Press release DSM, Geleen, NL, 11 Jan 2021 09:00 CET
Royal DSM, a global science-based company in Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living, and TU Delft, ranked among the top universities in biotechnology research globally, today announce the establishment of the Artificial Intelligence Lab for Biosciences (the AI4B.io Lab). This laboratory will be the first of its kind in Europe to apply artificial intelligence (AI) to full-scale biomanufacturing, from microbial strain development to process optimization and scheduling.
The AI4B.io Lab will be part of the Dutch National Innovation Center for AI (ICAI), which works to keep the Netherlands at the forefront of knowledge and talent development in AI. It will be led by Professor Marcel Reinders, Director TU Delft Bioengineering Institute. DSM regards biosciences as an important tool for addressing climate change and resource scarcity and optimizing the global food system so will invest €2.5 million into the laboratory over the first five years.
With more than 150 years of experience, DSM has already developed an extensive portfolio of sustainable, bio-based solutions that help address some of the key challenges facing society. Now, developments in the understanding of biology, as well as major advances in digital transformation, are opening up exciting possibilities for new bio-based products, applications, and manufacturing processes. Integrating biosciences and digital technologies can help to reduce the time spent on innovation cycles, from prototyping to scaling and commercialization.
Bringing the desired objective to life, digitally
Traditionally, scientific research is based on trial and error within multiple sub-studies that work together toward a specific objective, such as a new product or production technology. What makes AI unique is that it allows scientists to invert this process. The desired objective is brought to life in a digital environment using ‘digital twins’ (a virtual ‘mirror’ of the desired real-world situation), while machine learning helps determine how to achieve it. Although AI is already widely applied in engineering research – for instance, to replace physical wind turbines or tunnels with digital twins – the AI4B.io Lab will be the first of its kind to explore AI’s potential in biosciences and biotechnology.
No innovation without collaboration
Working closely together with partners can drive progress and create access to new technologies. For this reason, DSM decided to partner with TU Delft in setting up and developing the AI4B.io Lab. It will be the third ICAI Lab on the TU Delft campus, joining the AI for Retail Lab Delft of Ahold Delhaize, and the AI for Fintech Lab of ING. Additionally, TU Delft will invest in 24 interdisciplinary AI laboratories on a broad range of topics to further drive collaboration between scientists working in AI and scientists from other domains. The AI4B.io Lab will also collaborate with Planet B.io, the open-innovation ecosystem at the Biotech Campus Delft – for instance, by providing research insights and consultancy to biotechnology startups on the campus. Both DSM and TU Delft are founding partners of Planet B.io.
Through these extensive and broad collaborations, the partnership will further strengthen the position of Delft as the bio-economy capital of the world.
Professor Marcel Reinders, Director TU Delft Bioengineering Institute: ‘’Biotechnology can contribute significantly to solving major societal challenges, such as climate change, healthy nutrition for the world’s rapidly growing population, and raw material scarcity. AI plays a crucial role in the development of biotechnology applications, but – scientifically speaking – there are still many unanswered questions at the cellular, lab, and process level. By linking our fundamental research to concrete opportunities at DSM, we can maximize our impact.”
Marcus Remmers, Chief Technology Officer DSM: “TU Delft has a proven track record of groundbreaking research in AI, bioengineering, and bioinformatics. DSM is a global, science-based company that creates sustainable, bio-based products and solutions at commercial scale. This makes our parties the perfect match to tackle important scientific and societal challenges together.”
Cindy Gerhardt, Managing Director Planet B.io: ‘’At Planet B.io, we stimulate open innovation and collaboration between startups, corporations, and knowledge institutes to develop bio-based products and solutions. We look forward to working together with the AI4B.io Lab to maximize the potential of AI and biosciences.’’
Resultaat van 15 jaar Seed Capital
The Seed Capital scheme, which RVO implements on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK), has existed for 15 years. Thanks to the scheme, the Dutch venture capital market has expanded enormously since 2005 and access to venture capital for start-ups has improved significantly. 87 Seed Capital funds have already been set up to provide 472 start-ups with venture capital. In total, more than € 414 million was invested, of which around € 203 million came from the government.
Thanks to these investments, good results have been achieved over the past 15 years. To commemorate its 15th anniversary, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) publishes the anniversary book “Innovative Netherlands in bloom – 15 years of Seed Capital 2005 – 2020”.
It contains interviews with a number of fund managers, in which some examples of success of participations pass in review. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK), the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) and some advisory committee members also give their views on the scheme. Finally, the results of the past 15 years are clearly presented at the back. You can download the publication here (Dutch PDF).
Further development
The Seed Capital scheme has been further developed in recent years. For example, since the end of 2016 it has been possible to open sector-specific tenders that tie in with important economic and social themes such as sustainability, agri-horti-food and e-health. The separate e-health tender from the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) is a good example of this.
