On Tuesday June 20 2023, 15 MinacNed members got together for a visit to Malvern Panalytical, a company making instrumentation for the analysis of micro- and nanomaterials. After a short introduction to the company, a tour was made through the facilities, showing the application laboratory, the R&D center and the production floor. The visit with closed with drinks and a bite. The participants enjoyed the opportunity to have a look ‘behind the scenes’. MinacNed is planning another member visit for the second half of the year in the Randstad area.

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO, Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland) is organising a Matchmaking Nanotech Expo to Japan from 1 – 3 February 2023. Are you actively involved in photonics, quantum- or nanotechnology? And do you want to explore the opportunities and developments of these three key enabling technologies in Japan? Then please, read more about this event and join the mission.

Quantum technology, nanotechnology and photonics (integrated photonics, optical) are essential key technologies in the Netherlands and Japan. Therefore, both countries strongly invest in further development of these technologies to solve all kinds of societal challenges – for example, safety, sustainability, economics and life science.

The Nanotech Expo is the largest exhibition in this field in Asia. In this edition, there will be special attention for quantum technology, nanotechnology and photonics (integrated photonics and optica), and the Netherlands will be represented with the Dutch Pavillion. The expo participation results from the intensive collaboration between BC Nanotech, Photondelta and Quantum delta NL.

For who?

This event is interesting for Dutch governments, industries, and knowledge institutions. The event focuses on the professionals who work at the interface of photonics, quantum and nanotechnology.

Goals of this mission

This networking event is of particular interest to you if you:

  • want to find potential customers, such as partners for joint research, development and commercialization;
  • want to intensify bilateral cooperation between government, business and knowledge institutions;
  • want to develop bilateral arrangements and programs to support bilateral cooperation;
  • want to position the Netherlands in EU programs through relationships with Japan.

Want to join us to Japan? Participation is open to all Dutch parties active in these areas. You can sign up by sending an e-mail to Raoul Oostenbrink, coordinator of Business Cluster Nano PIB-Japan. Places are limited and will go on a ‘first come, first serve’ basis. 

This month, Willem Endhoven of High Tech NL visited Surfix Diagnostics with the aim to jointly host a webinar in cooperation with Hans Dijk of MinacNed, under technical leadership of Emanuela Zanetti. It definitely was a great webinar with speakers out of the biosensor field. Joost Lötters of Bronkhorst spoke about flow control in organ-on-a-chip applications. Followed by Avinash Radjkoemar of Novioscan B.V. who spoke about Sens-U. The third and final speaker was Merijn Klarenbeek who spoke about the Balance Belt of his company Elitac Wearables.

It were three inspiring talks! People of these Dutch companies are driven by their wish to improve quality of life.

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO, Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland) organises an innovation mission to Japan from 10 – 14 October 2022. Are you actively involved in photonics, quantum- or nanotechnology? And do you want to explore the opportunities and developments of these three key enabling technologies in Japan? Then please, read more about this event and join the mission.

Quantum technology, nanotechnology and photonics (integrated photonics, optical) are essential key technologies in the Netherlands and Japan. Therefore, both countries are strongly investing in further development of these technologies to contribute to solving all kinds of societal challenges – for example, safety, sustainability, economics and life science.

For who?

This mission is interesting for Dutch governments, industries, and knowledge institutions. The mission focuses on the professionals who work at the interface of photonics, quantum and nanotechnology.

Goals of this mission

The goals of this innovation mission to Japan are:

  • Exploring and finding potential partners for joint research, development and commercialisation of technological innovations in the field of photonics, quantum and nanotechnology;
  • intensifying bilateral cooperation between government, industry and knowledge institutes;
  • developing bilateral schemes and programmes to support bilateral cooperation;
  • And positioning the Netherlands in EU programmes through relations with Japan.

Are you interested? Please, visit the website of the RVO for the whole programme, an information meeting on 15 June 2022 in The Hague, costs and registration (before 28 June 2022).

