Three key innovations developed within the Structural Composites Unit at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) have been selected for inclusion in the European Commission’s Innovation Radar, a reference instrument used to identify and showcase high-potential innovations emerging from EU-funded research projects.
The recognition follows the successful completion of VIPCOAT, a European Union project funded under the Horizon programme. At project close-out, the European Commission evaluated its innovation outputs and identified six key innovations at European level — three of which originated from LIST.
“The Innovation Radar is the European Commission’s reference framework for assessing innovation outcomes from EU-funded projects,” explained Salim Belouettar, a Principal R&T Scientist at LIST, “Only a limited number of innovations are selected across all Horizon projects, which makes this recognition particularly significant.”
What is the Innovation Radar?
The Innovation Radar is an official European Commission tool used to assess and communicate the most promising innovations resulting from EU-funded research and innovation projects. Beyond identifying innovations, it also evaluates their maturity level, indicating whether they are technology-ready, business-ready or still in an exploratory phase.
This classification helps external stakeholders — including companies, investors, public authorities and research organisations — understand how close an innovation is to market uptake and who to contact for collaboration or further development. “The Innovation Radar is designed to create visibility at European level,” says Salim Belouettar. “It helps potential users, investors or partners identify concrete technologies and directly connect with the organisations behind them.”
Three innovations advancing digital innovation management and decision-making
As part of the Innovation Radar assessment, the following three LIST-developed innovations were identified:
Integrated Digital Environment for Structured Innovation Management: This platform leverages BPMN-guided workflows to structure and monitor complex composite materials modelling and simulation processes. It supports the optimization of innovation workflows by enabling traceability, coordination and efficient management across innovation projects.
Innovation maturity: Market Ready
Process Modelling & Simulation Suite for Large-Scale Multi-Physical Systems: A high-performance modelling and simulation environment capable of generating large-scale, multi-physics models for composite materials and processes. The solution supports advanced system analysis, optimisation and informed decision-making in complex industrial and scientific contexts.
Innovation maturity: Exploration
Skill-Based Recommendation System for Modelling and Design Team Formation: An intelligent recommendation engine designed to support team formation by combining skill matching, competency profiling and contextual project requirements. The system helps organisations identify optimal team configurations for innovation-driven projects.
Innovation maturity: Market Ready
A selective recognition and a collective effort
Across LIST’s extensive participation in Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects, only a small number of innovations have been selected for inclusion in the Innovation Radar over the years. The recognition of three innovations within a single project therefore represents a notable milestone for the Structural Composites unit. “When you consider the number of European projects LIST has been involved in, Innovation Radar selections remain relatively rare,” noted Levent Kirkayak, Head of the unit. “Having three innovations recognized within one project, in addition to earlier recognitions – such as the COMPOSELECTOR H2020 project coordinated by the unit – highlights both the strength of the results and the collective effort behind them.”
Strengthening Europe’s digital innovation ecosystem
Beyond individual recognition, the Innovation Radar selection highlights the commercialization and scalability potential of these solutions and reinforces LIST’s contribution to strengthening Europe’s digital innovation ecosystem.
This achievement was made possible through close collaboration with academic and industrial partners, notably SINTEF, an independent research organization headquartered in Norway, and Wikki GmbH, a software company in Germany.
“This recognition reflects the collective work of the teams involved,” Belouettar concludes. “It demonstrates how collaborative research can translate into tangible, high-impact digital solutions.”
The three LIST innovations are visible on the Innovation Radar platform here.