The whole world’s attention is on the success of Brainport Eindhoven. What is the secret? Someone from the Economic Board Amsterdam once paid me a compliment during a visit: ‘You all already know one another.’ That actually came about out of necessity during the crisis in the 1990s, when the ‘captains of industry’ agreed that they wanted to work together to find solutions. One of those is that you use your network in order to genuinely improve yourself, and that is what we are still doing here at the High Tech Campus Eindhoven.
Speed is essential in this world, and you need to enrich yourself with the knowledge of another. The window of opportunity comes and goes before you know it.
The coalition agreement keeps the top-sector policy in place, which is important! We form the largest top sector with high-tech systems and materials, and it is equally important that our action agenda is reflected in the government’s objectives. We have called for investment in infrastructure, education and culture, which will make the region more attractive. That affects the core of the business. Technology companies depend on new, young knowledge workers from the Netherlands and other countries. If the region fails to become more attractive, those companies will disappear or develop an ageing workforce; they will no longer be able to compete and the region will lose its economic strength.
We hope to have the definitive successor to semi-conductor technology here in the form of photonic technology, for example. In the Photon Delta, all relevant parties – the university, knowledge institutions and companies – come together, with a view to gaining the leading position and retaining it. What is just as important is that we also seek new mutual agreements for IP, since collaborative partnerships are becoming increasingly complex and more creative. Fortunately for us, we have the right service parties in the region to enable us to do this.
Frans Schmetz
Managing Director
High Tech Campus Eindhoven
