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In need of technological paradigm shifts

Offshore renewables

ProRail focuses on automation, digitisation and sustainability

Special Report

The promise of deep tech

How to achieve a sustainable offshore energy supply by 2050?

New generation of technology companies offers solutions for major societal problems

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Innovation Stories about innovation and societal impact

Colophon Contents Production TU Delft Valorisation Centre Malou Spruit, Dijana Boric, Jurjen Slump

INTRODUCTION Tim van der Hagen

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OPINION ‘Embed innovation within education’

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Text and Editing Jurjen Slump Infographics and illustrations Iris Jönsthövel Lay-out Liesbeth van Dam, Online & Media

Jan Paternotte

Print Edauw en Johannissen © TU Delft Valorisation Centre - 2020

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FUTURE The promise of deep tech New generation of technology companies offers solutions for major societal problems

OPINION ‘We’re becoming the creativity and impact hotspot’

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Paul Althuis

TREND Convergence and societal impact Column Rutger Engels

OPINION Point of View Column Sigrid Johannissen

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Introduction

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FUTURE Towards a renewable offshore energy system Special Report

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FUTURE Innovative Projects A small taste of our cutting edge technology

OPINION ‘The Netherlands must return to the breakaway group’ Pieter Duisenberg

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VISION In need of technological paradigm shifts ProRail

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IMPACT Etalage

‘Crises often serve to accelerate innovation. So, as we move forward, let’s invest in sustainable innovation in order to re-ignite the economy and enable something good to come from this crisis’ Tim van der Hagen

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f the current crisis proves anything, it’s that major societal challenges are never isolated problems. In order to successfully combat Covid-19, we not only need medical knowledge, but an interdisciplinary approach that also includes insights from such areas as economics, behavioural sciences and ethics.

We in the region have long been firm believers in this approach.

With our colleagues from the medical centres and universities in Leiden and Rotterdam, we are working on a so-called convergence: transcending barriers between disciplines and organisations in order to bring about new areas of science, in which we achieve ground-breaking results more rapidly.

This is vital if we are to deal with the challenges that still await us after the coronavirus crisis. The huge task involved in the energy transition, for example. Part of the solution lies offshore, where floating energy systems can help us achieve the climate targets. The process of designing these kinds of offshore renewables can only succeed with a holistic approach. So we are very fortunate to have all the disciplines required for this in Delft.

However, successful innovation calls for more than the merging of specialist fields. The barriers between research institutions and the business community/industry must also be broken down. Rather than the former innovation chain, we are increasingly working together within an innovative ecosystem which also involves the government and other partners in society.

Finally, substantial investments in research and innovation will also be needed in the years ahead to achieve our ambitions as a knowledge economy. Crises often serve to accelerate innovation.

So, as we move forward, let’s invest in sustainable innovation in order to re-ignite the economy and enable something good to come from this crisis.

The bottom line is to ensure that the results of research benefit society as quickly as possible, because that is our mission: impact for a better society.

Offshore renewables, convergence, the investment climate: all these all these and much more from our TU Delft ecosystem in this edition of Home of Innovation.

Professor Tim van der Hagen Rector Magnificus/President of the Executive Board TU Delft

OPINION Universities and institutes of higher education should give researchers greater recognition and support, thereby enabling them to make an impact. There should also be more investment in business development, according to Jan Paternotte, member of the Democrats 66 (D66) parliamentary group in the Dutch House of Representatives. “That’s how you create opportunities to bring good ideas to society.”

‘Embed innovation within education’ 6

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hen asked for a good example of radical innovation, Paternotte barely hesitates. He immediately suggests AeroDelft, the student team working on the world’s first hydrogen aircraft, and also mentions the energy-efficient Flying-V. “What’s great about the Flying-V is that the design is radically different from existing aircraft, but, in principle, it would not be out of place at any airport gate. It’s no wonder that Airbus has shown such amazing interest.”

Sustainable aviation It should come as no surprise that Paternotte opts to cite these examples.

In addition to education and science, the MP’s portfolio also includes aviation. He is a firm advocate of sustainable aviation, in which innovation will be instrumental.

Although technological progress is ultimately the main driver, government also plays an important role in determining the direction and speed with which changes are initiated.

Take the car industry, for example. The requirement that only electric cars will

be permitted onto the market from 2030 triggered a huge sustainability effort among manufacturers.

Paternotte expects the same to happen in the case of the transition towards sustainable aviation. “The faster the government puts frameworks in place to bring about increased sustainability, the sooner companies will take it seriously and the sooner the Flying-V will be standing at the gate.”

Mission-driven innovation policy This is why the MP backs the Cabinet’s so-called mission-driven innovation policy, focusing on four major societal themes: energy transition and sustainability; agriculture, water and food; health and care; and safety and security. According to Paternotte, these are the very same themes in which the Netherlands is becoming a pioneer in innovation.

Pioneering is essential. “Take a key technology, like artificial intelligence.

It’s becoming increasingly important in our society. If you get behind the curve, you will no longer be setting the rules within which the technology can be applied. That increases your vulnerability in multiple respects.

It’s only possible to determine the standards if you’re one of the leaders in technology.”

Three per cent of GDP on R&D This ambition costs money and Paternotte is in favour of a significant increase in investment in development and research in the years ahead. The Netherlands intends to invest 2.5% of GDP in R&D. Paternotte would increase that to 3%. It is important to set a path for growth to formalise this effort. “That way, you are committing yourself for longer than a single term of office, which is essential when it concerns the development of complex technology.”

The MP is also determined that the coronavirus crisis should not result in cutbacks in science and innovation.

“We learned an important lesson about that during the last crisis. Then, education cutbacks undermined our long-term earning potential, delaying economic recovery.”

‘Impact not sufficiently part of culture’ So, what demands does an ambitious innovation policy place

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on universities? In general, they are quite adept at their third core activity: knowledge valorisation. But Paternotte can still see room for improvement.

In his view, making an impact is still ‘not sufficiently part of the culture’ of higher education. “Researchers are still judged much more on their academic publications than on their wider impact.”

Improvements can be made in this area, for example by actively sharing knowledge, collaborating and appointing business developers within departments. More funding should be available for that,” says Paternotte.

OperationAIR In his view, a good example of this is OperationAIR. After the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis, this TU Delft student team developed a ventilator

‘Radical action will be essential in order to make aviation future-proof’ that can be produced quickly and safely, in order to make up for expected shortages. This involved close collaboration with the Dutch Railways (NS), who soon set up a production line to manufacture a component for the ventilator. “We should do much more of that kind of thing, and not only when we’re facing a crisis,” says Paternotte.

This is another area in which frameworks are necessary. Our

ambition must be to have an impact.

But Paternotte rejects the idea of prescribing the precise details of how it should be done, such as the recent suggestion made by the VVD (Liberal Party) that entrepreneurship be made a compulsory component of all degree programmes. “It’s not up to us in The Hague to determine the contents of the curriculum.”

Entrepreneurship It makes sense for entrepreneurship to feature prominently in degree programmes in which it plays an important role, as in Delft. But for other degree programmes, such as political science, it’s less useful. “I always joke: why make entrepreneurship compulsory for political scientists – we already have so many political parties!”

Other positive developments in education in terms of encouraging innovation include the interdisciplinary student teams, like AeroDelft, and interdisciplinary education. As a member of the Amsterdam City Council, Paternotte was involved in the establishment of the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions, where students can take the Master’s degree in MADE (Metropolitan Analysis, Design, and Engineering).

Interdisciplinary education “Making urban issues one of the guiding principles of a degree programme is actually very inspiring,” says Paternotte. The same applies to

the business community’s involvement in the AMS Institute, which helps to accelerate innovation.

