The aim of this project is to create an interuniversity database containing high-quality and complexly interrelated data from all patients admitted to the intensive care units (ICU) of the university hospitals participating. Each of the 3 ICUs participating already has a fully operational commercial PDMS. Integrating these existing databases into one unique database may at first seem simple but is, in fact, a complex project. The added-value of a centralized ICU database is obvious: it would ensure better cooperation between the institutions, each institution contributing its own core research expertise to the consortium. It would also ensure more easily achieved critical patient cohorts (estimate of ± 9000 patients yearly), higher research quality, higher efficiency, increased research output with publications in higher ranked journals and a better positioning of the Flanders region in the world landscape.