ValHyCon Kick-off Meeting

ValHyCon officially launches with a two-day kick-off meeting in Zeebrugge, Belgium, bringing together partner hydrogen valleys from across North-West Europe to align the project’s shared vision, exchange the current status of their regional ecosystems, and identify the main challenges, lessons learned and opportunities for stronger transnational cooperation. The programme is designed to move quickly from introductions to substance, with each participating valley presenting its development status, key bottlenecks, desired cross-border links and next steps for 2026, creating an early foundation for a more connected and strategic hydrogen landscape across the region.  

Hosted at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, the meeting also provides an important opportunity to connect regional ambition with industrial reality. Alongside project discussions and contributions from Interreg, partners will work through the 2026 work plan, deliverables, practical project administration and communication activities, ensuring that collaboration is structured from the outset and oriented towards implementation. In this sense, the kick-off is not only an organisational milestone, but also a working session focused on how individual hydrogen valleys can contribute to a wider, more integrated North-West European hydrogen ecosystem. 

A particular highlight of the event is the planned site visit to the HyOffWind electrolyser plant, which adds a tangible industrial dimension to the meeting and reinforces the project’s emphasis on real infrastructure, deployment pathways and interregional learning. With partners attending from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Ireland and Luxembourg, the Zeebrugge meeting sets the tone for ValHyCon as a practical and outward-looking initiative aimed at strengthening links between hydrogen valleys and supporting their transition from local development efforts to a more coordinated European network.

ABC-gebouw Zeebrugge

Rederskaai 60/61, Brugge, 8380