Interdisciplinary education results in better innovations. “Care robots can help reduce loneliness among the elderly, but you need to involve psychologists in the programming in order to ensure effective communication.” Having linguists working on the development of algorithms that can quickly analyse old texts ultimately ensures you have a better tool. This is also a good example of how scientists can effectively collaborate with their colleagues in the humanities,” says Paternotte.

Ambition As far as the MP’s own ambitions are concerned, improving the sustainability of aviation will be the main focus in the years ahead. There is a ‘very negative atmosphere’ around aviation, because it is so polluting. But the idea behind it, a system of global connections, is still ‘really positive’.

“But the way in which aviation companies are currently improving sustainability is not fast enough. We need to get more out of innovation.

Radical action will be essential in order to make aviation future-proof.”

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FUTURE New generation of technology companies offers solutions for major societal problems

The promise of deep tech The term ‘deep tech’ is increasingly being used in the context of radical innovation. It is a phrase steeped in mystery and expectation. Deep tech companies could solve major societal challenges, open up completely new markets and offer a key role for start-ups in the process. But what kind of technology is actually involved and is all the hype justified?

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he term deep tech has come a long way since 2015. Swati Charturvedi from investors’ platform Propel(x) coined the term in a LinkedIn post in July of that year, in order to describe a ‘new category of technology startups’ in an effort to raise their profile among investors. “We knew there were several under-served areas in technology overlooked by investors searching for the next ‘unicorn’, she wrote.

“What investors may not realise is the potential for deep technology companies to dominate the future in many ways.”

Eighteen billion At around the same time, Arnaud de la Tour reached the same conclusion.

Companies built around innovations based on breakthrough technologies – artificial intelligence, biotechnology, blockchain, drones and robotics, photonics, quantum and advanced materials – are sitting on goldmines.

Since 2014, Hello Tomorrow has focused on accelerating these promising technologies from the lab to the market, in part by means of an annual competition (see box on page 10).

There’s no shortage of funding.

Between 2015 and 2018, worldwide investments in deep tech rose annually by more than 20% to exceed 18 billion, according to a report written by De la Tour together with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Among the 8,500 deep tech companies active worldwide studied in this report, 78 are in the Netherlands. They also all receive more funding than other tech companies.

Disruptive So why are investors so enthusiastic?

It all comes down to the amazing promise offered by deep tech. “Many of these technologies address big societal and environmental challenges and will likely shape the way we solve some of the most pressing global problems”, write BCG and Hello Tomorrow.

They have the power ‘to create their own markets or disrupt existing industries’. The underlying intellectual property is ‘hard to reproduce or well protected’, which often gives them a ‘valuable competitive advantage’ according to the report.

Start-ups take the lead “We call it deep tech in order to distinguish it from ‘normal’ tech like Uber”, explains De la Tour. Uber primarily involves an innovative

business plan that enables users to deploy existing resources. Deep tech companies in the mobility sector would also include “autonomous vehicles, flying cars or other transformative technologies”, wrote Charturvedi.

De la Tour: “it’s technology that’s not only extremely powerful in itself, but could also have a huge impact on other areas of application. Think robotics, AI and quantum computers. The real potential lies in convergence with other technologies.”

Deep tech is also different in terms of the type of innovation. “It’s a new way of approaching R&D”, says De la Tour.

“Fifty years ago, the big established companies together with universities were the engine that drove innovation.

The second wave was made up of ICT start-ups in Silicon Valley. We’re now seeing the third wave, in which startups are taking the lead on all fronts, including deep tech.”

Flexible Investing in deep tech can be difficult for various reasons, but it has one significant advantage: the science behind the technology has already been validated. “The basics are always relatively robust. That’s a major plus point”, says Gelderblom. De la Tour agrees. “Normal start-ups begin with

Home of Innovation | Stories about innovation and societal impact

“The real potential of deep tech lies in convergence with other technologies.”

- Arnaud de la Tour, CEO Hello Tomorrow

Created by Olena Panasovska from the Noun Project

“Many start-ups that emerge from TU Delft can be classed as deep tech almost by definition.”

- Ronald Gelderblom, Investment Director Delft Enterprises

CH ECOSYSTEM DEEP TE ROLE Technology integration, industrial and commercial capabilities

“Anyone who invests in startups and scale-ups invests in the future of our country.”

- Mona Keijzer, State Secretary for Economic Affairs

ROLE IP & talent

ROLE Testing case studies

Corporations ROLE Agility and speed to quickly find new product and market fit

“Deep tech offers a solution to many of the problems we are currently facing as a planet.”

- Ferdinand Grapperhaus, CEO Physee

... ... ... ...

User groups

Universities & Research centers

ROLE Investments in basic research established of the right fiscal and legal environment to foster innovation

Start-ups

ROLE Local and international connections, mentoring, facilities

ROLE Cash, buisness, guidance, network

Governments €

Facilitators

€

Investors BIOTECHNOLOGY

QUANTUM COMPUTING

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

BLOCKCHAIN PHOTONICS & ELECTRONICS

ADVANCED MATERIALS

ROBOTICS

THE FUNDAMENTALS

DEEP TECHNOLOGIES

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Source: The Dawn of the Deep Tech Ecosystem, Boston Consulting Group & Hello Tomorrow, 2019 Illustration by Iris Jönsthövel

Source: The Dawn of the Deep Tech Ecosystem, Boston Consulting Group & Hello Tomorrow, 2019

the problem. Deep tech starts with the technology – but they also need to quickly focus on a problem.”

What makes it difficult is the high level of complexity involved. A significant period of development has to be factored in. This complexity calls for thorough knowledge of technology, both within the start-up and among investors. Gelderblom: “Ideally, you have a couple of PhDs who’ve just completed their research and can join the company immediately.”

Big risk, big reward A ‘significant portion’ of DE’s portfolio is made up of deep tech (see box on page 10). Each of the themes mentioned above (artificial intelligence, biotechnology, blockchain, drones and robotics, photonics, quantum and advanced materials) has a research and innovation cluster in Delft.

“If a deep tech start-up proves successful, you can also make a great exit. A big risk can also be offset by a big reward”, says Gelderblom. The

secret is to diversify the investment portfolio in such a way as to ensure that the successes compensate for any failures.

Deep tech calls for ‘patient capital’ The long period of development means that investors need to be patient. On average, this takes ten to twelve years, compared to the two to three years that is standard for the Ubers of this world.

This kind of ‘patient capital’ is in very short supply in the Netherlands, says Ferdinand Grapperhaus, CEO at PHYSEE. This deep tech company, founded by Grapperhaus with CTO Willem Kesteloo, is developing a SmartSkin for buildings: an intelligent façade that can generate energy, significantly reduce consumption and regulate the indoor climate.

This involves a whole host of breakthrough technologies: from algorithms that collect the data from buildings to use as the basis for climate control to the development of a socalled luminescent solar concentrator, an invisible coating that captures

sunlight falling on the façade and converts it into electricity.

The basic principle: the customer should not be able to see the difference between a normal window and an innovative window. Kesteloo calls this ‘sustainability without compromise’.

Impact-driven investment Grapperhaus firmly believes that both the Dutch government and the EU should focus much more on deep tech and on the investments required.

“Europe excels at deep tech, although we didn’t call it that in the last hundred years. But Philips, ASML, TomTom: of course, it’s all deep tech.”

This is why Grapperhaus is an advocate of ‘impact-driven investment’. The National Growth Fund (Groeifonds), as well as Invest-NL, for example, or major investors such as pension funds, should set a strict condition that 20% of any investments must be in

Read more on page 10

technologies that contribute to a better world. “We genuinely need to look at deep tech from a different perspective,”, says Grapperhaus. “It’s a solution to many of the problems we are currently facing as a planet.”

Deep Tech Fund The Dutch government seems to take the same view. A week after our interview with Grapperhaus and Kesteloo, the Cabinet and Invest-NL announced joint plans to invest half a billion euros in growth companies, partly by means of a Deep Tech Fund targeting knowledge-intensive startups and scale-ups.

