It's great around here!

en omgeving

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T A E R E G R S E ’ T H I D N U O R A This Friday is the 25th anniversary of DAF's request for deferred payment. The Eindhoven truck manufacturer was on the brink of bankruptcy, which was only completed 19 years later. At the same time, Philips was pulled inside out by a major reorganization under the name of Centurion. And NedCar almost completely left Helmond. The bad messages succeeded each other rapidly. Southeast Brabant soared and cracked, it groaned and all but collapsed.

Tens of thousands of people lost their jobs. Another blow in the neck - also mentally - in 1998 was caused by the relocation of Philips’ head office to Amsterdam.

But now. Look around you. Where are we? ASML grows like a Japanese knotweed, NXP has turned out to be a popular bride, High Tech Campus and Automotive Campus are developing the techniques of the future, the region and the city are working together to get the city’s facilities in order with a lot of money. Not only ASML, also VDL, FEI, Philips, DAF, and other attractive companies were able to model an enviable economic and innovative engine out of the ashes of decades ago.

And we can all feel it: life has become great around here. No need to be shy about that, not even from our point of view. Yes, one may have second thoughts about all the successes, because obviously, not everyone is benefiting equally from this progress. For this one time, however, we are not putting our finger on the sore spot. On the next six pages, the glass is three-quarters full. Because it’s great around here!

John van den Oetelaar Editor-in-chief Translation E52

2 IT’S GREAT AROUND HERE!

䊱 1992:

Demonstration against the closure of DAF. ARCHIEFFOTO RENÉ MANDERS/FOTOMEULENHOF

䊱 Joris

Seijkens is building one of AAE's machines for a customer in the foo

Climbing very high out This region was in deep crisis a quarter of a century ago. Now it is the growth pearl of the country. And: less vulnerable Peter Scholtes p.scholtes@ed.nl

e calls from Schiphol Airport. Marc Hendrikse, CEO of high-tech machine builder NTS-Group, flies to Silicon Valley to visit two of his biggest customers. NTS in Eindhoven is a company with 1,650 employees, 600 of whom are working abroad. It has branches in Singapore, China, and the United States. NTS is growing by more than 10 percent per year. For ASML and Philips, it designs and builds components of production systems, but American giants in the chip industry like Applied Materials are on the customer list as well.

What a difference with Hendrikse's life in the early nineties of the last century.

Mass redundancies at Philips and DAF and the departure of car builder Nedcar from Helmond plunge the regional economy into a deep crisis. “You can hardly imagine it anymore”, says Hendrikse. At the time he was director of the coach manufacturer Bova in Valkenswaard. As part of United Bus, this company is in danger of being dragged into the bankruptcy of DAF. “It has been very exciting for two full weeks. I worked day and night. It was

H

a very hectic time.

The predecessors of NTS, Nebato and Te Strake, experience a hard time as suppliers to DAF and Philips. They are not the only ones; tens of thousands of jobs are disappearing in the region. Unemployment is rising rapidly.

Hendrikse experiences from close by how the resurrection is being worked on.

As director of the employers' association BZW, he is closely involved in the initiative of Eindhoven Mayor Rein Welschen, TU/e-director Henk de Wilt and chairman Theo Hurks of the Chamber of Commerce. As representatives of local government, knowledge institutes and companies, they want to join forces. The foundation is laid for a unique collaboration, which we now know as Brainport. With the help of European funding, coopera-

Philips has sown a lot which has later been brought to fruition by others

tion in the field of innovation between companies is promoted, training programmes are set up, young people's attention to technology is stimulated and the improvement of the business environment gets a spot on the agenda.

Has it been a panacea for economic growth and prosperity in the region? No. Although the enhanced cooperation between, for example, TU/e, TNO and individual companies certainly contributes to this. It’s just as powerful as the way how directors in the networks collaborate and how easily companies can find each other.

But the economic foundation laid by Philips, in particular, has been strengthened mainly by the companies themselves.

Philips' demerged businesses have become global players on their own strength. ASML is the most important exponent; with its chip machines, it has far outstripped the old mother in market value. ASML has given an enormous boost to its suppliers in the region. Chip producer NXP and electron microscope maker FEI, also from the Philips nest, have become billion euros companies as well.

And of course, Philips was the father of the High Tech Campus, initially intended for its own research and development and later opened to other high-tech related activities.

Philips has sown a lot that others have brought to fruition and are harvesting.

