Dr. Ir. Bert Pluymers is appointed as Senior Industrial Research Manager at KU Leuven, where he is the contact and interface person for technology transfer for the division LMSD (Leuven Mecha(tro)nic System Dynamics). In this role he is a bridge-builder between industry and academia. He is also the coordinator of the Flanders Make @ KU Leuven Community, i.e. the KU Leuven participation within the Flemish strategic research centre for the manufacturing industry – Flanders Make. He is active in European research platforms such as EARPA (European Automotive Research Partners Association), 2Zero (Towards zero emission road transport co-programmed partnership), CCAM (European partnership on Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility), EFFRA (the European Factories of the Future Research Association) and the new Virtual Worlds Public-Private-Partnership. He is one of the driving forces behind the Straight-through-Digitalization in manufacturing concept, which also shapes one of the industry Use Cases within FAIR. Linked to this concept, he is one of the initiators of the brand-new KU Leuven/Vives Infinity Lab in Kortrijk.