It is ‘our duty to create prospects for growth companies and support them in their development’, said State Secretary Keijzer (Economic Affairs and Climate Policy), when making the announcement. “Their growth delivers jobs and income for all of us, brings new products and technologies onto the market and keeps our economy strong.”

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Ecosystem In other words, deep tech is ‘the enabler of the future’. It is increasingly driven by start-ups, closely associated with the university, investors, industry, incubators and field labs. A deep tech ecosystem of this kind is essential.

It brings together all of the parties needed for the development of

HELLO TOMORROW CHALLENGE The Hello Tomorrow Challenge is an annual competition for deep tech entrepreneurs. Entrants are brought into contact with investors, incubators and gain a lot of exposure as a result. The winner gets € 100,000. For more information, visit hello-tomorrow.org.

DEEP TECH IN DELFT Delft Enterprises is investing in a range of different deep tech start-ups and scale-ups. Alongside PHYSEE, they include Villari, VSParticle and Umincorp.

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Villari provides a revolutionary approach for the permanent monitoring of fatigue crack propagation in steel structures using cutting-edge wireless sensor technology.

VSPARTICLE is a nanotechnology company that provides research and industry with the tools to manufacture nanoparticles and nanostructured materials, thereby drastically reducing the development time of new materials and products.

Umincorp has developed a technology that separates plastics with such accuracy that it enables true circularity of plastics. It doubles the recovery rate at lower cost, less environmental burden, and higher selectivity than state-of-the-art alternatives.

complex innovations. It is also one of the reasons why PHYSEE is based at TU Delft Campus.

“Climate change, the pandemic, the way we consume. We need technological breakthroughs to initiate a transition around big societal issues”, is how De la Tour summarises it.

“The good news is that the solutions are there. We just need to get them to the market.

Lilium It has now become clear that Charturvedi’s words were prophetic.

In 2016, the Hello Tomorrow Challenge was won by Lilium, a German start-up – then just a year old - that developed an autonomous, electric flying taxi capable of vertical take-off and landing. This year saw the company grow to become a unicorn. And it really does look a lot like a flying car.

Deep tech & radical innovation How does deep tech relate to different forms of innovation? Experts draw a distinction between four types of innovation: incremental, sustaining, disruptive and radical.

• • • •

Incremental innovation involves the gradual improvement of existing products and services. Examples might include a new Gillette razor or a new TV. Like incremental innovation, sustaining innovation also involves gradual improvements to existing products as a way of maintaining market position. The new iPhone is an example of that.

Disruptive innovation relates to new business models that disrupt existing markets, such as Netflix.

Radical innovation involves innovations based on technological breakthroughs that transform whole arms of industry and often create new markets. The PC and the internet are examples of that.

Radical innovation also includes innovations that can solve major societal problems. Although deep tech can also be disruptive, it primarily involves radical innovation.

OPINION Paul Althuis, Director Valorisation Centre and Delft Enterprises:

‘We’re becoming the creativity and impact hotspot’ Paul Althuis has been in charge of the TU Delft Valorisation Centre since 2005. Under his leadership in the last fifteen years, there have been countless initiatives, the most visible of which are field labs, such as RoboValley and The Green Village. So, what’s the secret behind the TU Delft innovation projects and what will it take to be able to make a real impact on society? “Create mass. Make choices.

And invest in the knowledge economy.”

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ccording to Althuis, the recipe for innovation is actually quite simple. “What unites us in Delft is the fact that we’re continually working on new things.” You have to set up initiatives and evaluate them, to see if they work. Based on that, you can move on to the next steps. The theme-based field labs are a good example. They function as linking pins in the innovation ecosystem and connect all parties working on new products and applications, unlocking a knowledge flow students, PhD’s and spin-offs to large companies as well local and regional SMEs. “They’ve enabled us to achieve a unique position”, Althuis says. Thanks to these labs, the market parties know how to find us. At the same time, they’re places where you can test, validate and market innovations at speed.”

Work is now underway on the next step: scaling up.

If you accommodate theme-based field labs together with research institutes, start-ups and the project research of large companies within a single environment, you can have an even greater impact. “Take robotics and AI: RoboValley is full, and so is Sam|XL, leading to a brake on development.”

By clustering robotics and AI in one building, you’re

creating the circumstances for significant growth and can establish projects that are even more ambitious.

This clustering is important. “Bundling talent together can be a source of innovation,” argues Althuis. Take quantum: the concentration of talented scientists has created innovation. Microsoft moved onto campus and there were spin-offs as a result. “You need to create mass in order to advance innovation. We have one of the largest communities of AI scientists here, capable of bringing about enormous changes. But, to do that, you have to be able to make progress and have the confidence to do so.”

How do you look back on the last fifteen years?

“As a university, we’ve become increasingly outwardlooking. We’re focusing more and more on the outside world. We’re not there yet, but what we’ve achieved lays the foundations for further progress. One of the most important lessons is that, above all, you need to experiment. Only then can you determine where there’s potential for growth.”

What ambition do you have for the next fifteen years?

“Universities play a leading role in developing long-term innovation ecosystems. I want to see TU Delft Campus

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become even more of an impact and creativity hotspot.

In twenty years’ time, the campus will have taken shape even more thematically. By then, this place will be buzzing with amazing vibrancy from companies and faculties all mingled together. We’ll be part of an innovation district: connected with the city and surrounding innovative locations for scale-ups and companies to thrive.”

What will be the major themes?

“Looking ahead to 2050, there are two important themes: sustainability/climate and digitisation. We’re already investing heavily in these areas and I have no reason to expect huge changes in these themes. In concrete terms for TU Delft, this means focusing on human-centered robotics, quantum, medtech with AI applications and a number of subjects in which we’re traditionally strong: energy, water and mobility. If we are to ensure that the world stays liveable for the generations that follow, society will need to transition. With TU Delft, we can make an amazing difference. It’s our task to be constantly working on that.”

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You depend on government and the business community for a lot of innovations. Is the government doing enough in terms of innovation?

“Successfully marketing innovations requires patience.

People do not fully understand that. There can be a sharper focus and less emphasis on achieving consensus.

If you want to be a pioneer in innovation and create a knowledge economy to go with it, you also need to be clear about what you do and do not want to invest in.

Focus on key priorities in which our country can stand out positively.”

Open innovation or co-creation?

Co-creation and open innovation are terms that are often used in the context of innovation. Paul Althuis believes that co-creation has the advantage.

“Although open innovation is not outdated as a model, most people see more value in co-creation, in which both the university and a company explore potential ways to innovate. In the case of open innovation, the passion is more one-sided: a company concludes that it’s unable to innovate alone and goes in search of a partner. It then passes the ball to the other party. Co-creation is much more about working together to achieve it. In my view, co-creation is set to become significantly more important.”

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Such as?

“For exports, the Netherlands still depends a lot on horticulture and agriculture. That means you need to focus much more on a sustainable agricultural sector. When it comes to climate, no clear choice is being made either. Will we switch completely to wind and solar energy or will it be hydrogen? What are we going to do?”

Should the government take more of a coordinating role?

“Yes. The government should do more than just set out specific ambitions; it should also make things mandatory.

In areas like reducing CO2 emissions, for example.

Otherwise, nothing will change. The government can develop a successful climate policy at much greater scale.

You could take one city as a showcase for everything we’re capable of in terms of renewable energy and mobility. That will hugely accelerate innovation on a range of key themes (see box).”

And the business community?

“The industry also has its own part to play. For example, they can play a major role in driving sustainability, helped by new applications that we as a university are developing together with them. I also think that companies should take responsibility and discuss this with their shareholders.”

What can we learn from abroad?

