NXP and IBM launch a world premier in mileage pricing

On Thursday 25 June, NXP and IBM started the first regional mileage pricing field test. The companies want to show that the technology that will enable mileage pricing is ready for application in passenger cars. The prototype is a world premier in mileage pricing. Now, for the first time, it is possible to put a price on a stretch of road covered on the basis of road type, time and the eco characteristics of the vehicle and to show it to the driver of the vehicle in an easy-to-read form. NXP and IBM are testing the system with a total of 50 employees, all of whom work at High Tech Campus Eindhoven.
Each participant will have an on-board unit in his car which registers and prices all trips for a period of six months. Users can easily install the system themselves. It consists of a chip that is connected wirelessly to a non-removable sticker on the windscreen. This will ensure that the cars are driven only with the mileage pricing unit on board. The participants can also check the route they have driven, how much the journey cost and the extent to which their choice of route resulted in lower costs by logging onto a secure website. This will encourage participants to set off after the rush hour or to select a cheaper route. The aim of the test is to show the practicality of the system and to create awareness among the participants of their travelling behaviour. The test was set up in close consultation with the regional authorities. Beter Bereikbaar Zuidoost-Brabant [Better access to Southeast Brabant], Samenwerkingsverband Regio Eindhoven [Eindhoven Regional Cooperative], the Ministry of Transport and Public Works and the Province of Noord-Brabant are supporting the various test projects in the areas where public services and the business world meet. The partners are making every effort to get public services and governments to collaborate when mileage pricing is introduced.

Working with single-atom layers

Holst Centre, MiPlaza and ASM are joining forces in a research project involving the application of materials on an atomic scale, Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD).
Such atomic layers may have a key role in future products. The system can apply layers with the thickness – or rather thinness – of a single or a few atoms. ALD is already a proven technology in the manufacturing of increasingly smaller transistors on computer chips. The Holst Centre is now introducing the ALD system to entirely different applications. For instance, it is possible to use the system to create functional layers in sensors that can detect gasses. By doing this at atomic level, it is possible to make highly sensitive sensors, which also use so little electricity that they can be incorporated almost anywhere. If this proves to be successful, they may be used in smart packaging to detect food freshness – to mention just one of the many possible applications. For ASM, this application area may open up a new market for their advanced systems. The company will use the research results to further refine the ALD system. MiPlaza provides the research space and will promote the system in its own network. This will ensure maximum utilisation and adds to MiPlaza’s portfolio in the nano and pico technology domain. The open innovation model that Holst Centre is using here proves its efficiency.
It is grafted on the IMEC model in Louvain. ASM has already been part of the IMEC network that centres on chip process technology for many years. MiPlaza is also fully involved in the flexible model of sharing a high-tech infrastructure and knowledge to achieve new research results more quickly. It is no coincidence that Holst Centre and MiPlaza are neighbours at High Tech Campus Eindhoven and it certainly makes collaboration easier.

Jaap Lombaers joins the board of the OEA

As of 22 June, Jaap Lombaers, Managing Director of Holst Centre, has joined the board of the Organic Electronics Association (OEA). He was installed as a member of the board for a period of two years. The OEA is a working group of the VDMA, the Federation of German Engineers. The working group unites more than 100 prominent organisations from industry, research and academia across the world, which together mark out the entire organic electronics process chain, from materials to applications.

Arthur Pouwels new director of DSP Valley Nederland

Because the DSP Valley Nederland network is growing so strongly in the Netherlands, the company has appointed Arthur Pouwels as director. In his job as a project leader at Philips Applied Technologies, Mr Pouwels gained ample experience with radar systems, GSM networks, mobile displays, and audio/video signal processing. Pouwels will be working on expanding and strengthening the DSP Valley network from his office in building 5 on High Tech Campus Eindhoven.

Encage moves from Bèta building to landscape villa

Encage has moved from the Bèta building to the landscape villa on the opposite side of the pond (since 1 July). Despite the economic downturn, Encage has grown substantially over the past year in the business areas Health (I-TV), Education (E-learning), Libraries (Visual experience) and Business (Online). As a result, the existing available space in the Bèta building has become too cramped. Encage also wants to combine its work environment with its demo environment. The old address had excellent provisions for meetings, but it was difficult to demonstrate such activities as I-TV, vidiwall, narrowcasting, etcetera. Encage employs eight people, five of whom regularly work at the Campus. The new address: High Tech Campus 69.

Live from Cambridge Campus

New to the Campus Story series, this time in E-magine not an inside story, but an outside story. We spoke to Michael Burcher, who works at the Cambridge Science Park (UK) and visited High Tech Campus Eindhoven quite a few times. Michael shares his view with us on his working environment and ours.

