Belnet Community Day 2026

What’s evolving across Belnet’s services—and what does it mean for your organisation? Get the latest on identity federation and its future challenges, find your way through the world of Digital Certificates, and discover practical lessons learned from OCRE mini-competitions.

1. Philip Brusten (KULeuven) : The future of Federated identity in R&E
2. Bruno Goossens (Belnet) : Certificate Automation: Preparing for shorter certificate lifetimes
3. Jean-Pierre Aerts (Belnet), David de Reu (Smals) & Rik Van Caenegem (KULeuven) : OCRE mini competition - Feedback from the field

What’s next for innovation at Belnet and across our community? Explore the latest initiatives shaping Belgium’s digital research landscape, from the Belgian AI Factory Antenna (BE-AIFA) and the Canathist project to VUB’s Supercomputing Nexus in the broader HPC ecosystem.

• Ward Poelmans (VUB) : VSC to HPC
• Sabine Demey (IMEC) :
• Patrick Semal (MRAC) & Erik De Neve (Belnet) : The Canathist project

What’s happening behind the scenes of Belnet’s network—and what’s next? Get up to speed on the latest network developments, discover how Belnet is testing Otto, an AI agent that analyses network incidents to deliver faster, clearer and better-documented answers, while keeping humans in control and take a look behind the scenes at how we monitor our network and why we’re bringing our NOC operations in-house.

1. Stefan Gulinck : Update Belnet Network
2. Jonathan Van Overmeir : Your ticket, already investigated - How we're exploring AIOps with NetFabric and Otto
3. Joachim Vertommen & Erik de Neve : Belnet’s journey with Zabbix

What’s new in Belnet and what’s coming next? Explore the solutions and emerging challenges shaping our future, from a customer experience with campus solutions and the upcoming Belnet Time & Frequency Service to the rising cyber risks created by AI-accelerated vulnerability discovery.

1. Geoffrey Szablot (HERS) : Rebuilding a multi-campus network : From fragmented infrastructure to one resilient operating model​
2. Lisa Van Loo (Belnet) : Belgian Time & Frequency service
3. Rob Loos (Belnet) : Rising cyber risk from AI-accelerated vulnerability discovery
4. Filip Vanierschot (Service Now-Armis) : Drowning in Fragmented Security Data?

This session features a series of five-minute talks, offering quick insights into innovative projects, fresh ideas and exciting developments from across our community.

1. Servaas Tilken (PXL Hogeschool) : EXPATS : Explainable Autofill for Trustworthy Surveys
2. Elke Dierckens (Belnet) : Belnet Customer Portal : a sneak peak
3. Louis Vanhove (student @ VUB) : iTutorOnline.com, stay curious –
4. Anna Miglio (Royal Observatory of Belgium) : Aligning Policy, Infrastructure, and Skills for Federal Open Science
5. Louise Le Grelle (Belnet) : TNC27