“I think Germany is a good example. That country has invested much more substantially in the knowledge economy, although they already have firm foundations thanks to their numerous technology-based SMEs. We are lacking those foundations and need to take action in that area. TU Delft contributes to this by helping spin-offs in the development of scalable technology and we hope that the government will also attempt to speed things up with its National Growth Fund.”

Will that be enough?

“I would invest the whole of the National Growth Fund in a targeted attempt to boost the knowledge economy. It now

The city of the future When asked for a moon-shot project on which Paul Althuis would be eager to work, his response is the city of the future. “In the fields of housing, employment and mobility, all of the major societal challenges coincide with the new, radical technologies being developed at TU Delft. Take, for example, AI (mobility and autonomous driving), sustainability/energy (the built environment), medtech (the care people receive), robotics (employers will be working much more with intelligent machines), quantum (the quantum computer has an impact across society), blockchain (the provision of services) and AgTech (food supply).

We’re working with the AMS Institute on countless solutions, but ideally we will opt for a complete city as a living lab for research and innovation, obviously in close consultation with the residents.”

amounts to twenty billion euros, but it should have been fifty billion.”

Finally, what demands do these developments place on education and research?

“We’re good at fundamental research and need to keep it that way. All of the radical innovations we develop are based on breakthrough technologies. We also need to promote entrepreneurship, ensuring that this research can benefit society as well. Everyone who does their Bachelor’s or Master’s degree programme here should have the option of taking courses in entrepreneurship and the opportunity to start up a company.”

‘Open your eyes and look abroad. Across a range of areas, people have advanced much further in innovation than we have. Take the US, where they introduced knowledge valorisation some forty years before we did. That created a culture with an extreme focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. We also have a lot to learn from the ‘giving back’ culture, in which alumni donate large amounts to their alma mater’ Paul ALthuis

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TREND Column

Convergence and societal impact 14

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ow do you respond as a country to the social disruption caused by infectious diseases such as Covid-19?

How can we further innovate the technologisation of society and the rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence and big data, and truly implement the insights gained? As a society, what answers do you have for migration, economic inequality, the future of the city, social cohesion and cooperation within Europe, and sustainability? For us at Erasmus University Rotterdam, these issues and developments are challenges that we like getting our teeth into. And to achieve the maximum effect and results, we are working on them together with Erasmus MC and Delft University of Technology.

Convergence Societal, technological and medical challenges are often already complex in themselves, but we are also increasingly aware that they are interrelated and self-reinforcing.

Societal problems are not either technological or social in nature: they are always both and they require an integrated approach. They call for new forms of knowledge and knowledge development that will only be possible if scientific disciplines grow towards

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each other, if they converge.

Only with this convergence can we achieve the necessary impact on our society.

Three programmes Given the status of our knowledge institutions in Zuid-Holland among the best in the world, and our shared responsibility for society, it makes total sense to intensify collaboration between TU Delft, Erasmus MC and EUR across a range of areas. In recent years, researchers and teaching staff

‘The ultimate aim is to achieve lifelong good health, from the unborn child to the end of life, in a way that is affordable and achievable for everyone’ have already come together in the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus (LDE) Alliance and the Medical Delta partnership.

We are in the process of intensifying and scaling up this collaboration in a joint research and education strategy

made up of three programmes: Medical Technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ResilientDelta.

Utilising each other’s infrastructure in this way will enable us to have a real impact on society. And we will be able – and this is my true hope – for example in the area of health and technology, to change our healthcare from reactive to proactive, by focusing on prevention, health promotion or early detection. This will enable us to deliver tailored results, by providing a personalised approach rather than ‘one size fits all’.

The ultimate aim is to achieve lifelong good health, from the unborn child to the end of life, in a way that is affordable and achievable for everyone. If such programmes are to succeed, it is of the utmost importance that they can count on the support of the whole of society.

Rutger Engels, Rector Magnificus EUR

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Engineering sciences

Health sciences

Social sciences & Humanities

Intensive collaboration

Breaking down the walls between the so-called alpha, beta and gamma sciences and medical sciences

Resilient Delta Initiative

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Wider Rotterdam Delta region as a ‘living lab’ with various co-creation centers, to address major social issues concerning e.g. mobility, healthcare, climate change, energy transition, digitisation and inclusivity.

AI, Data & Digitalisation

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INITIATIVE S

A digital co-creation environment - together with Leiden University and LUMC and a new AI building in Delft, with AI-Sandboxes targeting several application areas in the wider region, promoting innovation and new business creation.

Health & Technology A Delft-Rotterdam Health Tech Campus with a federated convergence institute of discoveries for scientists & engineers to work together with companies and institutions in joint collaboratories and joint data-infrastructures, creating a fast-track to innovation and spinning out start-ups and fostering scale-ups.

IMP AC T

CT PA IM

ACT IMP

Realizing pioneering solutions and systematically promoting the social embedding and acceptance of new technological and medical developments.

Attract talent. Blend existing learning environments, disciplines and programmes for convergent initiatives with novel educational content and form.

Incorporate continuous learning growth for all students, instructors and researchers.

A thriving ecosystem where staff, students, society, government and industry realise a stimulating and efficient cross-pollination between their ideas.

TREND

Point of View How do experts from other innovation hotspots around the globe look at the developments taking place in the Netherlands and the EU? We can learn much from the American mentality to do everything faster and differently, says Sigrid Johannisse, Counselor for Innovation, Technology & Science at the Embassy of the Netherlands in Washington DC. Column by Sigrid Johannisse

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Difference in mentality

Winner takes all

What does the USA excel in? It’s mainly a difference in mentality, that determines the results and the speed.

If you want to change the world with a product there, people hang on your every word. The investors are at the front of the queue; they love groundbreaking innovations that can be quickly scaled up for delivery. They want to do the unthinkable and to surpass themselves time and time again.

When DARPA was developing the stealth aircraft, they also designed the radar that could detect it. After every challenge, you are once more on the threshold of a new opportunity.

‘Thinking Big’ is the norm. The man on the moon is the real American dream.

Always another giant leap forwards, never shying away from risk. ‘Falling Forward’ is the motto.

The American attitude generates optimism, positive energy and a Can Do mentality. The focus is firmly on the horizon and any obstacles are details to be cleared up along the way.

No need for a support base, a good idea generates its own followers!

The success of Zoom is a good example of this. First get a million customers and then start solving the privacy issue. The winner takes it all!

Rapid developments also involve risk. They often fail to take account of the wider impact and cohesion. Challenges such as energy & climate, Covid-19 or cybersecurity have now become so big that you need a comprehensive way of thinking to reach solutions. There need to be clear

This also shows how Americans see themselves: as a leading nation. It’s a fundamental principle for every American. University students are challenged to make a difference as leaders, translating what they have learned into new applications. You might think that this would produce nothing but soloists. Quite the contrary. There’s a strong focus on team spirit and networking.

Silicon Valley is one big network of ‘connectedness’. If you have something to offer, doors open up right away.

This explains why they’re so good at pitching. You get 30 seconds to explain how you’ll change the world and what you need to do it. There’s none of the false modesty that Dutch people have drummed into them from an early age, ‘don’t call attention to yourself’.

agreements on key issues. Innovation will again play a key role in this. Things must change!

Best of both worlds Europe excels in terms of in its efforts to prevent problems, it works in integrated solutions with a support base, and long-term thinking. The best of both these worlds will really need each other in the coming 10 years.

On the one hand, we can learn much from the American mentality to do everything faster and differently. On the other hand, a global approach is essential to effectively address complex problems.

Our future depends on transatlantic cooperation. As the Innovatie Attaché Netwerk (Innovation Attaché Network), we contribute to this by sharing knowledge, identifying trends and collaborating.

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Students at our universities of technology have an important role to play in structuring our society and economy and curbing climate change. Technology’s influence on our lives has increased exponentially over the last 10 years.