In addition, a separate section was opened in 2017 especially for couples of business angels: the Seed Business Angel scheme. Through this scheme, business angels deliver ‘smart money’ to start-ups in the very early stages of life by supporting them with their knowledge, network and experience.
New sectors
The Seed Capital advisory committee looks back with pride on the past 15 years and sees that the scheme is still desperately needed. Initially, mainly funds were set up with a focus on IT and life sciences. In recent years, more and more new funds have been added that focus on food, social impact and clean tech, for example. Chairman of the advisory committee Michel van Bremen therefore sees the Seed Capital scheme as a kind of icebreaker for new sectors: “Every time a new sector arises, the Seed Capital scheme attracts investors to it. Without the support of the Seed Capital scheme, they would not have dared to invest. After all, new segments are risky. ”
Cooperation
The Dutch health market benefits from e-health innovations due to the increasing demand for care. In order to attract more risk capital in this sector, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport sought cooperation with EZK. In 2017, this resulted in the opening of a separate e-health tender within the Seed Capital scheme. NextGen Ventures is one of the Seed Capital funds that was established thanks to this tender and that helps e-health start-ups in their development. According to fund manager Matthijs Blokhuis, the Seed Capital scheme makes NextGen Ventures easier and attracts more investors: “The fact that we meet the requirements for Seed Capital inspires confidence among investors. That makes it more attractive for me as a fund manager to invest early in start-ups in a risky market. ”
Over Seed Capital
The Seed Capital-scheme is aimd at innovative techno- and creative startups who need access to risk capital investment. Since January 1, 2021 a new rond of the Seed Capital-regeling is open and investors can apply for funding to establish a new Seed Capital fund.
Are you an entrepreneur? You can apply direct to the Seed Capital investment funds. Check the complete alfabetical overview of funds (in Dutch) or the overview per sector.
Proposal submission RAAK MKB March 2021
On this page you will find briefly the most important information about this round. Always read the manual (call for proposals) before writing an application. Once the round is open, you will find all the necessary documents at the bottom of this page.
Assessment criteria
An application is assessed on 3 criteria:
Is the research question demonstrably based on the question from professional practice?
Does the consortium include the relevant parties to answer the research question and to ensure further dissemination of the research results, both in SMEs and in vocational trainin
Does the research build on state-of-the-art knowledge, do the research methods fit the research question, can the research be traced and is the project planning and organization realistic?
In the assessment of an application, the research plan weighs in for 50%, demand articulation and network formation each for 25%.
Requirements for consortium partners
The research project is carried out by a consortium that, in addition to the university of applied sciences, consists of at least 6 SMEs, supplemented by a trade association or another organization that has the objective of stimulating innovation in SMEs. Of the required 6 SMEs, at least 5 must be established in the Netherlands.
The staff of a university of applied sciences do not maintain direct family ties with and / or have no business interests in the SMEs involved.
Self-employed persons can be part of the consortium instead of SMEs. A self-employed person must then be part of a collective that demonstrably focuses on innovation and / or economic growth.
The consortium partners, including the university college itself, contribute at least 50% of the total project costs. Co-financing can be in cash or in kind.
General subsidy conditions
As an applicant you are responsible for making agreements with the consortium partners about access to and rights to research results and, if applicable, about intellectual property. You must also make agreements about open access publications and data management and the ethical aspects of your research.
Start and implementation of the project
Has your application been granted? Then your project will start between September 2021 and January 2021. During the term of the project you are obliged to keep the SIA Regieorgaan informed of the progress of the project. And of any changes in the composition of the consortium or changes in the research compared to the original research plan. Read more about monitoring your project on our project management page.
Submit via ISAAC
You can only submit your application via ISAAC. ISAAC is NWO’s digital application and reporting system. In ISAAC you will always find the correct and most up-to-date forms for your application. The forms offered on this website are an example. See our page about ISAAC for practical information about the system.
Read more (in Dutch) about the RAAK MKB proposal submission here.
DSM and TU Delft establish artificial intelligence laboratory to drive bioscience innovation
Press release DSM, Geleen, NL, 11 Jan 2021 09:00 CET
Royal DSM, a global science-based company in Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living, and TU Delft, ranked among the top universities in biotechnology research globally, today announce the establishment of the Artificial Intelligence Lab for Biosciences (the AI4B.io Lab). This laboratory will be the first of its kind in Europe to apply artificial intelligence (AI) to full-scale biomanufacturing, from microbial strain development to process optimization and scheduling.
The AI4B.io Lab will be part of the Dutch National Innovation Center for AI (ICAI), which works to keep the Netherlands at the forefront of knowledge and talent development in AI. It will be led by Professor Marcel Reinders, Director TU Delft Bioengineering Institute. DSM regards biosciences as an important tool for addressing climate change and resource scarcity and optimizing the global food system so will invest €2.5 million into the laboratory over the first five years.
