Vermelding onderdeel organisatie

April 21, 2023

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UNIVERCITY MECINE CONFERENCEEvora, Portugal, 16-19 March 2011

The City of Delft, Delft University of Technology and Challenges of a Closer

Collaboration

Marina van Geenhuizen*

*Professor at the Faculty of Technology Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands; e-mail: m.s.vangeenhuizen@tudelft.nl

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Structure

• Introduction

• City of Delft: Facts as a Knowledge City

• TU Delft: Statistics, Strategy and Collaboration

• Valorization: Obstacles, Policy Advice, ‘Living Labs’

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Delft: facts as a knowledge city (1)

• Population size (municipality): 97,000. Adjacent are two large city agglomerations (The Hague and Rotterdam, with almost 500,000 to 600,000 inhabitants at municipal level)

• Delft’s economy is a service economy with a relatively strong presence of non-commercial services (40% of employment, 32% nationally)

• A comparison on performance indicators with eight small university cities in 2006/7 (Eindhoven, Cambridge, Oxford, Grenoble, Lausanne, Leuven, and Lund), learns:

- a high GDP (PPP) per capita (region) (2nd) - a small share of knowledge-intensive employment (region) (7th) - a large share of students per 1.000 inhabitants (city): 164 (3rd) - a small amount of patent applications (region) (5th) - a low share of unemployment (region): 3rd place (ascending) - rank Innovation Scoreboard (regions): rather high (38 out of 208)

Delft: facts as a knowledge city (2)

• A comparison on some enabling factors with eight small university cities in 2006/7 (Eindhoven, Cambridge, Oxford, Grenoble, Lausanne, Leuven, and Lund) in 2006/7 learns:

- HRST (% of active population) in region: high (3rd) - Patent applications/million inhabitants in region: low (5th) - University share of publications with business partners: high (2nd) - Rank on attractiveness for technical FDI (city): low (25 out of 30)

• To accommodate growth (city-university collaboration): - 120 hectare business area (Science Park Technopolis) of which 30 hectare is in use - Incubator centre YES!Delft (+/- 50 spin-offs in 5 years)

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TU Delft in 2010

• Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) is - with more than 16,400 bachelor and master students and 4,500 employees - the largest University of Technology in the Netherlands (NL).

• Bachelor and master courses are provided by all eight faculties: 1) Architecture2) Civil Engineering and Geosciences3) Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science4) Industrial Design Engineering 5) Aerospace Engineering6) Technology Policy and Management7) Applied Science8) Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering.

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TU Delft in 2010 (2)

• TU Delft has adopted three missions: education, research, and knowledge valorisation. The latter is relatively new and materialised in a new institute, named Valorisation Centre.

• Valorisation of TU Delft knowledge is enhanced through participation in regional ‘testbeds’ or ‘living labs’ • Medical Delta (with cities and universities in Rotterdam and

Leiden, small and large firms, hospitals)• Greenport network (linked with nearby horticulture cluster)• Clean Tech Delta (with various nearby cities, firms and

educational institutes)

These research networks illustrate an increased attention of TU Delft for the regional and local economy and for important functions it can perform.

General contribution of university to city

• Producing young up-to-date knowledge workers• Producing new knowledge and knowledge spillovers• Producing entrepreneurial activity

• Active role in cluster formation in the city/region• Active role in cluster policy in the region (aligning

university research programs with cluster policy)• Participation in local culture, societal problems and

governance• Aligning of own planning (campus) with planning of the

city (physical and functional integration)

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Factors that hamper university-city collaboration and mutual benefits

(OECD)• Fragmented governance (territorial) • Small city facing limited resources• Lack of match between university research and economic

structure of region • Lack of regional plan for collaboration and lack of

coordination between local universities• Limited absorptive capacity of business world in city/region• Limited absorptive capacity of city/regional authority• Global orientation of university• Dense regional networks with a limited capacity-building

and innovation

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Results of valorization

• Type of research: project level, explorative

• Brief outcomes on obstacles to success ( reaching market) in valorization

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Hampering factors (project level) (1)

Type of factors Projects 1995-97 Projects 2000-02Abs. % Abs. %

InternalProfile of invention  7 11.1%  3 8.1%

*Project team and organization at university

 18 28.6%   8 21.6%

TotalsTotals 25 39.7%25 39.7% 11 29.7%11 29.7%

Interaction with business worldEmerging high risk and high costs  4 6.3%   -

*Change in strategy of cooperating firm  4 6.3%   4 10.8%

Emerging new technology 2 3.2% -

Opportunistic behavior(cooperating firm and investment company)

 2 3.2%   1 2.7%

TotalsTotals 12 19%12 19% 5 13.5%5 13.5%

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Hampering factors (project level) (2)