This places a burden of responsibility not only on the people developing this technology but also on those who wish to promote and regulate it through policy.

More and more people are becoming aware of that responsibility. From electric vehicles to facial recognition and hydrogen. What we also see is a contrast between the different continents where innovation is taking place. In principle, this is positive, because the power of innovation lies in diversity, dynamism and friction.

Special Report: Offshore renewables

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Towards a renewable offshore energy system The energy transition is now well underway. By 2050, virtually the whole of the energy supply will need to be renewable and carbon neutral. That is a huge task. It is not only domestic users that need to go gas-free; SMEs, industries, road traffic, public transport and aviation will also have to shift towards a renewable source of energy. An electric vehicle or hydrogen-fuelled aircraft is not enough: the electricity or hydrogen needs to be generated in a sustainable, green way. With wind, solar, tidal or wave energy.

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he source of a sustainable energy supply can be found offshore. A shortage of space on land and increasing demand for renewable energy call for the development of large-scale fixed and floating offshore energy systems in both shallow and deep waters. A view of the future is large offshore wind farms with floating solar panels between them producing electricity which is transmitted directly to shore or converted to hydrogen by factories on artificial islands which can be stored in situ in salt caverns or disused gas fields and later transported ashore via ships or former gas pipelines.

All this while preserving the marine environment.

EU Strategy on Offshore Renewable Energy Last November, the European Commission proposed to increase Europe’s offshore wind capacity from its current level of 12 GW to 300 GW by 2050, complemented with 40 GW of ocean energy and other emerging technologies such as floating wind and solar. This ambitious growth will create new opportunities for industry, create green jobs across the continent, and strengthen the EU’s global leadership

in offshore energy technologies.

To turn this ambition into reality by 2050, we will need to be capable of designing, building, maintaining and dismantling these kinds of systems in a circular way, with state-of-theart re-use and recycling of materials.

It is a huge task, but also the only way of meeting the climate targets without the production of these structures being at the expense of the environment and raw materials.

Shaping the future energy system Research at TU Delft is characterised by an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary way of thinking that transcends the disciplines of science, technology and design. This is nowhere more obvious than in the field of offshore renewables: Delft has all the expertise needed to shape the technology of this future energy system in its entirety.

This not only involves the integration of different subsidiary systems (production, transmission, conversion into hydrogen, storage and shipping) as a smart way of coping with fluctuating electricity production but also the preconditions for achieving this.

Take, for example, the development of large-scale floating structures, integration within the energy network

and circular design of the various components.

Integrated approach This integrated, interdisciplinary approach ensures that the challenges in terms of the energy transition and circularity can be tackled together. By designing systems that ultimately go on to have a high-quality second life, we are not only enabling the largescale production of renewable energy, but also contributing to the circular economy.

There are still countless technological and scientific challenges that need to be resolved, from the design of new, reusable composites for turbine blades to the underground storage of hydrogen. Researchers in almost all faculties are working on these.

But they all agree on one thing: a sustainable offshore energy supply is technologically achievable by 2050.

The following pages provide a summary of the current research at TU Delft, illustrated through several innovation projects, in which new technology is being tested in partnership with the market. We also take a closer look at the increasing importance of green hydrogen and provide a sneak preview of the next best thing in the field of renewables: ocean energy.

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Integrated turbine design

Smart offshore solar systems

Electrolysers for hydrogen production

Subsurface hydrogen storage

Dominic von Terzi, Professor of Wind Energy Technology (Faculty of AE)

Olindo Isabella, Associate Professor of Photovoltaic Materials and Devices (Faculty of EEMCS)

Ruud van Ommen, Professor of Chemical Engineering (Faculty of AS)

Hadi Hajibeygi, Associate Professor (Faculty of CEG)

“There are currently three trends in wind turbine design. Wind turbines are reaching the height of the Eiffel Tower, with consequences for installation, blade vibration and erosion.

Wind turbines are also set to play an increasing role in the supply of renewable energy and will be used to produce hydrogen. The challenge lies in optimising interaction between turbine design, wind farm design and the energy system.”

“The space between wind turbines is currently unused. Fill it with floating solar panels, and you can double the capacity of offshore wind farms.

The shadow flicker of the blades can affect electricity production, but we’re working on smart solar panels that minimise this. The challenge of operating large numbers of relative fragile panels in hostile waters is not to be underestimated and requires further research as well.”

“Offshore hydrogen production, requires larger electrolysers that must also work with a fluctuating electricity supply. The research focuses on both a smarter design and a more efficient use of scarce materials, such as iridium.

We’re exploring how we can save on iridium at nano-scale. We think we can reduce it by a factor of 20. We’re also investigating applications for the oxygen released in hydrogen production.”

“National energy consumption in the Netherlands is 800 terawatt-hours, the equivalent of the battery capacity of eight billion Teslas. You can’t store that much electricity. If you convert it into hydrogen, large-scale storage is possible, for example in disused gas fields or salt caverns. My research is exploring how highly volatile hydrogen flows through the rock and its quality when you re-extract it. This needs to be equally high.”

illustration by Iris Jönsthövel

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Offshore engineering Andrei Metrikine, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Professor (Faculty of CEG)

“The challenge is to combine technological and financial feasibility. Using all available energy sources (wind, waves, currents and solar) in one energyproducing farm reduces costs. The major future technological challenges lie in designing a far-offshore energy farm that efficiently uses all energy sources and converts the energy into high-density fuels such as liquid hydrogen.

Nowadays our research is focused on developing safe, environmentally friendly and cost effective XXL wind turbines.”

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Research Overview

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Axelle Viré, Assistant Professor of Wind Energy (Faculty of AE)

Antonio Jarquin Laguna, Assistant Professor in Offshore Renewables (Faculty of 3ME)

“The advantages of floating wind turbines are clear: you can massively increase the global capacity of wind energy.

The technical challenges are equally huge: waves make the turbine move so it ends up in its own wake.

This creates additional turbulence, disrupting energy production. We’re exploring how you can adjust the controls to account for this. These are complex calculations, because they involve both aerodynamics and hydrodynamics.”

“The amount of energy available in ocean waves, tidal currents, and thermal gradient is in the order of magnitude of the world energy consumption.

Furthermore, the predictability is better than for wind and solar which makes it a valuable contribution to the renewable energy mix.

At TU Delft we investigate effective employment of ocean energy technologies in the offshore energy system.”

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Turbine blades & circular design

Hydrogen backbone

System approach

Mark van Koningsveld, Professor Ports and Waterways (Faculty of CEG)

Zofia Lukszo, Professor of Smart Energy Systems (Faculty of TPM)

“To get hydrogen to the user, transport infrastructure must be in order. For Rotterdam this involves the development of a hydrogen backbone throughout the port, connected to export terminals overseas and offshore parks and with connections to the hinterland. With facilities to convert electricity into hydrogen and vice versa.

The research focuses on supply chains: which logistics chains do we want to set up, and what does that mean for the infrastructure.”

“Making a success of the energy transition requires a system-based approach.

The greatest challenge in offshore renewables is a coherent technical and institutional design.

Both the technology and institutions need to be in order. For example, there is currently no market for hydrogen. And European and Dutch policy has not yet been developed. This is about comprehensive engineering: we’re developing instruments to model these large-scale complex system-based solutions.”

Julie Teuwen, Assistant Professor of Aerospace Structures and Material (Faculty of AE) “We need to focus on circular design to enable further growth in wind energy. Apart from the blades, wind turbines are 90% recyclable. Blade design focuses on the lifecycle only and the current thermoset composite materials are virtually impossible to re-use. I’m researching manufacturing of thermoplastic blades.

At the end of the blade life, you can reshape and remanufacture them and eventually separate the raw materials and therefore recycle them.”