Also by many smaller companies that have developed a specialism with which they take the world market by storm in their field. Take Hemics, who was the first in the world to develop a scanning device that detects joint rheumatism. Shapeways emerged from a starter program of Philips and now has 3D printing plants in Eind-

Client of Lego and ASML AAE in Helmond is growing like crazy.

With 215 employees, it produces high-tech machines and components, such as modules for ASML's chip machine and Thermo Fisher Scientific's electron microscope. But AAE (Advanced Automated Equipment) also develops and builds machines for Lego, for the production of medicines, LED lighting, passports and automatic gearboxes.

Before William Pijnenburg became the owner in 1995, it was owned by ODME, which produced a production machine for CDs. From Philips, ODME purchased the

activities that made a sound recording suitable for reproduction in 1993. AAE, which made the machines for ODME, received twelve people from Philips as part of the deal. “Outsourcing by Philips has been the start of the growth of AAE", say director Frank Mulders and manager of Human Resources Manon Pijnenburg. AAE is allowed to do more and more for large clients such as ASML. It is also working for start-ups. And because of the enormous diversity in sectors and markets, it has become crisisproof. Pijnenburg: "We have never had to reorganize our business.”

3

䊱 Genkey's

od industry. FOTO RENÉ MANDERS/FOTOMEULENHOF

fingerprint scanner is used for the elections in Ghana

of a deep valley hoven and New York. Seecubic and Dimenco are now continuing to embroider on 3D technology for television and other screens that Philips left aside. With a digital watermark to prevent illegal copying of films, the Eindhoven-based company 4C, which was hived off by Philips, succeeded in Hollywood.

Everywhere in the region, you'll meet former Philips employees. They are well educated and still filled with inspiration by their former employer. For example, four former Philips men are responsible for the Best Company Heliox, building the charging stations of for electric buses, which drive around in our region. At Ctouch, a fast-growing Eindhoven-based manufacturer of large touch screens for educational purposes and meeting rooms, members with a Philips background can also be found on the Board of Management.

The breeding ground for innovative entrepreneurship in the region is favourable.

The TU/e and the technical training courses at Fontys in Eindhoven deliver clever minds that are successful after years of pioneering throughout the world. They find their way to companies like Concept Engineers that develop smart sorting machines for fries, cigarettes, and sweets. A company with around fifty employees, founded by five Eindhoven engineers.

Their machines are shipped to countries such as China and Australia.

The economic base in southeast Brabant has become much wider in scope.

Companies have started to internationalize and globalize. That makes them less vulnerable. Europe's decline can be offset by growth in North America or Asia.

Regional companies are represented in

many sectors. Prinsen Food in Helmond is already a European player with its coffee creamers, cappuccino and cocoa drinks, sweeteners and diet and sports foods and will enter the world market after the acquisition of a German company. The Helmond based Huijbregts Group already ranks among the best in the world as a supplier of powder mixtures for foodstuffs such as margarine, bread, soups, and sauces.

Can it go wrong again in the region when the global economy collapses? Of course, we will notice that, Marc Hendrikse also thinks. “But less badly than back then."

It has been very exciting for two weeks. It was a very hectic time —Marc Hendrikse

We are more diverse, broader, we export much more. Look at DAF Trucks, which sells 15% of its trucks outside Europe and is successful worldwide with its manufacturing of engines. See how electronics company Neways in Son has accommodated not only to Philips, ASML and other customers in the chips sector but also to the automotive industry.

VDL is an excellent example. This company has evolved from a supplier of Philips and DAF to an international industrial group with a wide range of products.

The group offers more jobs than DAF and almost as much as ASML. It operates from the oil and gas industry to sunbeds and is even a car manufacturer with VDL Nedcar. And thanks to the acquisition of Philips' machine factories, VDL is also increasingly focused on research and development.

VDL nowadays also owns Bova, the company where Marc Hendrikse was responsible 25 years ago. With NTS-Group, he meets VDL again. “In the United States, VDL is my biggest competitor", he reports from the airport. “In Singapore as well.”

In China, next to VDL, the Frencken Group - also from Eindhoven - is an additional competitor for NTS. The regional suppliers are all represented at the world top of the high tech precision engineering industry. Thanks to Philips, which, like a business card, opened many doors in the world.

It has happened, for example, that Hendrikse suddenly sees colleagues from regional competition emerge in Singapore or the United States. But in the evening they dine together, symbolizing the present economic strength of southeast Brabant.