Michael Burcher works as senior scientist at the Philips Research laboratories in Cambridge. At the moment he is working on two projects: a DNA sequencing project and a portable blood analysis tool. Michael: “The blood test tool performs a common test. It counts different types of cells in the blood to do analysis on the effectiveness of chemo therapy for example. As for today patients must travel to a hospital to take the test. We are developing the test as a portable device, which offers patients in a weak condition the possibility to perform the test at home. Furthermore very little blood is needed. While the common test takes several tubes of blood, our device works with just a drop.

Although I transferred to the Cambridge Science Park only last year – I have spend six years working in Philips Research Briarcliff (US) – I already had ties to the city. I studied Engineering at Cambridge University before going to Oxford for my PHD. I think this is a nice part of England (at least it is the driest). Cambridge is a small (population around 100.000), intimate and historic town – the university is celebrating its 800th anniversary this year. The Science Park is located just a couple of miles from the city centre and was built some 40 years ago. The differences with High Tech Campus Eindhoven?

I think the Campus in Eindhoven is strongly centered around Philips and I found the scale very impressive. Walking around there, especially at The Strip, you can feel the intensity of the activity. In a way the people in Eindhoven have a strong common spirit. Cambridge Science Park shows similarities: we also have start-ups, consultancies, larger high tech companies, academic institutions. There are around 100 residents, with particular strengths in biotech, diagnostics and wireless, but there is not a real equivalent focus as a whole such as Human Focused Innovation in Eindhoven. On the other hand we have strong ties with Cambridge University, conducting research at the boundaries in medicine and physics.


Open innovation is here also considered as an effective working method. Cambridge shows a strong history of networking. A big and important network is the Cambridge Sensor Network which forms a real bridge between industry and academia. So sharing knowledge, doing business together and connecting with the university makes Cambridge a great place to do research. Here at Philips Research we are actively involved in trying to build those contacts. Not only for ourselves but also for partners such as MiPlaza. Like High Tech Campus Eindhoven a lot of ideas emerge from the local area and that gives us an attractive proposition.”

High Tech Campus Eindhoven leading R&D Hotspot World Wide

The most common name for sites like High Tech Campus Eindhoven across the world is ‘Technology Park’ followed closely by ‘Science Park’. However, the names differ in certain regions or countries: in the USA they tend to speak about ‘Research Park’, the French call it ‘Technopole’ and the Dutch like names such as …Valley and …Campus. This edition of E-magine especially focuses on the phenomenon Science Park. What are these clusters of innovative organizations? Why do they emerge all over the globe? And does hotspot High Tech Campus Eindhoven have to fear competition? What can we learn from other science parks?

1 | science parks in figures

High Tech Campus Eindhoven is member of the International Association of Science Parks (IASP). Recently the IASP held a survey among its members. We collected the most interesting facts and statistics. Please read STP as Science / Technology Park.

Number of tenants

50% of STPs world wide have, as per today, 100 resident companies or less. At the other end, 20% have more than 200 companies. Middle-size STPs (those with 101 to 200 companies) represent 16% of the Parks world wide. At High Tech Campus Eindhoven over 90 tenants reside.






In Europe the percentage of STPs with less than 50 tenants is slightly superior (34%) than in the Parks worldwide (29%). For the rest, the breakdown is quite similar to the world wide situation.

Tenants' origin

Regarding the tenants' origin, 29% come from the same region as their Park, 27% from the same country and 22% from the same city. In other words, 51% of the companies located in STPs come from the same area where their Parks are located, underlining the strong local roots of STPs, which is in no way contradictory with their global vision and their important role of nodes of international networks. High Tech Campus Eindhoven shows strong similarities with the overall statistics regarding tenants' origin.






Multinational Corporation tenants

The next chart shows the situation in terms of the number of multinationals located in STPs across the world. It’s interesting to observe that 31,2% of the surveyed Parks did not answer this question, perhaps because they had doubts about the precise definition of multinational company. Several multinational corporations are (also) located at High Tech Campus Eindhoven.

Number of Employees (Parks’ population)

The next chart shows the breakdown of Parks according to the total number of people employed by the companies and institutions located in the Park. The distribution of STPs in the different segments is quite balanced. Let us point out that 30% of Parks world wide have more than 1,500 people working in them. The population of High Tech Campus Eindhoven is 7,000.

In Europe 23% of STPs have a population between 800 and 1,500 people, and 12% already have over 3,000 people.

Who owns science parks?

Public ownership (Governments and Public Administrations) of different levels - national, regional, local - are still the main engine behind STPs. In fact, 40% of STPs are owned exclusively by such public institutions. However, we notice that quite a significant number of STPs (26%) has chosen not to answer this question. This fact could be indicating that the issue of STPs ownership and governance is, in general, something complex enough as not to be encompassed by the apparently obvious dichotomy “public / private”. High Tech Campus Eindhoven is privately owned.