FUTURE

Offshore innovation projects Hollandse Kust Noord

GROW Growth through Research, development & demonstration in Offshore Wind

The helix method provides a smaller wake. (Image TU Delft)

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A new wind farm is rising from the sea 18.5 kilometres off the coast of Egmond aan Zee. It will generate enough energy to supply over one million households with green power. The Hollandse Kust Noord wind farm is being built by Crosswind, a joint venture of Shell and Eneco. TU Delft will test some of the innovations relating to so-called ‘wind farm control’. The tests concern optimum designs for offshore wind farms and methods for maximising energy production.

Wind turbines create wake, a strong backward air current that interferes with energy production in the turbines behind them”, explains Jan-Willem van Wingerden, Professor of Data Driven Control of Wind Energy Systems.

He has developed technology that not only shortens the wake, but also changes its direction so that it does not blow towards other turbines.

This so-called helix technology can “substantially” increase the amount of energy generated. It also allows turbines to be built closer together, resulting in lower costs as well as higher yield.

Wind farm control is a matter of advanced control technology. It relies on algorithms and machine learning – Van Wingerden’s domain. “This is a unique opportunity to test something completely new in a commercial setting”, he continues. “It will greatly accelerate the developmental phase of this new technology.”

The wind farm needs to be operational by 2023 and the helix technology will be tested before 2025. Crosswind will also be testing other innovations, such as a floating solar park, battery storage, generation of green hydrogen and the combination of these systems in order to guarantee a continuous supply of energy.

GROW is a joint research programme in offshore wind that initiates research and accelerates innovations. The consortium includes around 20 leading and committed partners that cooperate closely to conduct joint research.

GROW strives to expand the role of offshore wind in the energy system and therefore has the following objectives: • to reduce the cost level of offshore wind in the near and mid-term future • to create added value of wind energy in the energy system and to further enhance its symbiosis with other sectors at sea (oil & gas, fishery, shipping, tourism, ecology and nature).

• to strengthen the Dutch offshore wind sector TU Delft is one of the knowledge institutes within GROW and takes part in establishing new projects in collaboration with its industry partners with the aim to create impact. TU Delft is proud of leading the first GROW project called Gentle Driving of Piles with 15 partners since 2018. The method involves winding the piles into the ground instead of hammering them. This technique is not only more efficient, but is also more friendly to underwater life. grow-offshorewind.nl

Contact Do you have any questions regarding research and innovation on offshore renewables at TU Delft?

Please contact us: • Simon Watson, Director TU Delft Wind Energy Institute – S.J.Watson@tudelft.nl • Maxim Segeren, Business Development Offshore Renewables – M.L.A.Segeren@tudelft.nl • Friso Lippmann, Business Development Offshore Renewables – F.G.Lippmann@tudelft.nl

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The next big thing:

Ocean energy When you consider offshore energy, you usually think of wind, sun and hydrogen. But that is only part of the story. Tides, waves and temperature variations in the sea are also sources of renewable energy. By 2050, ocean energy will also be satisfying some of our energy demands and helping us to meet the goals of both the Paris Climate Agreement and the European Union.

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t has huge potential: in 2050, ocean energy will be able to generate 750 GW of renewable energy, which is enough to supply power to 350 million households worldwide.

Research indicates that it will also create over 650,000 new jobs.

Ocean energy is energy generated by tides, waves, blue energy whereby energy is derived from the difference between freshwater and seawater, and

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC). This latter technology involves generating energy using the differences in temperature between cold ocean water at great depth and the warmer water at the surface. This technology is particularly promising in the tropical waters around the equator.

TU Delft Ocean Energy Platform TU Delft conducts research into ocean energy. The focus is on tide energy, energy from waves, and

OTEC. The technical challenges are considerable. The more extreme the waves, for example, the more energy you can generate. But the technical installations must be able to withstand the sheer ferocity of these extreme conditions.

All these fields of expertise are combined in the TU Delft Ocean Energy Platform, which has set up a joint funding and research agenda.

FUTURE

Hydrogen takes centre stage in the energy transition

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ut first, van Wijk is keen to rectify a misunderstanding: the hydrogen economy isn’t just about hydrogen.

It’s about “a smart combination of electricity and hydrogen”. For example, what is the best way to prepare old, poorly insulated houses for a sustainable future? Answer: with good insulation, a heat pump and a boiler that runs on hydrogen to help out when it freezes.

“That is the fastest solution, and the cheapest option if we want to prepare a large chunk of the current housing stock for a sustainable future”, van Wijk says. You are basically using two existing systems: the electricity grid

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and the gas grid. The electricity grid does not need to be vastly expanded to increase capacity, and the gas grid can be adapted to hydrogen.

Energy consumption Moreover: electricity only accounts for around 20% of the total energy consumption in the Netherlands.

Many sectors are unable to switch totally to electricity. Van Wijk frowns at the thought of no longer connecting existing housing estates to the gas grid. “The gas grid doesn’t supply homes only; it also supplies bakeries, launderettes and professionals like roofers. They all need high temperatures. Electricity simply

The Cabinet’s vision on hydrogen In March, the Cabinet presented its vision on hydrogen. In the words of the Minister for Economic Affairs, Eric Wiebes, hydrogen is a “necessary link” in a sustainable energy system. “Investment in sustainable hydrogen in the Netherlands will create new jobs, improve air quality and is essential for the energy transition.” Prioritising the development of hydrogen with a minimum of delay is “particularly important” for industry. “The Cabinet hopes that it is sending a clear message by stressing the importance of CO₂-free hydrogen, presenting an ambitious policy agenda and taking essential steps to complete the infrastructure and other conditions on time”, said Wiebes.

isn’t enough. They need gas.” The same applies to industry, aviation and haulage. Battery technology isn’t suitable for trucks to drive long distances or to take people to Turkey on holiday flights. The same goes for storage.

Cheap Why hydrogen? “It’s the cheapest way of generating electricity where there is a strong wind or a high solar radiation, but that is often in places that are a long way from where it is needed.” The most solar energy can be generated in the deserts around the equator, and sea wind is the best for generating electricity. By converting electricity into hydrogen in the place where it is generated, you can transport it much more cheaply than when you have to lay intercontinental power cables.

Van Wijk has calculated that the cost of transporting hydrogen through a pipeline is “10 times” cheaper. The

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Sustainably generated hydrogen is set to play an important part in the energy transition. Electricity alone will not be enough, says Ad van Wijk, Professor of Future Energy Systems. Political decisions will ultimately determine whether the hydrogen economy gets off the ground. “This is more than just technology; it’s about changing the system.”

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ProRail successfully tested a hydrogen train on Dutch railway route between Groningen and Leeuwarden. Photo: Stefan Verkerk, commissioned by ProRail.

storage costs are “100 to 200 times” cheaper, even discounting the fact that you can’t store large amounts of electricity in batteries for months. While it is true that some energy is wasted if you have to convert it into hydrogen and eventually back again, overall, it is still cheaper.

conversion era (see text box). Despite the huge scientific challenges, van Wijk thinks that a hydrogen economy should be possible by 2050. A lot depends on the government, though.

“The main change needed is a system change, and this needs to be led by policy.”

Transport

The government must make the next move

“This is no different from how the current energy system works”, according to van Wijk. “We don’t build a power plant on top of a gas field in Algeria and export the electricity.

Instead, we export the gas and then we convert it into electricity.” This is how the future hydrogen economy will work too. “Using hydrogen as an energy carrier cuts the costs of transport and storage. That way you can transport renewable energy cheaply to where you need it, anywhere in the world.”

