‘Carrying out internationally leading and socially relevant technical-scientific research’

Technological development is the driving force behind economic growth and prosperity. There are major technological challenges in the fields of safety, health, energy, water, food, mobility and sustainability. Through mutual coordination and cooperation, the technical universities of the Netherlands can succeed in putting the Netherlands on the map, as was shown, for example, by the environmental analyses carried out by the 3TU Centres of Excellence. The three technical universities will therefore, along with government and the business community, continue to invest in pooling excellent research concerning social themes.

Successful agreements have been reached within the 3TU Centres of Excellence on the gradual concentration of the shared fields of each university’s critical research and new chairs have been created on the basis of assessment. The initiative which the Federation of Technical Universities (3TU) embarked on with the Centres of Excellence has also been emulated by other disciplines. Recently, new proposals from bottom-up were put forward for applied mathematics, ethics and construction (AMI, E&T and Construction).

This bottom-up approach demonstrates that a step toward joint agreement and consolidation within a greater number of fields is a welcome development. A stronger coalescence of the research to well chosen themes is needed and does indeed show results.

In order to assess collaborative initiatives, a ‘new initiatives policy framework’ has been developed which has since been implemented.

In regard to the composition and scope of the entire 3TU research portfolio, a number of strategic starting points are being factored in, namely: a good balance of initiatives throughout the entire knowledge chain, from fundamental research and designing/construction to the application (implementation) of the knowledge and valorisation; alignment to (changing) social issues and needs by means of contributing to the key areas and the social innovation agendas.

The objectives of 3TU are to expand participation in national (and international) research and innovative programmes and aim for more intensive cooperation with other research institutions such as the Great Technological Institutes (GTI) and TNO. It is moreover essential that where research infrastructure is concerned, the three technical universities are leading competitive national (and international) players.