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Contact /Niels Krol Datum /

F.L.T.R. Chris van Voorden, Director Foreign Investments InnovationQuarter, Chris Heunis, Managing Director CampusKey Europe, Paul Dirkse, Deputy Mayor of Leiden, Leon Howell, Managing Director CampusKey SA, Neno Haasbroek, Co-Founder CampusKey, Niels Krol, Account Manager InnovationQuarter, Antoin van Rensburg, Co-Founder CampusKey (Foto © Daniel Verkijk)

Expanding to Europe

Since the start of CampusKey in 2012, they have successfully developed student housing facilities in six university cities and currently house 3749 students. Their main focus will be on international students and the concept therefore includes a couple of distinctive features that sets this formula apart from others.

There is a strong focus on safety and security within the building, using finger recognition technology to enter the premises and rooms. They also offer 24-hour counselling and mentoring services to students who are in immediate need for help or guidance, far away from family and friends. The main purpose of CampusKey is to create ‘a home away from home’, which means activities for residents are organized on a weekly base, so students can meet up, interact and make new friends.

Leiden is not only relevant as a student city, but it also has quick access to Schiphol Airport, with the rest of Europe in easy reach.- Chris Heunis, Managing Director of CampusKey Europe

CampusKey was assisted in setting up the Dutch operations in Leiden by the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency, InnovationQuarter and the City of Leiden.

Team CampusKey: Chris Heunis, Leon Howell, Neno Haasbroek and Antoin van Rensburg (Foto © Daniel Verkijk)

CampusKey Co-Founder Neno Haasbroek: “As the South African market is now well served by our concept, we decided last year that it would be interesting to look into expanding to the European market. Our preliminary research was very promising and we believe there is a lot of potential in Europe, especially when you look at the tremendous increase of foreign students coming to Europe.”

Deputy Mayor of Leiden, Paul Dirkse is happy and proud that yet another South African company has chosen Leiden for the location of their European headquarters: “Being the oldest university city in The Netherlands and one of the oldest in Europe, I can fully understand their decision to locate to Leiden! I’m sure the expertise CampusKey has built up over the years in South Africa in creating ‘a home away from home’ will be of added value for students and student cities throughout Europe.”

Besides historical ties and a similar language, The Netherlands was especially chosen for its comparable business mentality, which is, like in South Africa, also based on cooperation, openness and straightforwardness, says Chris Heunis, Managing Director of CampusKey Europe: “Leiden is not only relevant as a student city, but it also has quick access to Schiphol Airport, with the rest of Europe in easy reach”.

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Contact /Tanja Baars Datum /

Challenging

ArianeGroup, which has the design authority and industrial lead for the Ariane 6 launcher development and operation on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA), appointed Airbus Netherlands partner for the development and production of the Ariane 6 Vulcain Aft Bay (VUAB) and the Vinci Thrust Frame (VITF) in June 2017. It led to the decision to build a dedicated industry 4.0 facility for the development and production of the Ariane 6 and also Vega-C structures. “Within 10 months, our state-of-the-art assembly facility has been built and equipped with innovative solutions, like a robotised production line and visualisation tools,” says Arnaud de Jong, managing director of Airbus Netherlands, “The smart factory is now fully ready to fulfil its challenging task and today’s opening is the crowning glory of a huge team effort. An effort which illustrates the clear mind-set to produce the new Ariane 6 engine frames in the most cost- and time-efficient way.”

InnovationQuarter has been involved in the process of finding a suitable location for the new Airbus production facility. “We are most happy with the expansion of Airbus,” says Niels Krol, senior accountmanager (Aero)space at InnovationQuarter. “It means a significant reinforcement for the space cluster in our region.”

