According to the latest report by Buck Consultants International (BCI), which provides an overview of all the campuses in the Netherlands, North Brabant is the only Dutch province with eight campuses.
High Tech Campus Eindhoven
Automotive Campus
Pivot Park
Green Chemistry Campus
One of the most striking economic features of Brabant is the number of open-innovation campuses. The fact that Brabant tops the list is hardly surprising in view of its reputation as a province where collaboration and openness are central, and where people are not afraid to experiment and try things out!
According to the latest report by Buck Consultants International (BCI), which provides an overview of all the campuses in the Netherlands, North Brabant is the only Dutch province with eight “true” campuses. This province is home to two mature campuses with a large number of research institutions and R&D companies, two growth campuses that are attracting an increasing number of researchers and companies, and four fledgling campuses, which are in the first 2 to 3 years of their development cycle.
A campus is an “accelerator for open innovation; a “habitat” for research departments and research facilities that attracts international expertise, institutions and companies. There are four key elements: a focus on R&D and/or technology-driven activities; high-quality locations and research facilities; the presence of respected knowledge institutes such as a university, university medical centre or research institute; and active, open innovation.” (Source: Buck Consultants International)
Each campus makes an essential contribution to the Dutch knowledge economy and in 2018 they were collectively good for 15,019 jobs at 439 companies, 129 of which were start-ups.
High Tech Campus Eindhoven has been listed as a mature campus for years. This is the campus that employs the most people in the whole country - 12,000 people work here for 170 companies. It is “the smartest square kilometre in Europe” and home to some very significant multinationals, such as Philips, ASML, NXP and IBM to name just a few.
After being classified as a developing campus for several years, the TU/e Campus, also in Eindhoven, has now succeeded in establishing itself as one of the 10 mature campuses in the Netherlands. Moreover, it is the campus with the largest number of start-ups in 2018 - no less than 77!
The High Tech Automotive Campus in Helmond is a growth campus with a rapidly growing number of companies: 42 in 2018, compared to 33 in 2014. The campus is a meeting place for companies, knowledge institutes, teaching establishments, private and public research institutions and test centres that are active in the field of automotive technology and smart mobility.
Pivot Park - Oss is a growth campus for open innovation in life sciences. It offers companies a high-end pharmaceutical R&D infrastructure and opportunities for accelerating and expanding the development of new drugs. The 50 companies, of which 20 are start-ups, and 550 employees on the campus make it a hotspot of pharmaceutical research.
Even though the Brainport Industries Campus in Eindhoven has only just opened, it already figures on BCI's list of leading campuses. The campus is a working and learning environment for the next generation in high tech production (“Industry 4.0”). It is developing into an innovation and competitiveness centre in high tech production. Education has also been considered (Summa College) and the students use the machines operated by the companies located on the campus.
Gate2 Aeroparc - Gilze-Rijen is a new start-up campus on BCI's list. Originally aimed at aviation and maintenance, it is now a forerunner in the smart industries sector. It includes a wide range of smart technologies and applications such as pilot training, big data, 3D printing, sensor technology, adaptive robots, augmented & virtual reality and interactive avatars.
Green Chemistry Campus - Bergen op Zoom is a start-up campus that offers bio-based companies an accelerated growth path on the interface between agriculture and chemistry. This is where entrepreneurs, governments and knowledge institutions collaborate in order to scale up the use of new and sustainable materials and chemicals for the packaging industry and other areas of application.
Grow Campus - 's-Hertogenbosch is a start-up campus that offers companies, start-up businesses and entrepreneurs in the agribusiness sector opportunities to strengthen or develop their position in agriculture and food.
The Automotive Campus in Helmond is a breeding ground for innovations in mobility. Edwin Heesakkers of Altran tells us more about this tech hotspot.
New medicines? Many of them come from Oss in Brabant. Pivot Park Oss focuses exclusively on life sciences and innovation in pharmaceuticals.
Read how inventors are working to create a sustainable economy by using our waste mountain to produce renewable raw materials.
See also the series of articles on Innovation Origins.
Bringing prosperity to poor, dry countries. Reducing CO₂ emissions and solving the water problem. Pieter Hoff, from Groasis, does this with his ‘intelligent’ bucket, a novel capillary water transport system. “We grow trees in areas where everybody has failed in the past.”
Light is a recurrent theme in Brabant's business landscape. Philips, of course, is the best-known example, but you can trace a direct line of development between the CD, DVD and Blu-ray and today's most complex photonics applications. Such as Morphotonics in Veldhoven.
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