Technology helps Africa Michiel van der Veen and five colleagues from Philips Research in Eindhoven started their own company in 2008. Ten years later, Genkey is active in biometric technology at the High Tech Campus Eindhoven, in the USA (Chicago) and in Ghana, with fifty employees. It provided fin-

gerprint scanners for identification of voters in African countries.

The provision of health care now is an important market as well: identifying insured persons with fingerprints and facial recognition.

"In Ghana, 17 million people now have a healthcare pass," Van der Veen says.

4 IT’S GREAT AROUND HERE!

Dining in an urban atmosphere: restaurant Usine, with a fine view of the Blob. FOTO KEES MARTENS/FOTOMEULENHOF

Light Festival GLOW is attracting lots of visitor

It’s buzzing and bubblin Let’s call him Frans, a fictional person. For a quarter of a century, he had been away from Eindhoven, the city of his youth. What would he find if he would return these days? A buzzing city that underwent a complete metamorphosis.

John Graat j.graat@ed.nl

nce landed, Frans had already seen it through the airplane window: this looks different than 25 years ago when he last saw the city. What was still a regional airport at his departure, is now called Eindhoven Airport. Frans descends the airplane stairs and a little later he arrives in a large departure hall. It is filled with people going on a holiday and businessmen of all kinds of nationalities. On screens, Frans sees that from Eindhoven one can fly to the whole of Europe. Dreadful for local residents, Frans thinks, but very nice for all those people who no longer have to go to that miserable Schiphol Airport.

Frans walks out of the building and sees the remains of a collapsed car park. He has read about it on the internet. Sometimes progress can also go too hasty, Frans thinks

O

when he takes a bus towards the city centre. An electric bus, made at VDL, in this region. It’s part of the largest electric bus fleet of Europe.

Frans is amazed when the bus takes a turn and enters Strijp-S. In his youth, this was the 'Forbidden City' of Philips, hidden behind walls.

Now the factory buildings have been transformed into beautiful residential complexes. The construction cranes show that more new buildings are being built. Here at Strijp-S mainly young people live, above fancy shops, coffee bars, and eateries. Philips' old halls are now used by skaters and BMX-riders.

This is no longer a boring city, it's full of life here, Frans has noticed

With hip-hop or punk rock on their ears. They come from far away to Eindhoven, their urban mecca. Also because of the graffiti. The Berenkuil, actually a concrete traffic junction, is world famous in the scene of paint sprayers.

Hey, there’s the NatLab, Frans sees through the window of the bus. In that former Philips bastion, you can now go to the best movies.

And there’s the Klokgebouw as well. That’s where my father used to work, Frans muses. It now has a rock academy, a concert hall and a hotel that breathes rock and roll.

Many other old Philips buildings on Strijp-S are now full of small businesses that are eagerly trying to invent the future. In the summertime, Strijp-S also buzzes out on the streets, with festivals and a monthly market with organic food and drinks from the region.

Only after he has left his bus, Frans finds out how many good restaurants and bars the city offers in 2018. He has just seen the PSV sta-

dium. Much bigger than in the past.

It's like the Centre Pompidou! And PSV has won no less than ten country titles since 1993, and they have been celebrated well around here.

The eleventh one is approaching.

In the Lichttoren, Frans drinks coffee at Usine, a grand café with an industrial appearance. Frans has a beautiful view of a funny building that looks like a giant, oval dented ball at 18 September Square: so this is the Blob they were talking about!

And all those tall buildings have been added. Eindhoven has acquired some real city allure, Frans mumbles. He asks a woman where he should eat tonight. The Karpen-

donkse Hoeve, does it still exist?

“Certainly sir, but we have so much more. Starred restaurants like Zarzo and Wiesen, but you can also eat well at Mood and Valenzia. Or you can try Wynwood at Strijp-S. At Radio Royaal or in the Ketelhuis you can eat an alternative meal, in the spirit of André Amaro.'' Ah yes, Frans thinks, I've read about Amaro. This little Portuguese man has turned the squatted Stroomhuisje into a stronghold of the local artistic underground scene. Eindhoven Rock City is still alive!

Space for experimentation, it has always characterized Eindhoven, Frans thinks. But these experi-

Helmond is home to the world's smartest district At the end of this year, if all goes well, the first trial homes in Brainport Smart District will be built. In the Brandevoort district of Helmond, space has been reserved for no less than a thousand homes that together will have to form the 'smartest district of the world'. All houses will be more than energy-neutral, equipped with the most modern safety and care gadgets, and only fully sustainable vehicles are allowed. They will be cleverly shared by the users, which also

applies to the communal living spaces, public greenery, and amenities. The district is an idea of TU/e-professor Elphi Nelissen, who wants to develop the housing form of the future in Helmond. The municipality immediately joined, as did the Tilburg University, the province of North Brabant and the German counterpart of TNO, Fraunhofer.

