patients, bruxism diagnosis, relief of severe menstrual pain, and patient self-pre-screening.
One of them wins EKLO's Business Plan Booster Prize, tailor-made strategic support from professionals in business creation and development. Two others, ex-aequo, receive the Hardware Acceleration Prize from Voxdale, including access to their 1,000 m² workshop and a day's consultancy. The last will receive a month's free coworking space at La Grand Poste to continue nurturing her creativity.
"At the end of this hackathon, we have some fine winners who will benefit from the support of our partners, but also from the support we offer in the field of innovation and spin-off development within the University of Liège and the University Hospital of Liège via ULiège-RISE. We're looking forward to seeing these projects come to fruition, and will be there to water the seeds and fertilize these budding companies", Didier Mattivi, Director of ULiège-RISE.
The enthusiasm of one of the Voxdale prize-winning teams is just as palpable. "With this hackathon, we really felt like we were moving up a gear. Seeing our ideas come to life is immensely satisfying. We didn't think it was possible... and yet we did it," confides Amélie Mainjot, Doctor of Dentistry at Liège University Hospital and Professor at ULiège.
This event owes its great success to the support of numerous partners such as Wallonie Santé, CSD Liège, Voxdale, EKLO, Noshaq, imec.istart, akkanto, Cresco and many others, who helped make this hackathon a real springboard for innovation in healthcare.
"Hacking Health Liège showed that a unified ecosystem around innovation, like the one that exists at Liège University Hospital, can generate concrete, effective solutions for the benefit of patients. For the 2026 edition, our ambition is to broaden participation, from both hospitals and companies, beyond Liège", says Amel Tounsi, CEO of B2H.
©Luc Garnier - Il y a un regard
All three scientists are members of the GIGA Institute and are receiving this grant for their ambitious projects in paediatric neuroscience and oncology.
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