We moved from the steam era into the combustion era, and very soon, we will find ourselves in the electrochemical

The decision to develop the gas grid in the last century was also made at the top. “Suddenly it was time to make a decision: we would connect everyone to the gas mains.” The policy on a sustainable and renewable economy will not be any different. “And this is the main crux of the problem”, van Wijk concludes. “The technical solution is both feasible and affordable. But we need a solid policy. We can’t just think ‘we’ll get there in the end’. The government must make the next move.”

e-Refinery The energy transition has far-reaching implications for chemical companies. e-Refinery at TU Delft enables industry partners to start building the required technological capacity and human capital as soon as possible. Researchers in the e-Refinery initiative focus their research on the electrochemical conversion of sustainable electricity into fuels and chemical building blocks, from the molecular scale to large-scale system integration.

Implementing e-Refinery will serve three important challenges that society is facing: CO₂-neutral fuel, seasonal energy storage and a defossilised chemical industry.

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FUTURE

Innovative Projects A small taste of our cutting edge technology Cartoons by: Erwin Suvaal | CVIII ontwerpers

Biomolecular Ultrasound Imaging Unlike light, sound waves are able to travel much deeper into opaque biological tissues and can inspect virtually any organ of the human body such as the heart. Inspired by optical microscopy and exploiting the penetrating quality of sound, Dr. David Maresca aims to develop a new form of in vivo microscopy, enabling him to ‘spy’ on biological processes occurring within organs at the molecular level.

Lead researcher: Dr. David Maresca

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Multidimensional non-linear optical spectroscopy in reactive flows Dr. Alexis Bohlin is engaged in investigating chemically reactive flows that can help to make propulsion systems or other combustion processes more “green” and sustainable. For instance, those flames fed with biofuels and hydrogen, which can lead to zero emission of fossil-derived carbon dioxide. The researcher develops innovative and powerful non-linear optical spectroscopy techniques to be applied in harsh measurement environments such as turbulent flows, flames, and plasmas.

Lead researcher: Dr. Alexis Bohlin

Return plastic back to the same manufacturer Plastic recycling can only become truly circular when it is possible to separate plastic flakes based on their chemical composition. For recycling perfect purification of our plastic waste is essential. To be able to recognise the specific recipe of a plastic flake, the researchers use a infra-red spectroscopy scanning the various flakes. To separate the wanted flakes from the rest, a technology similar to our ink jet printer is used, using super small water jets instead of ink.

Lead researchers: Dr. Pingping Wen & Dr. Benjamin Megevand

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Hungry for more innovative ideas?

Get in touch: dig-it@tudelft.nl

Scan the QR-code for more DIG-IT projects:

PLANTENNA Plantenna focuses on the intertwined problems of climate change, pollution and food shortages. The aim is to develop vegetation-integrated, energy harvesting, autonomous sensors that measure in-plant and environmental parameters at high resolution and low cost. This information will be used to develop methods for early detection of plant-stress and environmental influences which can be used for decision making in smart agriculture increasing food quality or crop yields.

Lead researchers: Dr. Satadal Dutta, Dr. Gerard Verbiest and Prof. dr. Peter Steeneken

Learning from Failures

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The aim of this research is to develop methods through which researchers and engineers are enticed to learn from failures of their design and if needed make changes accordingly. Because when you understand what caused the failure, a similar event can be prevented. Using forensic engineering techniques, which are the corner stone of learning from failure, knowledge and understanding is gained for the future.

Lead researcher: Michiel Schuurman

Flow and deformation of cancer tumours near yielding There is a knowledge gap in the mechanical characterisation of cancer tumors which chemical engineer dr. Pouyan Boukany and his interdisciplinary team try to unravel. They aim to increase our understanding of the physical properties of cancer cells and the mechanical pathways and mechanisms that cause a tumor cell to move through the human body aiding treatment of cancer in the future. The team is developing a new platform to grow cells in a 3D setting just as they would grow inside a body.

Lead researcher: Pouyan Boukany

OPINION Pieter Duisenberg, Chair Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU):

‘The Netherlands must return to the breakaway group’

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Although the Netherlands is performing well in terms of innovation, we are beginning to fall behind the international leaders in this field. Only with a clear agenda, extra investments and more opportunity for fundamental research will our country once more be able to take a leading position and at the same time become Europe’s knowledge and innovation delta. This is the vision of Pieter Duisenberg, who chairs the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU).

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lthough we may like to complain, we’re performing quite well when it comes to innovation. We’re particularly good at collaborating with the business community, something that has earned us international acclaim. It may typify the Dutch consensual approach, but the triplehelix model is one of the Netherlands’ USPs. Regional cooperation is also improving all the time.

“Universities play a key role in resolving major societal challenges.

The Netherlands ranks well when it comes to its impact in terms of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – also compared to other countries. So, despite all the complaining, in my view the glass is half full. But if the Netherlands really wants to play a leading role, we will need to do quite a lot more.

Fundamental research “Most importantly: we need to focus on fundamental research. If we do not continue to lead in that field, our role in innovation will be short-lived.

This applies to all academic subjects, including arts and humanities and the natural, social and behavioural sciences. Academics need to be given the means to conduct research that is driven purely by curiosity.

“Secondly: create opportunities for entrepreneurship. The culture in universities still focuses too much on academic publications. Our aim is to make different types of career possible: you can also have a great future in teaching or innovation. We are currently in the process of conducting

a feasibility study on a post-doc programme for valorisation. The idea will be to convert a promising thesis into a start-up company within the space of two years.

“A third key priority revolves around the fact that too little research in the Netherlands results in new start-up companies. Spin-offs that later go on to develop into scale-ups. How can we engineer a breakthrough in this area? We’ve developed a three-stage methodology: change the culture, improve the structure and increase the opportunities for funding.

Culture shift “We are encouraging start-ups with our Academic Start-up Competition.

We’re also working to adapt the guidelines on intellectual property. In alliance with Techleap and TNO, we’ve developed ScienceFinder, a database that provides access to academic research for partners in the business community and government.

“Companies can struggle to find good funding, especially in their early stages. In that respect, I have high hopes for the Dutch Academic Impact Fund, which is collaborating with all of our affiliated universities. In all of this, I’m aiming high: the Netherlands must become the number-one ecosystem for academic start-ups in Europe.

“We need this ambition, because our international position in terms of knowledge and innovation is starting to be a cause for concern.

To use a term from cycling: there is a breakaway group of countries that is beginning to take the lead and we are not among them. We are one of the

Home of Innovation | Stories about innovation and societal impact fast cyclists in the peloton. The US is in the breakaway group, as are China, Germany and Denmark and the pace is fast. In this, I’m referring to both public and private investments.

Joining the breakaway group “My concern is that the distance from the breakaway group is growing to such an extent that it could become impossible to catch up. That means we need to up our game. We need to focus on themes of importance for the Netherlands – the energy transition, AI, health – while also sorting out the basics and ensuring space for fundamental research.

“Significant investments are also required. The Netherlands invests around 2% of GDP in research and innovation, whereas Germany tops 3%.

One percent of our GDP amounts to €8 billion. That’s how far behind we’re relatively getting every single year.

“The VSNU is pleased with the direction that the government is taking, but I have to issue a warning that the National Growth Fund (Groeifonds) will not quite be enough to achieve our aims. That is just half of the story. There needs to be significant investment across all sciences, with space for independent research.

“If you invest in the Netherlands as a knowledge country, with multidisciplinary cooperation between government, industry and science, I believe that we can become the knowledge and innovation delta of Europe. Collaborative creativity and solutions are part of our DNA. It lies at the heart of this. This is our mission.

It is the key to resolving societal challenges.”

Mosa Meat As an example of an inspiring, radical Dutch innovation, Duisenberg cites the start-up Mosa Meat. This company, which is marketing a hamburger made from cultured meat, encapsulates Duisenberg’s vision: it is a spin-out from Maastricht University, it is a result of multidisciplinary fundamental research of several cooperating universities, it makes a contribution to meeting the SDGs and it was one of the winners of last year’s Academic Start-up Competition. The company recently secured $55 million in new investments.