Invest-NL is participating for €5 million in a €10 million investment round for Delft IMP. The other investor is Norwegian Sandwater.

The financial injection will be used to further scale up Delft IMP’s nanocoating technology. This makes more sustainable batteries and other sustainable applications possible.

Delft IMP (“Intensified Material Production”) is a spin-off of TU Delft and has unique expertise in developing ultra-thin coatings on powders and has patented technology to produce these materials at scale. The ultra-thin nano-coatings protect the material powders in the battery and thus improve its service life.

With this application technology, Delft IMP is able to control the process to optimize the film thickness and reduce the use of scarce raw materials, such as cobalt. Sustainable use of raw materials is their trademark, as the technology applied to powders has a much wider range of applications. For example, they are also an important player in the development of innovative electrolysers and fuel cell technologies.

CEO Dr. Roderik Colen: “With this investment we can contribute to reducing the use of scarce raw materials. We apply ultra-thin coatings to powder material and enable production at scale with a unique technology from TU Delft.”

“Invest-NL invests in companies that make the Netherlands more sustainable and innovative,” says Wouter van Westenbrugge, Senior Investment Manager at Invest-NL, “Delft IMP’s advanced application technology can significantly accelerate the energy transition and also significantly reduce CO2 emissions. emissions from battery production.”

Source: InvestNL press release

MASER Engineering, the technologically-leading failure and reliability testing center in Europe, and Eurofins Scientific, an international, renowned laboratory group, have entered into an
agreement whereby Eurofins Scientific will acquire the shares of MASER Engineering BV. Current executive management will also participate via a minority shareholding.

MASER and Eurofins share a similar philosophy and complement each other perfectly.Together the two companies have big ambitions to grow the European market specifically in the semiconductor and electronic systems industry. The new ownership will also open up additional opportunities for MASER in the international market, particularly within the Eurofins Materials & Engineering Sciences Business line.

“We are very pleased that, a strong partner has been found who is technically innovative, sustainable and growth-oriented,” explain Hans Kemper and Kees Revenberg, founders and former owners of MASER Engineering. The Dutch operations of MASER will remain in place to continue to serve customers with the best service. MASER’s trademarks of flexibility, delivery reliability and consistent responsiveness to customer needs will be further strengthened. The existing customer and supplier relationships will be continued and intensified.

Thijs Kempers, CEO of MASER, will ensure a smooth continuation of MASER after the acquisition and will continue in his role as CEO. “I am committed to creating continuity for both our customers and our employees and to opening up positive development opportunities for MASER’s employees. Our expansion plans are in progress and I am very confident about MASER’s future.”

About MASER Engineering BV

MASER Engineering was founded in Enschede in 1993 and is an accredited independent engineering testing center with a broad and in-depth range of services. The company is a leader in the fields of reliability testing and failure analysis. The company headquarters are in the ‘Knowledge campus Twente’ (kennispark Twente) in Enschede with a total of 56 employees.

About Eurofins Scientific

With annual sales of over 5 billion euros, 55,000 employees and a network of over 900 independent companies in 50 countries, Eurofins Scientific is a leading international laboratory group, with a unique range of analytical and service capabilities for the pharmaceutical, food, environmental and consumer goods industries. As an accredited and internationally recognized testing laboratory network, Eurofins performs independent testing of technical equipment and components. It also provides conformity assessment solutions for national, European and international market access.

Source: MASER Engineering

In 2021 and 2022, MinacNed will host pre-events leading up to the international MicroNanoConference 2022. The symposia are live events in The Netherlands, offering an interesting program with speakers from industry and science, with an opportunity for networking.

The Nano4Society themes will be taken from the international MicroNanoConference. The MinacNed team aims to organize both (deep) tech events and also more high over themes like IP, HR and symposia on collaboration.

Micro Nano Symposium: From Science to Market: Biomedical Production Technology

On November 23, a Micro Nano Symposium will be organised around the 2021 Groeifonds application. The consortium of partners from science and industry responsible for the Growth Fund application (Groeifonds 2021) will celebrate the submission of their application, specifically the focus theme Biomedical Production Technology under the NXTGen High Tech program.