Optimise logistics and assembly

To address the challenging commercial set-up of the European Ariane 6 programme, the Dutch space company Airbus chose a development and industrialisation approach that strikes a balance between heritage and the needed innovative green fields approach. This led to two key decisions to optimise the logistics and the assembly line:

  • The new site has a direct connection to the Rotterdam sea port, enabling safe and rapid transport of the large VUAB structure (5.4m diameter, 5.2m high) to ArianeGroup in Les Mureaux, France, for final assembly with the Ariane 6 launcher. The VITF engine frame will be transported to Bremen by road. Final stop for both engine frames is the European launch site Kourou in French Guyana.
  • The extended enterprise philosophy used by ArianeGroup towards its first tier partners was translated by Airbus Netherlands to its own supply chain. To gain maximum benefit, the main suppliers (and their machining facilities) are being integrated in the dedicated Ariane 6 facility, working as a shop-in-shop.

Industry 4.0

The facility is equipped with ‘Industry 4.0’ robotisation and automation capabilities, in order to be prepared for the anticipated production rates up to 24 engine frames (12 VUAB’s and 12 VITF’s) per year. Key elements of the industrialisation approach are:

  • Decision to have engineering and production go hand-in-hand;
  • Handling and assembly jig & tool concept based on a “flow process” instead of rigid and fixed-placed elements;
  • Implementation of smart manufacturing principles, including factory automation, implementation of a paperless factory and the application of lean flow principles.

 

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Contact /Niels Krol Datum /

Johnson & Johnson Unveils New Vaccines Launch Facility in Holland

Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson officially opened its state-of-the-art vaccines launch facility in Leiden, the Netherlands. The new facility represents a significant investment by the company in novel vaccines development, global health and security, and pandemic preparedness efforts. In addition, the facility features innovative technological and manufacturing platforms to support the large-scale production of vaccines for clinical trials and global launch.

Janssen’s launch facility is the latest example of the company’s leadership in pharmaceutical R&D in the Netherlands. The company will utilize a number of cutting-edge research and development (R&D) platforms at the vaccines launch facility, including Janssen’s proprietary AdVac® viral vector vaccines technology and the company’s PER.C6® manufacturing platform.

“This new center represents a significant commitment by Johnson & Johnson in our mission to change the trajectory of human health,” said Johan Van Hoof, M.D., Global Therapeutic Area Head IDV, Vaccines, Janssen Pharmaceuticals R&D and Managing Director, Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V.

By investing locally, we hope to protect globally by ensuring that innovative and effective vaccines become available to the people that need them wherever they may live.

Europe’s Leading Hub for R&D Innovation

The Netherlands’ world-class research institutes, supportive R&D tax credits and strategic partnerships between science, industry and government, make it a renowned hub for R&D. Furthermore, Holland is home to R&D operations of major companies like Philips, IBM and MSD. Janssen will utilize Holland’s unmatched technology infrastructure, multilingual workforce and innovative ecosystem to improve global health and create new vaccines.

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Contact /Anne de Vries Datum /

Boston Rotterdam market expansion program

The launch of the BOSteRDAM follows the MoU Greentown Labs and InnovationQuarter signed in November 2017. Through the BOSteRDAM Cleantech Link, both organizations will closely support entrepreneurs in gaining access to leading cleantech clusters overseas by drafting a tailor-made two-week program for each company. The program will provide startups with full immersion in the overseas ecosystem, including local market knowledge, introductions to companies, government organizations and strategic partners, networking opportunities and a temporary office space, facilitate the realization of a successful foreign market entry strategy. BOSteRDAM is open to startups, scale-ups and corporates, and runs until July 2019.

The BOSteRDAM cleantech link was launched during an offshore wind mission of Dutch entrepreneurs to Boston. ’The offshore wind delegation took a tour of Greentown Labs and spent time with Josh Groleau of Pecos Wind Power and Ravi Paintal of Autonomous Marine Systems. Given the two companies’ areas of expertise and the wind markets they’re pursuing, the delegation enjoyed spending time with the entrepreneurs at Greentown Labs!

