MinacNed on board as a new partner of Holland High Tech

Utrecht, February 7, 2019 – MinacNed, the trade association for micro- and nanotechnology, is joining Holland High Tech as a partner. MinacNed will help the top sector HTSM (High Tech Systems and Materials) to strengthen the nano-ecosystem in the Netherlands and put the sector on the map abroad.

MinacNed wants to actively contribute to updating and further developing the HTSM with its members roadmap Nanotechnology. Furthermore, the idea is to bring parties together to come to concrete nano applications for the social challenges that the Netherlands will face in the coming years. 'Collaboration between the different disciplines is necessary to come to real steps', says Ronny van 't Oever, chairman of MinacNed and CEO of lab-on-a-chip company Micronit. 'Without the collaboration between nanotechnology, life sciences and ICT it would have been cheap sequencing of DNA, for example, has never been possible.' MinacNed also wants to actively work with its members on the internationalisation strategy of the HTSM top sector. The majority of Dutch micro and nano companies have a sales market abroad.

Points of attention

One of the focal points is proper support from the government. 'You can already see many positive developments in that area. For example, there are successful subsidy instruments, well-running innovation programs such as NanoNextNL and innovative companies emerge as spin-offs from universities', says Van 't Oever. Improvement is still possible in creating the right balance in the supporting instruments. 'Micro- and nanotechnology are interesting at all levels, from early-phase research to end products with a business model. It is important to recognize all these phases. After all, the nano products that we now earn money with would never have existed without the investments that were made in the past.'

The infrastructure is also important. 'If you don't have an environment where you can train technicians, then there is no connection between education and the labor market.' Ronny van 't Oever therefore advocates for enough nano-labs with 'state of the art' infrastructure where early phase research can be done.

Important knowledge partner

Holland High Tech is very pleased with the new partnership with MinacNed. Dave Blank, representative from science in the top team HTSM and member of the board of Holland High Tech, says about this: 'Input from a partner like MinacNed who understands public-private collaboration from the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises and can think in economically interesting applications, is a rich addition for our top sector. It also helps in our discussions with the departments to involve an entrepreneur like Ronny van 't Oever to emphasize what the SME of The Hague needs to become more effective.'

More about MinacNed

MinacNed is a trade association with the aim of strengthening economic activity based on microsystems and nanotechnology. The members consist of research institutes, the manufacturing industry, suppliers, integrators and end users of products and services that are made possible with or use micro and/or nanotechnology. Core activities of MinacNed contribute to offering a platform for sustainable economic and social value creation and offering an ecosystem for researchers, entrepreneurs and policy makers. In addition, MinacNed organizes events for members and the annual International MicroNanoConference.

More about Holland High Tech

Holland High Tech wants to make a crucial contribution to solving social challenges and keep the Netherlands economically at the top of the world by joining forces of companies, knowledge institutions and (regional) governments. Holland High Tech organizes the programming of joint research between companies, knowledge institutions and governments (innovation), the availability of labor in science/technology (human capital) and access to knowledge and markets abroad (internationalization).