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Pieter Duisenberg

‘Guideline for cooperation with China’ Cooperation with the business community is important for innovation, but also involves risks. This especially applies to technologies that could also have a military application, such as artificial intelligence.

The controversy surrounding the collaboration between the universities of Amsterdam (VU/ UvA) and Huawei made it only too

clear how difficult it is to determine where the boundaries are.

Duisenberg believes that international collaboration between academics is ‘one of the driving forces behind progress’. At the same time, we must not close our eyes to collaboration with countries that might jeopardise knowledge security. “The Huawei affair has taught us that academics

need more concrete guidance in how to act in situations of this kind.” Since the summer, the VSNU has been working jointly with the Ministries of Education, Culture and Science and Foreign Affairs on the drafting of a guideline in this area. It will be published in the first half of 2021.

VISION Corporate partner ProRail focuses on automation, digitisation and sustainability

In need of technological paradigm shifts ProRail is facing some major challenges. In response, the Dutch railway infrastructure manager is investing in new digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence and advanced IoT applications. Because of this, ProRail has significantly changed the way it is collaborating with TU Delft. Director of Innovation & Technological Renewal Karel van Gils and R&D programme manager Arjen Zoeteman explain why. “With existing technology, it’s impossible to run more trains after 2030.”

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f course, the quality of the railway network in the Netherlands is indisputable, especially by international standards. It’s one of the world’s most heavily used networks and has high levels of reliability. But despite this, “we’re reaching the limits of the system,” says Van Gils. “Much of our technology still dates back to the 1960s.” Even in work processes, full advantage is not yet being taken of the potential benefits of digitisation.

Railway engineering Traditionally, ProRail has worked closely with the Railway Engineering research group (Civil Engineering). This group

has world-leading expertise when it comes to so-called rolling contact fatigue, the wear and tear caused by contact between the wheel and the track. Even the high-speed line to Brussels is currently encountering problems with this.

To facilitate collaboration with other specialisations within TU Delft, the university is in the process of establishing the interdisciplinary Railway Institute (Railinstituut).

In order to enable long-term growth, several ‘technological paradigms shifts’ will be needed: running more trains, driverless trains and far-reaching digitisation, both in terms of the technology and the work processes. That means involving a host of other faculties. “Thanks to the crossfaculty Railway Institute, we can benefit from whole new worlds within TU Delft,” says Zoeteman.

Smart sensors for predictive maintenance Autonomous trains can ride more closely together.

Combined with smart rail traffic management, this enables you to increase capacity. Other promising innovations: robots for maintenance work. Smart sensors linked to the internet of things (IoT) that signal when a railway switch needs to be replaced. Drones that conduct inspections.

With advanced AI, it also becomes much easier to predict maintenance, reducing the number of disruptions.

Running much more trains will increase the strain on existing embankments. This requires R&D as well. “We have 7,000km of track. If you want to check every millimetre for cracks, a smart approach is needed,” explains Van Gils.

Climate adaptation Impression of Delft Campus station. The roof is completely made up of solar panels. Photo: ProRail.

There are also external factors. The ground is changing because of climate change. Combined with an increase in the number of trains, this can cause problems. Fundamental

De in deze visual aangegeven inrichting van de voorpleinen is geen onderdeel van het contract. Zie daarvoor de vormgevingsvisie Station Delft Zuid.

78 - DEFINITIEF - VORMGEVINGSVISIE - DELFT ZUID OVERKAPPING

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Installation of the structure to support the sustainable canopy of Delft Campus. Photos: Vincent Basler, commissioned by ProRail.

research is needed in order to understand what exactly is happening in the ground. The increase in the number of trains also causes ‘track vibrations’, which can be disruptive for local residents. “That’s an incredibly difficult subject,” says Zoeteman. “As we don’t know how to manage these vibrations in the ground, we’re joining forces with various knowledge partners.”

Finally, ProRail also aims to improve the sustainability of operations: this involves research into hydrogen trains to replace polluting diesel locomotives (see box) and the use of circular materials in such structures as fly-overs. “We aim to operate more sustainably, by reusing energy,” says Zoeteman. “That automatically leads you into different domains than traditional rail engineering.”

Delft Campus station A good example of this ambition is the development of Delft Campus station, set to become the Netherlands’ first energy-neutral station. Lifts, LED lighting and ticket machines are just some of the things on the station that will be fully powered by energy from an innovative roof, made up completely of solar panels. “I consider ProRail to be one of the biggest commissioning authorities in the country,”

says Van Gils. “It’s our responsibility to build sustainably.”

The new institute has an important role to play in technological renewal, but attracting talent is equally important. For years, ProRail has been funding the chair in Railway Engineering. Van Gils hopes that collaboration with other disciplines will spark enthusiasm for the rail sector among students in other faculties as well.

Hyperloop “The great thing is that students and PhD candidates not only have the opportunity to do an important AI track, it also enables them to have an immediate impact on society. You’re playing a part in the complete digitisation and sustainability upgrade of public transport,” explains Van Gils. This is why ProRail also sponsors the TU Delft Hyperloop team. They were previously given permission to test one of the empty tubes in the Delft railway tunnel.

ProRail sees the Hyperloop as a potential solution for the longer term. “It’s not currently a priority, but we support the initiative,” says Zoeteman. “We have a lot of heavy-rail knowledge at our disposal, which we’re eager to share. That means that the Hyperloop team don’t have to invent it all from scratch.”

Successful test of hydrogen train

Photo: Stefan Verkerk, commissioned by ProRail.

This year saw a first on the Dutch railways as ProRail successfully tested a hydrogen train. On the route between Groningen and Leeuwarden, a sprinter and express train service was run several times, demonstrating that this innovative train can be accommodated within the service.

Hydrogen trains can serve as alternatives for the diesel trains that run on 1,000km of the 7,000km of track without overhead wires.

With green hydrogen, that kind of train is not only more sustainable than diesel, it’s also significantly quieter.

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IMPACT

FLYING-V 2.0

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The Flying-V is a design for a highly energy-efficient long-distance aeroplane.

The aircraft’s design integrates the passenger cabin, the cargo hold and the fuel tanks in the wings, creating a spectacular v-shape. Its improved aerodynamic shape and reduced weight will mean it uses 20% less fuel than the Airbus A350, today’s most advanced aircraft. Recently, an interdisciplinary team at Aerospace Engineering was commissioned by Airbus and ADSE to conduct a first study into the feasibility of flying the Flying-V on hydrogen. tudelft.nl/lr/flying-v/

NEXT NEXT Delft is a new accelerator building that will provide office and lab space that has so far been lacking on TU Delft Campus. It it will also make it easy for scale-ups from YES!Delft to move on and thus make room for new start-ups. This will enable us both to retain talented people and to attract new companies. On top of this we are creating a place where companies and people can meet, increasing collaboration and thus making the campus a more attractive location. nextdelft.eu

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PLANET B.IO A unique scale-up ecosystem focused on industrial biotechnology. Planet B.io contributes to the transition of today's fossil-based, linear economy to tomorrow's bio-based, circular economy, by promoting industrial biotechnology. The non-profit organisation does do so by sharing the incredible amount of biotech knowledge and infrastructure available on the Biotech Campus Delft. Planet.bio actively invests in creating a hub in Delft where relevant knowledge and networks are shared, and where you will find a professional workspace that inspires you and enables your business to grow. planet-b.io

BLUEBEE BlueBee, the TU Delft spin-off that has developed technology to perform DNA analysis faster, cheaper and more efficiently, has been acquired by the American company Illumina. Illumina is a global leader in DNA analysis. The company produces and sells DNA reading instruments and has supplied 15,000 of these so-called sequencing machines around the world. Thanks to BlueBee technology, it is now becoming easier for users of these machines to access this data online and conduct clinical research. bluebee.com

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