From Science to Market: Biomedical Production Technology
Biomedical production technology fails to keep pace with innovations in the biomedical domain. The (academic) knowledge in the Netherlands is at a very high level in the field of Lab-on-Chip, Organ-on-Chip, Artificial Organs and Cell production technology, but is not (properly) converted into products. The main reason for this is that a multidisciplinary chain is required of suppliers of high-quality specific components in both the technological and biological field. Although the required parties are present in the Netherlands, their production equipment and processes are not yet compatible with each other. These major challenges cannot be solved by a few parties, but a large collaboration is needed to be able to design and functionally qualify products from the existing developed building blocks (e.g., sensors, chips, biomaterials) in order to subsequently achieve upscaling and the growing (world) market.

MinacNed, hDMT, MESA+ and Nano4Society organize a pre-event of the international MicroNano Conference 2022 to address this topic and will present steps that are currently being taken to establish an ecosystem with a unique and first-of-its-kind production chain in the Netherlands.

We look forward to seeing you here. Registration is open, you will find the program and invited speakers on the event page. Read more and register today!

The event is  a live event in Enschede, at location The Gallery.

Partners in event: MinacNed, Nano4Society, hDMT and MESA+ Twente University

Queen Maxima ‘opens’ supercomputer (credits: Vera Duivenvoorden)

September 14, 2021

Fourteen quadrillion. That is the number of calculations the new national supercomputer Snellius can make per second. This powerful machine will greatly enhance the capacity of Dutch researchers to address scientific challenges such as climate change or analysis of the coronavirus. Queen Máxima performed the official inauguration of the supercomputer at the Amsterdam Science Park. Snellius was financed with a grant of 18 million euros from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (via NWO) and 2 million euros from SURF, the collaborative organisation for ICT in Dutch education and research.

New opportunities for researchers

One of the speakers at the opening ceremony was climate scientist Henk Dijkstra, who described the new possibilities that Snellius will create for his research:

‘It can help us to answer new questions about the impact that the increasing greenhouse gas emissions are currently having on the climate. We will also be able to make more detailed projections for the climate in the future, particularly in relation to the occurrence of extreme weather events such as heatwaves and excessive rainfall. You need a supercomputer because of the enormous number of calculations and the volume of data required to make those forecasts. Performing these types of calculations on a laptop is virtually impossible.’

NWO president Marcel Levi endorses that view:

‘The process of digitisation taking place in every domain of science means that every scientist needs computing capacity. Easy access to computing power is essential if researchers in the Netherlands are to continue conducting cutting-edge research in the future.’

A powerful computer

Every scientist in the Netherlands will have access to Snellius. The supercomputer, which is located in the Amsterdam Science Park, will be managed by SURF. An important criterion was that the new computer should be as energy-efficient as possible. The computer was built by Lenovo, which used water-cooling technology that cools the system more efficiently and greatly reduces the need for air cooling with fans. The system will be expanded in stages over the coming years and will ultimately have a peak performance of 14 petaflop/s, making it the most powerful high-performance computing system in the Netherlands. Through the use of the latest generation of graphics processing units (GPUs), the computer is also well suited for machine learning.

Investment in digitisation

The methods of processing research data and sources are changing rapidly. Datasets are not only much larger, but also more complex. In its coalition agreement, the present government earmarked funds to strengthen the country’s IT infrastructure with a view to ensuring the country remains competitive in the changing digital landscape. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science then asked NWO to draw up a detailed plan for the disbursement of the planned investments, for which NWO was allocated incentive funding of 40 million euros. In addition to making the Snellius supercomputer possible, the funds are intended for projects to make data more accessible, to improve the digital infrastructure, and to create more powerful computing capacity and more storage capacity.

Also read

Longread CWI – about how CWI researchers have relied on this powerful machine since the purchase of the first national supercomputer in 1984: from testing security keys to simulating gas and liquid flows and electrical discharges.