Nobody knows yet what the neighbourhood will look like, but expectations among the participants are high.

5

rs to Eindhoven. FOTO ANP

Born and raised in Eindhoven, Jip Goyvaerts is working in the kitchen of restaurant Wynwood. FOTO RENÉ MANDERS/FOTOMEULENHOF

ng in the Lab of Life ments used to take place behind closed doors in the Philips laboratories. The city itself remained a bit boring. How different this is right now. Eindhoven seems to have become a vibrant lab of life itself.

Which has made this city so much more fun.

When Frans starts walking through the city centre, he constantly hears other languages. Spanish, American-English, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese. And a lot of Flemish, coming from the mouths of Belgians who are spending quite some money. Frans sees Asian families coming out of shops with full bags; expats who have come to the city to do research at the TU/e or earn a good living at ASML, Philips, NXP, FEI or the dozens of other high-tech companies that have made Eindhoven famous in the world. And all those foreign knowledge workers and successful designers leave their euros in our shops and restaurants.

Frans checks in at the Art Hotel, one of those many new hotels that started in the city during the last ten years. The growth in hotels must certainly be due to all the businessmen and technicians who have to be here, Frans asks the receptionist. “Certainly, but also because of all our events”, is the answer. She proudly talks about Glow, the Dutch Design Week, the concerts of Guus Meeuwis, the marathon... They bring turbulence to the city and make it glow.

The evening has fallen. Frans

wanders through the city again. Ah, this is the Catharinaplein. Surely this was a total failure for a long time? The tiles were no good, the shops were empty. And look at it now. While on one side Vapiano is full of eaters, there is a long row of hungry people for Happy Italy. A daily scene. In the queue, there are many foreign students of the TU/e.

Around the corner, Frans enters the Gourmet Food Market. Dozens of little eateries under one roof. Wow. Again, there is hardly any empty chair. Frans orders sushi and here again, he hears all the languages of the world. It even smells multicultural around here.

Frans remembers how he left the city in 1993. Philips and DAF had created a social battlefield. Elsewhere in the country, Eindhoven was seen as a sleepy provincial city with an inferiority complex. And now? Eindhoven seems to have become a magnet for creative and smart people from all over the world. The administrators of this city are now walking up the Binnenhof full of confidence, claiming money for the region, as Frans read on ED.nl.

Hey, this was the Schellens fac-

Frans agrees: life is good in Eindhoven

tory, Frans thinks when he walks the banks of the River Dommel.

Light is still burning! This is where the new town brewery is located.

On the beer menu, he sees names with Eindhoven connections like Witte Dame and 240Volt. Everything has been brewed in the adjacent room.

Frans speaks to a group of men.

They work at TNO, ASML, NXP, Fontys and TU/e. Successful, highly educated and happy in this city.

Yes, they tell Frans, they know that Eindhoven still has problems.

Many poor families, air pollution, congestion on the main roads, a city administration that has no control over money, almost no more affordable homes... But apart from that, it’s a great city to live in. “Have you already seen the swimming stadium next to the ice rink?”, the men ask Frans. The men are more than certain: Eindhoven has become their city. Even the graduates of the Design Academy are staying in town after their exams.

No, this is no longer a boring city, it's full of life here, Frans thinks on his night walk back to the hotel. On the terrace of café Calypso at the end of the Stratumseind there is a sign: 'Wa hebben we ‘t goed he'.

Yes, Frans agrees: life is good in Eindhoven. On the high waves of economic success, this city has developed into a lively, creative, optimistic and multicultural melting pot, according to Frans. Thanks to Philips, Eindhoven has never been such an old-fashioned Brabant

“Extremely proud” of Eindhoven Jip Goyvaerts (24), chef at the restaurant Wynwood at StrijpS, was born in the year that DAF went bankrupt and Eindhoven was in a deep crisis. He is 'extremely proud' of how his city has developed. “I have tattoos of all that was important in my life. Look, this too.” Jip points to a light bulb on his arm as a symbol. “Eindhoven never really counted for anything compared to the big boys in the Randstad, but that has changed. When you

place; it has always been an open city accustomed to pioneering and welcoming newcomers. Perhaps that’s the driving force behind the current success. In this city, nothing or nobody is strange. This city builds and rebuilds in the rock-solid belief that it is getting better.

