European Awards

BEMAS supports excellence in maintenance, reliability and asset management, both in Belgium and at European level. As the Belgian Maintenance Association, BEMAS actively participates in the European Maintenance Awards organised by the Salvetti Foundation and presented in the context of EuroMaintenance, the European conference for maintenance and asset management.

These European Awards recognise professionals, teams, organisations and researchers who contribute to better maintenance practices, innovation, maintenance management, technical reliability and sustainable asset performance. They reward both practical achievements in industry and infrastructure and academic research in maintenance engineering, maintenance services, digitalisation and asset management.

BEMAS can nominate Belgian candidates for several European awards, including the European Maintenance Manager Award, the M.Sc. Thesis Award and the Ph.D. Thesis Award. On this page, you will find an overview of these awards and of Belgian laureates who received international recognition through BEMAS for their contribution to the maintenance and asset management sector.

European recognition for maintenance and asset management

The European Maintenance Awards are organised by the Salvetti Foundation and presented in the context of EuroMaintenance. Their aim is to stimulate research, innovation and professional excellence in maintenance, reliability and asset management.

The awards bring together strong cases and research projects from across Europe. National maintenance societies, such as BEMAS in Belgium, play an important role in nominating candidates. The selected applications are then assessed by a European jury of experts, coordinated by the Salvetti Foundation.

For BEMAS, these awards are a way to give Belgian expertise in maintenance, reliability and asset management greater international visibility. They show how Belgian professionals, companies and researchers contribute to better maintenance practices and sustainable asset performance.

European Maintenance Manager Award / EMMA

The European Maintenance Manager Award, or EMMA, recognises outstanding achievements in maintenance. The award is intended for individuals, teams or organisations that make a clear contribution to the development and professionalisation of maintenance and asset management.

EMMA rewards strong performance, new ideas, innovative technologies, improved organisational approaches, publications, presentations and other initiatives that make maintenance more effective, more visible and more future-oriented.

The award is not limited to industrial maintenance. Maintenance in infrastructure, hospitals, public utilities, airports, public transport, heritage management and other asset-intensive environments may also be eligible.

M.Sc. Thesis Award / MTA

The M.Sc. Thesis Award recognises outstanding master’s theses in maintenance. The award encourages students and universities to conduct theoretical and applied research that contributes to better knowledge and practices in maintenance and asset management.

Relevant topics include maintenance engineering, maintenance management, information and communication technologies for maintenance, maintenance modelling, maintenance systems, maintenance services, reliability and asset management.

Through this award, young researchers have the opportunity to make their work visible at European level and contribute to the further development of the maintenance profession.

Ph.D. Thesis Award / PTA

The Ph.D. Thesis Award recognises doctoral research that makes an important contribution to maintenance as a professional and academic field. The award focuses on scientific quality, practical relevance and the potential impact of the research on maintenance organisations in Europe.

Research that contributes to more reliable assets, better maintenance strategies, sustainable asset performance, digitalisation or new maintenance management methods may be eligible.

The Ph.D. Thesis Award helps bring in-depth academic research in maintenance and asset management to the attention of the European maintenance community.

Belgian laureates of European awards nominated by BEMAS

BEMAS is proud that several Belgian candidates nominated through BEMAS have received European recognition for their contribution to maintenance, reliability and asset management.

These laureates demonstrate the strength of Belgian expertise in maintenance and asset management. Their work contributes to better maintenance practices, higher reliability, innovation and sustainable asset performance in industry and other asset-intensive sectors.

Erwin Bovyn – Euromaintenance Incentive Award 2010

Erwin Bovyn, then Maintenance Manager at SPE-Luminus in Ghent, received the Euromaintenance Incentive Award during Euromaintenance 2010 in Verona. He was nominated by BEMAS for this European recognition, after previously being named Maintenance Manager of the Year 2009 by BEMAS.

The award recognised his outstanding contribution to maintenance and his strong results in reliability, continuous improvement, organisational development and energy efficiency. At SPE-Luminus, he built the maintenance approach around four pillars: continuous improvement, people engagement, creativity and customer orientation.

Under his leadership, the maintenance organisation evolved into a modern multi-site maintenance team, with strong attention to employee involvement, clear processes, high-quality work preparation and KPI-based follow-up. The case shows how maintenance can play a key role in improving reliability, safety and sustainable industrial performance.

Marc De Kerf - European Maintenance Manager Award 2018

Marc De Kerf, maintenance expert for critical process equipment at BASF, was named European Maintenance Manager of the Year 2018 during the Euromaintenance 4.0 conference. The award recognises outstanding achievements in maintenance and is granted by the EFNMS and the Salvetti Foundation.

Marc De Kerf received this European recognition for his strong contribution to maintenance, asset management and the development of new concepts, technologies and best practices. At BASF Antwerp, he built up extensive expertise in maintenance and asset management. He later took on an international role in the global rollout of new maintenance concepts, best practices and asset management across BASF’s petrochemical sites.

Alongside his professional career, Marc De Kerf is also active as a volunteer at BEMAS. He shares his knowledge as a speaker in Belgium and abroad, gives lectures at universities and supports students in their final projects.

Louis Morias – European Master Thesis Award 2026

Louis Morias received the European Master Thesis Award during EuroMaintenance 2026 in Luleå for his master’s thesis “Exploring the Potential of Generative AI in Maintenance and Asset Management”. He was nominated by BEMAS as the Belgian candidate and was selected as laureate by the European jury.

His research explores how generative AI can help industrial maintenance organisations preserve, retrieve and apply technical knowledge more effectively. This includes manuals, maintenance reports, inspection records, work orders and procedures that are often spread across different systems. The thesis positions AI as a digital co-pilot for maintenance professionals: supporting knowledge sharing, interventions, root-cause analysis and reporting, without replacing human expertise.

Louis graduated from the interuniversity Master of Science in Smart Operations and Maintenance in Industry, organised by KU Leuven and Ghent University. Since September 2025, he has been working as an IT Consultant Data Analytics at Axians Belgium, where he further applies the insights from his thesis in projects related to data analytics, generative AI and predictive maintenance.