With more than 150 years of experience, DSM has already developed an extensive portfolio of sustainable, bio-based solutions that help address some of the key challenges facing society. Now, developments in the understanding of biology, as well as major advances in digital transformation, are opening up exciting possibilities for new bio-based products, applications, and manufacturing processes. Integrating biosciences and digital technologies can help to reduce the time spent on innovation cycles, from prototyping to scaling and commercialization.
Bringing the desired objective to life, digitally
Traditionally, scientific research is based on trial and error within multiple sub-studies that work together toward a specific objective, such as a new product or production technology. What makes AI unique is that it allows scientists to invert this process. The desired objective is brought to life in a digital environment using ‘digital twins’ (a virtual ‘mirror’ of the desired real-world situation), while machine learning helps determine how to achieve it. Although AI is already widely applied in engineering research – for instance, to replace physical wind turbines or tunnels with digital twins – the AI4B.io Lab will be the first of its kind to explore AI’s potential in biosciences and biotechnology.
No innovation without collaboration
Working closely together with partners can drive progress and create access to new technologies. For this reason, DSM decided to partner with TU Delft in setting up and developing the AI4B.io Lab. It will be the third ICAI Lab on the TU Delft campus, joining the AI for Retail Lab Delft of Ahold Delhaize, and the AI for Fintech Lab of ING. Additionally, TU Delft will invest in 24 interdisciplinary AI laboratories on a broad range of topics to further drive collaboration between scientists working in AI and scientists from other domains. The AI4B.io Lab will also collaborate with Planet B.io, the open-innovation ecosystem at the Biotech Campus Delft – for instance, by providing research insights and consultancy to biotechnology startups on the campus. Both DSM and TU Delft are founding partners of Planet B.io.
Through these extensive and broad collaborations, the partnership will further strengthen the position of Delft as the bio-economy capital of the world.
Professor Marcel Reinders, Director TU Delft Bioengineering Institute: ‘’Biotechnology can contribute significantly to solving major societal challenges, such as climate change, healthy nutrition for the world’s rapidly growing population, and raw material scarcity. AI plays a crucial role in the development of biotechnology applications, but – scientifically speaking – there are still many unanswered questions at the cellular, lab, and process level. By linking our fundamental research to concrete opportunities at DSM, we can maximize our impact.”
Marcus Remmers, Chief Technology Officer DSM: “TU Delft has a proven track record of groundbreaking research in AI, bioengineering, and bioinformatics. DSM is a global, science-based company that creates sustainable, bio-based products and solutions at commercial scale. This makes our parties the perfect match to tackle important scientific and societal challenges together.”
Cindy Gerhardt, Managing Director Planet B.io: ‘’At Planet B.io, we stimulate open innovation and collaboration between startups, corporations, and knowledge institutes to develop bio-based products and solutions. We look forward to working together with the AI4B.io Lab to maximize the potential of AI and biosciences.’’
MinacNed member events in 2021: We need your input
Share your ideas
Live events after Corona
Once the Corona crisis has passed and we can organize live events, we will continue these monthly meetins at a live location. We will also host network drinks and offer opportunities for you to meet the other MinacNed members. We look forward to seeing you, online and during our live events on site.
QuTech, KPN, SURF and OPNT join forces to build a quantum network
Delft, 25 November 2020 – QuTech (a collaboration between TU Delft and TNO), KPN, SURF and OPNT are launching a collaboration designed to make significant progress in building a first ever quantum network connecting the Randstad, i.e. one of the main metropolitan regions in The Netherlands. The project will focus on connecting different quantum processors, a significant distance apart, over a Dutch network. The aim is to build the very first fully functional quantum network using high-speed fibre connections.
Fundamentally secure communication
A quantum network is a radically new internet technology, with the potential for creating pioneering applications. Such a network connects quantum processors to each other via optical channels, and this enables the exchange of so-called quantum bits (qubits). Qubits have a number of features that make them very different from the bits we currently know and use in classical networks. For example, quantum communication is potentially immune to eavesdropping practices. Quantum communication networks are expected to evolve over time towards a global quantum network, and this would allow secure communication; position verification; clock synchronisation; computation using external quantum computers; and more. Among other things, the project is intended to lead to new techniques, insights and standards that will bring a quantum network closer.
Fundamental and industrial research
Building a quantum network that enables all of the pioneering applications mentioned above is a unique challenge, and one that forms the focus for TKI project partners*. Around the world, researchers are working hard to turn quantum networks into reality, but all existing solutions are based on a simpler technology. This provides the incentive for TKI-partners to contribute to building a fully functional quantum network.