“And tomorrow I go to Helmond”, French thinks when he falls into his hotel bed, completely satisfied. In his youth, Helmond had a bad image, you shouldn't be there. And now? Frans read about the success of Brandevoort, almost a city in itself, where the construction of the smartest district in the world is starting this year, set up so-

see which big companies and large chains are coming to us...

So many good restaurants throughout the region. Zarzo, Lindenhof, Wiesen, Tribeca, Vane, Treeswijkwijkhoeve, Wollerich, De Rozario.... and Wynwood of course. We make a very refined meal here, for an attractive price, often for business people, many lunches too. Spaniards, Portuguese, Chinese, they all come here. Yes, this is the new Eindhoven."

cially and sustainably. Frans also read about the formidable restaurants they have in Helmond today, how they turned an old church into a theatre and a burnt-down factory into a cultural temple. But also how the transport of the future will be invented at the Automotive Campus.

Frans starts feeling dizzy. A little later he turns off the LED next to his bed. From Philips, he sees.

French laughs. And it says it aloud.

It's great around here.

Frans is a fictional person. For the rest, this article represents the truth as faithfully as possible.

6 IT’S GREAT ROUND HERE! Phenom

FEI

ASML

Chip

Machines

Table Microscope

Zens Philips

Wireless Chargers

MRI-scanner

Electron Microscope

Solaytec

IME Mutracx Electrical Spinning Machine

Electronics Printer

Solar Cell Machine

Brainport’s High Tech Stars The Brainport Region brings all kinds of products to the world market. Research and development are paying off.

Harrie Verrijt h.verrijt@ed.nl

n the Brainport region, converting knowledge into money is becoming ever more successful. Of course, ASML's chip machines, Philips MRI scanners, and FEI's electron microscopes are sparkling stars in the sky above Brainport. But there are many more large and small stars in that sky, even though they are not all that well known.

At the end of the 1990s, the country was convinced that there was no future for the manufacturing industry in the Netherlands, but the Brainport Region proved the opposite. On the foundations of Philips and DAF, it blossoms here like ne-

I

ver before. According to the CBS, the region is the absolute leader in this area in the Netherlands, earning more than 9 billion euros in 2016.

Research and development play an important role in this. This can, for example, be seen from the number of patents applied for in the Brainport Region. In 2016 there were 3,200, no less than 46 percent of the patents in the whole of the Netherlands. It all comes down to the High Tech Campus Eindhoven, with gems like the Holst Centre and Solliance and of course the presence of Philips. That group alone accounted for 2570 patents, followed by NXP with 410 patents.

ASML applied for 180 patents.

But there is much more. Have

you ever heard of the pathology scanner? It is a device that turns hospitals' laboratories around the world upside down. Laboratories no longer have to look through microscopes because this device makes a very high-resolution scan of the blood or tissue sample. This scan can be displayed directly on the screen of the treating specialist, and that of a colleague, also far away, for a second opinion. A Philips product, but development and production have been done by Sioux/CCM, Prodrive, and Frencken - in the Brainport Region.

There are many more examples of this kind of high-tech gems that have been developed and made here and are marketed all over the world. Think of the Phenom table electron microscope, the mounting machines for printed circuit boards from Kulicke & Soffa (Assembléon) and the solar cell machines from Solaytec.

So apart from those of the superpowers, there are countless hightech products, usually machines, from laboratories of companies in the Brainport Region. This is so successful because this region is a champion of R&D spending. Here a fifth (in 2015: 1.7 billion euros) of

companies' national spending on R&D is spent. This expenditure still increases every year. In 2017, ASML spent €1.2 billion on R&D, a large part of which was spent in this region. Of a slightly different order is Thermo Fisher/FEI, which will spend approximately 55 million euros on R&D for its electron microscopes during this year.

Thermo Fisher says that two-thirds of its products should never be older than two years. This gives a tremendous boost to the company's R&D activities.

By giving so much attention and money to R&D, ASML and Thermo Fisher are pushing supply companies to do the same. Thermo Fisher uses the rule that the company takes care of 72 percent of R&D and expects its suppliers to pay for the remaining 28 percent. This means that companies such as VDL, Pro-

46 percent of all patents are coming from this region

drive, Sioux, MI Partners, NTS Group, Neways, and KMWE together also have to spend 21 million euros on R&D for Thermo Fisher's products. On the other hand, the company generates more than 150 million euros in turnover for these companies. ASML offers similar calculations, with much higher outcomes.

