TU Delft: Science Port Holland Launched

From now on, students with a brilliant idea, small developing businesses and large international concerns looking for technological know-how, fresh talent and collaboration have a door to knock on: that of Science Port Holland. The Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Frank Heemskerk, managed to keep his feet dry when he attended the launching ceremony for this new science park between Rotterdam and Delft, even though there is little more than marshy wasteland to be seen right now on this site to the south of the TU Delft campus. The mayors of the cities behind the new venture, Ivo Opstelten of Rotterdam and Bas Verkerk of Delft, also retained dry toes thanks to generously distributed gumboots. In a futuristic tent along the A13 motorway, they, together with Dirk Jan van den Berg, Chairman of the Executive Board of the third party in the scheme, TU Delft, shared their future visions of Science Port Holland.

Heemskerk stressed the importance of innovation for the Netherlands seen from a business perspective. “The Delft/Rotterdam region has considerable pulling power. Collaboration within this region will be rewarded in terms of international allure. At this moment in particular the Netherlands must dare to invest in what the country does well,” Heemskerk stated. “There are, however, a number of basic stipulations for Science Port Holland. Government, the entrepreneurs and the researchers must allow each other sufficient room to move. In this way the development of this high-tech park will be bound to put the Netherlands firmly on the map.”

Under the leadership of panel chairman Jan Douwe Kroeske, Opstelten, Verkerk and Van den Berg discussed their views on the ambitions and the collaboration. Science Port Holland’s two high-tech industrial estates, near the NMi in Delft and at the Schieveen site near Rotterdam Airport, provide the opportunity for science and entrepreneurship to join forces. The two sites are near to renowned universities, namely TU Delft and Rotterdam’s Erasmus University.

Science Port Holland will focus particularly on groups that are already well developed within TU Delft and the Erasmus Medical Center and have gained an international reputation: industrial biotechnology, medical technology, sustainable energy, water management expertise, nanotechnology and mobility studies. In short, a focus on the global problems of the 21st century and the economic and innovative developments they engender.

The goal of Science Port Holland is the development of two high-level science parks where knowledge-intensive companies, national and international, can establish their Research & Development enterprises. Due to the proximity of one of the world’s largest seaports, the airport of Rotterdam and the high-speed rail link, Science Port Holland is in an excellent position to compete as an exceptional location for high-tech businesses in the Netherlands and Europe.

 

 

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