The quantum internet ecosystem of the future
Different parties in the collaboration each contribute their own areas of expertise. Ultimately, the mix of skills will help to create a programmable quantum network that connects quantum processors in different cities. Erwin van Zwet, Internet Division Engineering Lead at QuTech, underlined the project’s importance: “Working with these partners, we expect to have taken significant steps towards a quantum network by the end of the TKI project.”
Although the technology is still at an early stage, all four parties see the benefit of joining forces now. Wojciech Kozlowski, a postdoc at QuTech and responsible for one of the work packages in the TKI project: “Every day we are working on finding answers to the question of how network operators, such as KPN or SURF, can deploy a quantum network, and what sort of services they can offer their users. Although we are still in an early stage of development, we are already building the quantum internet ecosystem of the future by working with key partners. This ecosystem will prove crucial as our quantum network evolves into a fully-fledged quantum internet.”
MinacNed members showcase their company in promotional video
To showcase the partners in the nanotechnology ecosytem, MinacNed has worked together with a number of member companies to shoot a promotional video about their company. These videos are now available on the partner profile pages. The video’s give a short pitch and insight in the technology and services that our MinacNed members have to offer to you.
If you are interested to learn more about the member company, you will find the contact information the member page. The following MinacNed members have published a video:
IamFluidics
Lionix International
Surfix
VSParticle
You will find the video via the company logo, which will open a video player in a new window. All videos are produced by Studio Lek.
Key Technologies pre-registration call
Consortia including research institutes and public and private organisations can submit project proposals for fundamental or application-oriented research on innovative and groundbreaking technologies within 8 clusters of key technologies:
Purpose
The call Key Technologies calls for the development of initiatives over the full width of the KIA Key Technologies. Thus she strenghtens the technology base in the Netherlands and enables topsectors to solve societal challenges adequately. The outcome of the research is broadly applicable en has a large impact on science and/or society.
Who can apply?
Pre-proposals and full proposals are submitted by the main applicant and one or more co-applicants. Besides the main and co-applicant (s), a consortium always consists of two or more co-funders. In addition, other private and / or public organisations can participate in the consortium as collaborating partners. All participants must play an active role in the formulation of the research questions and the design and realisation of the project.
More information about specific conditions regarding who can apply can be found in section 3.1 of the call for proposals.
What to apply for?
A budget of 11 million euros is available for this call for proposals. Funding can be requested for research proposals with a total budget of at least 750,000 euros and at most 2,500,000 euros. NWO will fund a maximum of 70% of the total project budget; the rest of the funding must be contributed by co-funding. Co-funding may be provided in-cash or in-kind, but at least half of the amount must be in-cash. At least 50% of the total co-funding must be from private sources. More information about the conditions for co-funding can be found in section 3.5.2 of the call for proposals.
For this call the following modules can be applied for:
The maximum duration of a project is six years.
When to apply
Read more at NWO KIC
New MinacNed Board with ambition for growth and more opportunities for MinacNed community
MinacNed has a new board overseeing all activities, with a new chair and vice chair who are both ambitious to see the MinacNed community grow and collaborate more. At the General Assembly meeting on May 26, the new MinacNed board was presented to the MinacNed members.
New chair and vice chair
Frank van de Scheur, Head of MEMS & Micro Devices at Philips has taken up the role of chairman of the board. Frank van de Scheur sees MinacNed becoming the recognized association in the Netherlands for all companies, institutes and universities that are active in the field of Microsystems and Nanotechnology.
The board members all work in close collaboration and the new vice chair Hans Dijk, CCO at Surfix emphasizes the need for companies working in the micro and nano industry to collaborate with each other and meet at MinacNed. Hans Dijk: “I hope to be able to play a role in getting more companies actively involved in our association.”
Knowledge platform on micro and nano technology
The members of the MinacNed board are from both industry and academia, and each brings a large network and vast experience with them. The new board continues the work of the MinacNed board up to now: to build new partnerships, to grow the number of members and to seek international collaborations to make groundbreaking projects possible.
The knowledge shared among the board members is an important asset that is available for members in the MinacNed community. Urs Staufer, board member and professor at TU Delft said: “MinacNed must be a forum to share the view on future developments and needs in Micro and Nano Technology, and a platform to find partners for implementing these visions.”
Changes in the board
Hans Dijk, CCO at Surfix and Thies Oosterwijk, Business manager at TMC Nanotechnology have joined the MinacNed board to bring their experience, network and ambition to the team. On the new webpage with the Board member profiles you will find a short resume and the board members ambition for the MinacNed community.
Two board members have resigned from their position. The board thanks Ronny van ‘t Oever CEO at Micronit and Han Gardeniers, professor at the University of Twente for their work and effort as board members. Former chairman Ronny van ‘t Oever has expressed his intention to stay involved in the MinacNed community.
Overview of the MinacNed board.