This clarifies how important the role of these supplying companies is. With their engineers, they have to do a great deal of thinking for their customers. At the same time, this results in references to them that open doors at other high-tech producers around the world.

Which means extra growth for those companies.

Another important aspect is the cooperation, the trademark of the Brainport Region. Part of it is due to having the same customers. But at the same time, they see that respecting each other's specialisms makes them achieve much more. In the end, this creates countless beautiful products that are developed and produced here. New customers and new products, therefore, reducing the dependence on ASML and the other giants of the manufacturing industry.

7

Smart Photonics Lightyear

Plasmacure

Photonic Chips

Solar Family Car

Mestic

Electronic pads for diabetics Microsure Robot for microsurgery

Xeltis Amber

Self-sustaining heart valves

Autonomous electric shared vehicle

Manure textiles

Working towards a better world The body that repairs itself, telephones and computers that can do much more than today, family cars powered by solar energy: the region has countless successful start-ups working on a brighter future. The Eindhoven University of Technology plays a major role in this.

Hanneke van den Nieuwenhof h.vdnieuwenhof@ed.nl

mber with autonomous electric shareable cars, ByFlow with food printers, Lightyear with solar powered family cars, MicroSure with operating robots, Mestic with manure textiles... It's just a random selection from the large group of promising start-ups in the Eindhoven region It is difficult to predict whether there are new ASMLs among them.

The fact is that there is worldwide interest in them and that some have already received major investments. Last year in the Netherlands, after the Amsterdam region,

A

most venture capital was invested in start-ups in the Eindhoven region. More than half of the startups in the region came from the Eindhoven University of Technology At the top of the list of investments is Xeltis, which develops self-sustaining heart valves of the body's own tissue, showing off with 45 million euros in investments: the highest amount for a start-up across Europe.

Smart Photonics received seven million. The company, founded in 2012 and born of the TU/e, focuses on the production of light-based chips. These photonic chips are much faster and consume much less energy than electronic chips.

The photonics market is expected to be gigantic in the long term, with a size of hundreds of billions of euros.

The technology offers many opportunities for the Eindhoven region. Thanks to the TU/e, which has been working on optical communication for decades, it’s becoming a worldwide leader in the field of integrated photonics. In order to maintain this knowledge advantage, a collaboration has been

set up between the TU/e, government and companies to create more activity in the field of photonics.

Young start-ups in the areas of mobility, energy, and health such as Lightyear and MicroSure are also already participating on a global scale. This is extra special because everyone around the world can have access to the same knowledge.

It is, therefore, a question of who knows best how to bring this knowledge to the market. And that depends on the implementing power: something that the Eindhoven region is now excelling in, due to the good cooperation between industry, knowledge institutions and government. From all over the world, administrators come here to see how we do that.

The Eindhoven region excels in implementing power

Where innovation used to come from a single company's research and development (R&D) department, such as Philips' NatLab, organizations are now working together in an open innovation model. In this way, Philips develops its products together with clients and attracts start-ups to push the company further. ASML works closely together with its suppliers, but also involves TU/e scientists and uses the laboratories there.

In the model of open innovation, Eindhoven University plays an important role. It is not only a source of knowledge, it also provides a basis for regional development and brings together scientists and companies. The TU/e is the world leader in collaborations with the industry, above renowned institutes such as MIT, Cambridge, and Stanford.

This cooperation contains much more than just scientific publications. In addition to fundamental research, for example, work is being done on issues from the world of business, and research and PhDs are funded by the industry, where many (part-time) professors come from.

In order to strengthen the colla-

boration of scientists, students, and companies, the TU/e wants to further develop into an innovation centre. A start will be made this year with the Eindhoven Engine. Within this institute, knowledge institutes and the business community will work on all kinds of challenging problems. Projects are based on the expertise of the participating companies: from high-tech equipment and data science to smart mobility and robotics.

The Eindhoven Engine is part of a larger ambition of the TU/e. More than a hundred companies are already located on the TU/e campus.

Many of them work together with research groups and institutes on the campus and make use of one of the 54 research laboratories, and therefore would like to be in the neighbourhood As a result of this, Eindhoven might soon have an Innovation District in addition to High Tech Campus Eindhoven, Automotive Campus Helmond, Brainport Industries Campus and the Creative Campus (Strijp-S).

In fact, the area where both TU/e and Fontys programmes are located is already deserving that title.