The delegation also heard from Professor Eric Hines of Tufts University, who talked about the general Massachusetts offshore wind ecosystem and the leadership of academia in the rising industry.

Greentown Labs invited Saitec, a startup from Spain working on floating offshore wind in Massachusetts, to present about their work and how they’ve entered the New England market.

Boston Rotterdam Cleantech Link market expansion program

Finally, Greentown Labs’ Executive Vice President Mark Vasu, and InnovationQuarter’s Senior Account Manager, Loek Becker Hoff, presented the BOSteRDAM program to the delegation and members of the Greentown community.

Loek met with several member companies at Greentown Labs and the rest of the delegation continued on to the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal. Palmos and Root AI, both Greentown Labs member companies, visited the Netherlands over the summer and were able to reconnect with Loek. OffGridBox and Next Rung Technology spent time discussing their European expansion strategies with Loek.

Dr. Emily Reichert, CEO of Greentown Labs, shares “Greentown Labs is eager to welcome startups from the Netherlands to our cleantech community. We’re excited to provide them with the resources and network they need to expand their operations in the United States and we see great synergies between our ecosystem and InnovationQuarter. Some of our entrepreneurs have already taken advantage of the wide array of resources and connections InnovationQuarter has, and we’re exited to see many more utilize the BOSteRDAM cleantech link!”

Rinke Zonneveld, Director of InnovationQuarter is very happy with the program, “The greater Rotterdam area houses amongst others the largest port of Europe, one of the best tech incubators in Europe, the first CIC operations overseas and loads of opportunities in the field of energy transition, circular economy and high-tech solutions for a sustainable future. More over The Netherlands is the ideal stepping stone for American entrepreneurs who want to do business in Europe. We are ready to welcome”.

BOSteRDAM cleantech link is supported by YES!Delft, Buccaneer, CIC, ACTION Innovation Network and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.

Interested in learning more?

Visit the BOSteRDAM website or contact Anne de Vries (+31 6 2254 6065 / anne.devries@innovationquarter.nl), Project Associate Internationalisation at InnovationQuarter, or Benny Kim (bkim@greentownlabs.com), International Partnerships Fellow at Greentown Labs.

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Contact /Chris van Voorden Datum /

Scheltema’s warm industrial look of dark-brown wood and faded steel gave the atmosphere at LINQ an informal and friendly character. Attending entrepreneurs were paired into smaller groups with other entrepreneurs, so that getting in touch with peers and potential partners was easier. The groups then received demonstrations of eight of West Holland’s cutting-edge technologies on the innovation floor:

  • TWNKLS, a known name even in Silicon circles, presented the world’s most successful non-game augmented reality app. With a toy car they demonstrated how their technology helps Lamborgini mechanics to decompose the different internal parts of the car in order to better repair possible defects. And how their app helps IKEA customer to see how the chair they want to buy fits into their home before buying.
  • MomoMedical demonstrated their new hospital bed with smart sensors that registers how long people have laid in the same position and whether they have to be turned over.
  • On the innovation floor was also Qlayer’s disruptive coating technique with their autonomous painting robot creating microstructured coatings in a locally protected environment.
  • Then there was Tessa, a robot by Tinybots. Tessa helps people with difficulties concerning structure and routine tasks (for instance people with dementia) by structuring their day.
  • Berry Sanders from Fleet Space Technologies explained how their plug and play satellite system allows people to receive sensor data from any location in the world.
  • Sybren de Jong demonstrated Tropomi to the international business community. Tropomi is a Dutch climate and air pollution measuring satellite, co-developed by Airbus.
  • LeydenJar Technologies demonstrated their 100% silicon anode rolls that boost the energy density of Li-ion battery cells with up to 50% (1.200 Wh/l).

Let’s LINQ

InnovationQuarter’s mission is to strengthen the regional economy in West Holland by supporting and stimulating the innovation potential of this unique delta region. In close co-operation with all major corporations, educational and research institutions, and government organizations, we assist and support foreign companies like yours with their establishment, business expansion and relocation plans in our region.

