MP visits FHI company and TU Delft during Entrepreneur Day

During Entrepreneur's Day, MP Hatte van der Woude (VVD) paid a working visit to Bruker, FHI member in the Laboratory Technology sector, and TU Delft. Delft University of Technology provided insight into a number of open research projects, in which researchers use equipment from Bruker. FHI noted which bottlenecks exist that politicians could help solve.

By: Dimitri Reijerman

Van der Woude was presented by Dr. Van der Woude during the Day of the Entrepreneur, an initiative of MKB-Nederland. Amarante Böttger was shown around the research laboratories of TU Delft, including a central facility for X-ray inspection. For example, Van der Woude was shown equipment that examines the influence of hydrogen and other gases on steel. This is done using X-ray diffraction.

PFAS was also discussed. Bruker developed specialist equipment for this purpose. Marcel de Groot from Bruker: “With this device (the TimsTOF Pro 2) we have the unique ability to separate PFAS compounds, not only based on their mass-to-charge ratio (as with all mass spectrometers) but also on their shape. There are more than 5,000 PFAS compounds.” This allows researchers to classify the harmfulness and choose the best plan of action.

During a lively discussion between Dr. Böttger from TU Delft, Marcel de Groot on behalf of Bruker and Hatte van de Woude, the financing of research and the necessary infrastructure were also discussed. How can politicians ensure that the available budgets are allocated to the right place and how can the budget differences between higher education and university education be reduced? “We would like to install our mass spectrometers at several universities,” says De Groot. “in order to better prepare students for the future, but the budget for this is often lacking.”

Bruker therefore advocates reconsidering the available financing resources for 'basic research infrastructure'. Universities and colleges are increasingly having difficulty financing this. The German model could serve as an example, where the DFG strategically allocates resources centrally. Since its founding in 1956, FHI has believed that it is desirable for fundamental research in science to take place in order to provide society, the population and the economy with good support and development for the long term.

However, there are also a number of top institutes in the Netherlands where the current distribution model works well: Bruker mentions the uNMR consortium as examples, where research is conducted into state-of-the-art magnetic resonance equipment, and the Maastricht Brain Imaging Center, which works with high-quality MRI scanners and Mass spectrometers with imaging capabilities. The Solliance research organization is also innovating rapidly in the field of solar cell technology.

Looking to the future, the researchers expect exciting times ahead, with developments such as personalized medicine (precision medicine) or making cement and concrete producers more sustainable by significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions with real-time analyses. Perhaps at the next Entrepreneur's Day we can look at what has already been achieved here and how Dutch entrepreneurs and educational institutions can work together.