Main activities of Science Parks worldwide

Incubation activities

Once again we can see that business incubation is one of the main building blocks of STPs around the world: 88% of STPs have at least one incubation unit. The presence of Technology Centres (or R&D units) follows very closely, as we can find them in 83% of the Parks. It is interesting to notice that 26% of STPs include residential areas or facilities next to the usual space for businesses and research facilities. Furthermore business incubation is one of the main activities of STPs; an overwhelming 78% of Parks world wide has incubation facilities or programmes. 41% of the Parks has one or more Business Incubators run in-house, whilst 29% has Business Incubators in their premises, although not depending on the Park itself. Furthermore, 8% of Parks declare that business incubation is their main activity. High Tech Campus Eindhoven offers incubation activities.

More data is to find at the website of the International Association of Science Parks: www.iasp.ws

2 | science park facts

With a population of 7.000 researchers, developers and entrepreneurs High Tech Campus Eindhoven belongs to the 17% largest science parks in the world (in terms of population). So most science parks are smaller, but there are bigger ones. E-magine presents you a short list of large science parks and links to their websites, you would perhaps not think of in the first place. Compare:

High Tech Campus Eindhoven

Eindhoven
The Netherlands
1,000,000 m2
90 companies

High Tech Systems
Embedded Systems
Microsystems
Infotainment
Lifetech
Incubation activities
www.hightechcampus.nl

The Research Triangle Park

Raleigh, North Carolina
USA
28,328,300 m2
157 companies

Biotechnology
Environment
ICT
Media and Multimedia
Telecommunications
Life Sciences
Medical Science and Technology
Health
Pharmaceuticals
Incubation activities
www.rtp.org

Scion-DTU a/s

Hørsholm (near Copenhagen)
Denmark
1,000,000 m2
180 companies

Biotechnology
Electronics & Microelectronics
Environment
ICT
Media and Multimedia
Telecommunications
Life Sciences
Medical Science and Technology
Health
Nanotechnology
Incubation Activities
www.sciondtu.dk

Technologiepark Ostfalen

Barsleben - Magdeburg
Germany
2,850,000 m2
150 companies

Biotechnology
Education
Human Resources
ICT / Media and Multimedia
Telecommunications
Pharmaceuticals
Software
Incubation activities
www.tpo.de

Shanghai Hi-Tech Park United Development Co., Ltd.

Shanghai
China
14,300,000 m2
1200 companies

Aeronautics / Aerospace / Astronautics
Biotechnology
Electronics & Microelectronics
Materials / New Materials
Optics / Optoelectronics / Laser
Software
Incubation activities

Innovation and Economic Development Sherbrooke
(IDES: Sherbrooke Science Park)

Sherbrooke, region Montreal
Canada
1,108,000 m2
9 companies

Biotechnology
Chemistry /  Chemical Technology
Life Sciences / Medical Science and Technology / Health
Nanotechnology
Pharmaceuticals
Incubation activities
www.ides-sherbrooke.com

25 top performers in innovation included
in the programme for the first R&D Day

The first edition of the R&D Day will take place in Conference Center, The Strip on Wednesday 30 September. The event is an initiative of Technisch Weekblad, BETABANEN.nl and Bèta Publishers. More than 25 speakers will give noteworthy presentations on the developments in their fields in terms of innovation and R&D. Peter Wieringa, CEO of Philips Research, will give the keynote speech, and Frans Schmetz, managing director of High Tech Campus Eindhoven will talk about open innovation. Specialist fields such as electrical/IT, civil engineering and offshore will be discussed in parallel sessions and there will be special sessions for R&D starters.

The event is primarily aimed at managers, project leaders, engineers and researchers working on innovative programmes, R&D departments of industrial businesses, research agencies, engineering firms, and universities. The organisers are expecting some 400 visitors. They have also invited students and PhD students. A small number of companies and organisations can use the special recruitment lunch to talk to new R&D potentials. These organisations will receive details of the R&D potentials afterwards.

For further information and registration, please go to the website.

Co-creation: Fear of mass or power of mass

Wednesday 24 June the CoCreation event 2009 took place on High Tech Campus Eindhoven. It was an afternoon in which enterpreneurs, marketeers and... Click here to read the whole article (in Dutch).

Industrial politics back in fashion

Politicians must overcome their reticence and … carry out industrial politics. Otherwise vital sectors will weaken and the Netherlands will be beaten. But no politics like in the old days, says the industry. Click here for the whole article (in Dutch).