NanoNextNL
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Category: NanoNextNL
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With a total of 44 projects in ten different themes, TU Delft is a major participant in the NanoNextNL research programme, which was officially launched this summer. PhD students and postdocs are currently being recruited for research work due to last until 2016.
Jos Wassink
The NanoNextNL programme focuses on the development of nanotechnology in the broadest sense of the word: from nanomedicines and sensors, to energy applications and health risks. At TU Delft, projects have been submitted by the faculties of Applied Sciences (AS), Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (3mE), and Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS), in particular, followed by the faculty of Technology, Policy and Management (TPM).
The research programme chaired by Dave Blank, a professor at the University of Twente, follows on from the previous BSik programmes MicroNed (approximately 56 million euros) and NanoNed (180 million euros).
According to the nanonext.nl website, the objective of the new research programme, in which universities, knowledge institutes and companies collaborate, is to create “an open, dynamic and sustainable ecosystem for research and innovation, with which the Netherlands can continue to play its leading role in the world, and can extend this role further, in micro and nanotechnology”.
The total budget for the programme is 250 million euros, of which half will be contributed by the universities, knowledge institutes and companies, primarily in the form of man hours and the use of facilities. The other half will be funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, paid from the natural gas profits (Economic Structure Enhancing Fund (FES)).
The Delft micro/nano community has submitted 44 projects with a total budget of nearly 24 million euros. The participation of the other Dutch universities is comparable: the University of Twente has submitted projects worth 27.6 million euros, and Eindhoven University of Technology projects worth 16.9 million.
“The universities of technology and Wageningen University are active on a wide scale,” observes Dr Leon Gielgens, Programme Office Director of NanoNextNL at STW. Professor Fred Keulen (3mE), vice-chairman of NanoNextNL, agrees: “These universities contributed greatly to the MicroNed and NanoNed programmes and consequently played a significant role in designing the NanoNextNL programme. As a result, several hundred PhD students are being educated there, and they will be our future knowledge workers.”
