Forecasts suggest that the Brussels Region will have to face more risks due to a warmer climate (e.g. heatwaves) and risks due to rainier winters (e.g. flooding). The infrastructures and buildings of Brussels are directly subject to these changes and these risks, in the same way as the population that uses them. With populations exposed to greater temperature variations, this is also becoming a public health risk that is emerging in Brussels.
In response to climate and energy challenges,  researchers in VUB and ULB have already long been looking into different innovative and technological solutions in mitigating the risks of climate change such as tools/ systems for water and soil management, tools/systems for managing waves and heat islands or pollution peaks, natural solutions/ biodiversity/ urban agriculture, decentralized energy generation and supply systems, and cleantech systems. FARI aims to combine these research efforts and propose solutions in close collaboration with the Brussels administration.

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Climate & Energy

The concerns on mobility go beyond aiming for a more sustainable and less polluting mobility and transport system; it also focuses on addressing congestion problems in and around the region to improve safety and comfort for all users. A major city like Brussels has one of the busiest mobility on a day-to-day basis. The traffic flows contributes to several negative effects on internal and external accessibility with a traffic density (20%-28% higher than other cities), air pollution and high energy consumption, an increasing number of small vehicles on roads for logistics and supply, health problems (respiratory tract and nuisances), more motorized traffic occupies public space, and concerns on road safety (for pedestrians and cyclists). 
In response to these mobility challenges, FARI aims to contribute to Brussels’s strategic innovation plan of bringing together innovative activities and research outputs to promote public spaces and collective services that are accessible and secure, efficient, comfortable, and safe.  These includes projects on providing more optimal access to and and more possibilities on public urban transportation (e.g. smart travel and mobility flows).

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Mobility

In Brussels, the proportion of people aged 80 and over is greater than in other regions, which leads to an increase in the need for health care, especially among the people who suffer from chronic and complex disorders or illnesses linked to both physical and behavioural components (diabetes, obesity, hypertension, depression, burn-out etc). The deinstitutionalization of care raises issues of organization and distribution of resources that will be crucial. 
To address various health and well-being challenges, Brussels’s strategic innovation area aims to provide personalised and integrated care that is an essential part of the regional health and e-health plans as well as the social transition for a dignified life in healthy conditions. Those initiatives include digital and high-tech tools and services for the organisation of care and health management. With the expertise of the 10 research groups of FARI, we aim to bring existing and future research studies together to help in pushing e-Health applications and technologies into a functional public health service.

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Health and Well Being

Around<a href="https://environment.brussels/state-environment/report-2011-2014/dechets/focus-part-et-gestion-des-dechets-prepares-en-vue-du"> 2 million tons of waste</a> are produced in Brussels every year.  If the situation isn’t controlled or remedial measures aren’t implemented, this can grow and cause crucial concerns for the region. This is fundamental for the existing production and consumption systems. Resources must be optimised and reintroduced into the production chain to lessen the environmental damage and produce efficiency in the system.
The Brussels Region seeks to use the power of AI and Data to help in efficient waste management and handling, with the realisation of its integral role in resource-efficient agro-food chain and sustainable energy flow systems. Currently, several studies and prototypes have been proposed towards optimising energy consumption using smart grids and related technologies. FARI aims to expand its resource optimisation research that are localised and are grounded to the context of the different neighbourhoods in Brussels.

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Resource Optimization

Brussels is home to people from diverse ethnic backgrounds, races, and cultures; therefore, there is a need to build an inclusive society that characterises opportunities and resources based on talents and needs. Brussels is also the region that has the <a href="https://statbel.fgov.be/en/news/1st-january-2018-belgium-had-11376070-inhabitants">youngest population and the highest demographic growth</a> in the country which leads to a high level of segregation in different areas and results in precariousness in several districts. The polarisation in the region also threatens Brussel&#8217;s labour market.
FARI will aim to provide support for participatory governance in strategic areas to cultivate innovation. We help with the state-mandated relevant areas for Brussels such as building social, cooperative, and democratic economy and entrepreneurship as a vector of socio-economic transition, providing support for digitisation and digital inclusion in different sectors of the region, as well as providing support for democratic and participatory governance with ease in building AI and data-led technologies.

Our five targeted research priority areas for the Brussels region