And of course, we maintain in close contact with the 2,200 international companies that are already established here. Looking for collaborative contacts or in need of assistance? Get in touch with our team and we’ll introduce you in our extensive network.

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Contact /Niels Krol Datum /

Delft hosted General Assembly of European aerospace cluster partnership

This was a perfect opportunity to show 37 aerospace organizations from 14 different countries the unique ecosystems in Delft and the West Holland region. The EACP exchanges information and knowledge between its partners and develops long-term transnational cooperation between clusters and companies. Lots of possibilities for cooperation between West Holland and other European regions were discussed on topics like earth observation (Lazio), UAV’s (Puglia) and cabin design (Hamburg).

10 reasons why West Holland is the hotspot for Aerospace

The spectacular atrium of Westcord hotel Delft was the central venue for the GA meeting. After a day of presentations and working groups, the members enjoyed a canal tour through the city centre. Special guest at the dinner in Wijnhaven was alderman Bas Vollebregt who welcomed the guests and elaborated on the strong aerospace footprint of the city.

The following day the participants visited TU Delft incubator YES!Delft and spoke to some aeronautic start-ups and scale-ups. In the afternoon they took a look at the World Horti Centre to learn about the mutual challenges both the aerospace and the horticulture industry face like robotization, sustainability, and use of new/durable energy.

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Contact /Niels Krol Datum /
Drecht Cities International

CEO Rientz Willem Bol (left) explains Bolidt’s transition plan to international companies from the Drecht Cities region

An impulse for international interaction

In addition to a number of local executives, the group consisted mostly of directors of foreign-owned companies from the Drecht Cities region and Dutch companies with a large international footprint. The aim was to promote interaction among these companies and to improve contacts with local and regional government.

After short introductions from Drecht Cities, InnovationQuarter and Deal, the CEO of Bolidt, mr.  Rientz Willem Bol, gave an insight into the ambitious plans he is carrying out to prepare his company for the future. A four-year transition plan is currently underway and causes an notable cultural change within the company. According to Bol, the company must abandon its’ traditional ways of operating, to stay ahead of global competition. Therefore Bolidt is now focusing on a future in which co-creation, innovation and customer experience are key, with the highlight being the completion of an Experience & Innovation Center in the spring of 2019.

The enthusiasm of mr. Bol inspired and motivated some of the participants to implement his fresh ideas within their own organizations. In addition, relevant business contacts were made during the networking part afterwards.

The international ecosystem in Drecht Cities

The Drecht Cities region is home to around 150 companies that are owned by foreign multinationals. In addition, hundreds of Dutch companies from this region are active in international markets and many SMEs and startups have international ambitions. Drecht Cities, InnovationQuarter and Deal assist regional businesses with their internationalization goals, for example by organizing international trade missions. In addition, InnovationQuarter and Deal actively attract new (foreign) companies to this region in order to draw new investments and create more jobs.

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Contact /Chris van Voorden Datum /

Forbes names the Netherlands No. 3 Best Country for Business

Forbes about the Netherlands

As the sixth-largest economy in the European Union, Forbes reports: “[the Netherlands] plays an important role as a European transportation hub, with a persistently high trade surplus, stable industrial relations, and low unemployment.” Holland was also among the best countries for technology and innovation.

Inside the Ranking

Forbes determines the Best Countries for Business by rating 153 nations on 15 different factors. Those include property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, infrastructure, market size, political risk, quality of life, workforce, freedom (personal, trade and monetary), red tape and investor protection. Each category is equally weighted.

In addition to the general list, the Netherlands also ranked highly among best countries for personal freedom, technology, innovation, and property rights.

Forbes has rated the business friendliness of the world’s biggest economies annually for the past 12 years. Have a look at the full report at www.forbes.com.

 

Source / Invest in Holland