Type of factors Projects 1995-97 Projects 2000-02

Abs. % Abs. %

RegionalBusiness ecosystem  2 3.2%  3 8.1%

*Financial incentives 7 11.1%   4 10.8%

Labor market 4 6.3%   2 5.4%

Business accommodation 4 6.3%   3 8.1%

Remaining region 1 1.6% 2 5.4%

TotalsTotals 18 28.5%18 28.5% 14 37.8%14 37.8%

National

Regulation (e.g. prohibition of certain tests)

 4 6.3%   1 2.7%

Culture/attitude (entrepreneurship, valorization)

3 4.8%   4 10.8%

Remaining national system 1 1.6% 2 5.4%

TotalsTotals 8 12.7%8 12.7% 7 18.9%7 18.9%

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Policy suggestions relevant to city/region

Support improving alignment between university and business: co-finance academic positions that help bridging the gap (engineering type of jobs; chair in valorisation, etc.). ‘Living labs’?

Improve ‘financial incentives’: enhance the provision of location subsidies (core region) to create a level-playing field with other regions. Also, improve access to sufficient amounts of venture capital by a local/regional consortium (e.g. LSFA). ‘Living labs’?

Increase ‘critical mass’ (non-core): support the establishment of alliances with other universities (of applied sciences) in the region and abroad (emerging economies) and attract R&D departments from abroad; the last requires to create a higher quality of life. ‘Living labs’?

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‘Living labs’ as a new concept and tool

Aim: to speed up valorization and do it better (through early customer relations)

•Method: experiments in real life environments (e.g. 24 hours around the clock to interactively develop, validate and test innovations) in network configurations of partners•Technology areas: healthcare, sustainable architecture, local safety, telecom and multimedia, etc.•Partners: universities, city governments, large firms, non-profit organizations; coverage: local and Europe (connected ‘living labs’)•Current situation: ’mushrooming’; fluidity in aims, organization and networks; mainly customer-driven innovations

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Potential role of ‘living labs’ (1)

Increase of speed and success of valorization:-Early interaction with customers-Synergy and serendipity from variety of partners-Potential fueling of venture funds by different partners (like in Amsterdam, life sciences)-Potential for new models of financing in co-design relations

Smoothen university-industry relations:-Improvement of alignment-Reduction of uncertainty-Increase of knowledge at university on firm behavior and customers

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Potential role of ‘living labs’ (2)

‘Critical mass’ (regions outside economic core)-Increase of critical mass in co-design, validation and testing due to connecting regional ‘living labs’ nationally and internationally.

However: question marks ……Fluidity in concept and practiceMainly user-driven innovationsToo young to be properly evaluated

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Thank your for your attention!

Questions ?

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Statistics TU Delft 2008/9Nr of bachelor courses: 14Nr of master courses: 41Nr of students: 15,320Of which from abroad: 2,110Academic staff: 2,760 (214 professors)

1st income source: 369,3 (million Euro)2nd 30,33rd 99,5 (20%)

Nr of patent applications 35 (TUD as main applicant)

Nr of spin-offs hosted in Yes!Delft 40 (founded in previous years)

Graduate retention in urban region +/- 30%Graduate retention in South-Holland +/- 50%

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Main Research Strategy

• Research at TU Delft has a focus on solving societal problems and on underlying fundamental sciences.

• The large societal problems on which TU Delft focuses its research since 2008 are: Energy; Environment; Health; and Infrastructures and Mobility. These are the so-called Delft Research Initiatives.

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TU Delft Exchange and Collaboration

• High priority to European exchange and co-operation, through membership of the IDEA League, including Imperial College of Science & Technology in London; Federal Technical University of Zurich; Technical University of Aachen; and Paris Tech (collaboration in education and research).

• Participates in the European Leuven-network including a limited number of important universities of technology; the main aim is exchange of students and enhancing contact between faculties. Aside from this, TU Delft employs bilateral agreements with many (technical) universities across the world.

• Is member of the European University Association (EUA), the highest European organisation for the higher education community. The EUA stimulates a coherent system in European education and research.

• In the Netherlands, TU Delft participates in the 3TU federation. This federation aims to increase the role of the three technical universities in the knowledge economy through extended collaboration.

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The City of Delft as a Knowledge City

• Population size (municipality): 95,400, but two large city agglomerations (The Hague and Rotterdam) within 10 km distance.

• Number of students (per 1.000 inhabitants): 164

• Employment in large knowledge institutes (>500 fte): 6,800 fte

• High knowledge intensity of economy (rank 1-5 in NL) due to:-Educational level in manufacturing-Educational level and number of knowledge workers in innovative services-Relative presence of creative services-Number of start-ups in ICT

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Motivation of Participation in University-City Networks

Our awareness of the importance of the city-university relationship and our wish/willingness to further investigate this relationship (in the context of the knowledge economy).

The policy wish to increase cooperation between university cities in Europe. Points of departure given the city profile of Delft may include: technology and innovation, water management and delta-technology, sustainable energy/climate change, historical city centre and cultural heritage.

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Thank you