With the multi-million euro boost for chip talent, the university will be increasing the number of master’s students at four departments by about 70 percent. Beethoven is to yield a total of 1,903 extra master’s students. For the project, which will become part of the Future Chips Flagship within TU/e, the university will also hire new academic and support staff. Until 2030, 146 scientists – who are expected to supervise around 500 PhD students – and the same number of support staff are to be recruited.

Quite a challenge. Just like renewing the educational offering and strengthening the ties with the business community. A new lab building and a cleanroom will also be created. Lenaerts: “It’s a great opportunity to grow in domains that are hugely important for the Netherlands and Europe, drastically increasing our impact. And the growth driven by Beethoven, and of Future Chips in general, will enhance our national and international reputation, which will benefit everyone at TU/e.”

No ASML university

The total amount that the university will receive from the Dutch government in the context of Beethoven is 91 million euros. In this first phase (2025/2026), TU/e will receive the initial 11 million of that amount from the government. In addition, 46 million worth of co-funding from the business community will become available, of which a part will go to TU/e and the rest directly to students for internship and graduation reimbursements. The investment by ASML stems from a previously signed chip collaboration with TU/e.

This financial boost and the better aligning of education and research with the needs of the high-tech industry in the region shouldn’t be at the expense of academic independence, Lenaerts believes.

“That’s something we should closely monitor, of course. ASML is important to us, but we also have to remain realistic: look at what happened with Philips. It’s important that we don’t make ourselves dependent on one partner. We’re very strong in semiconductors, but also in materials and healthcare, for example. We’ll continue to look for partners in these areas. We aren’t ASML university, we’re TU/e. The company doesn’t set our education and research agenda, we do.”

Collaboration with education institutions

The university will also intensify its collaborations with other education institutions in the region. Lenaerts: “We often say that there’s a lot of collaboration between institutions here, but when I look at how things are in practice, I’d have to disagree. We now have the resources, so we’ve run out of excuses not to do it. We’re on the same campus, so we can really work together much more.”

For example, the university wants to actively refer students who get a negative recommendation on the continuation of their studies to Fontys and, conversely, bring students from that university of applied sciences to TU/e. In order to reduce the gap between higher professional and university education, further research is being done into setting up a bridging class, so that students can ‘taste’ both levels of education before they have to make their final choice. Lenaerts believes that TU/e ​​should take the initiative in this, because "we need all the talent we can get."

In addition, TU/e will be strengthening its collaboration with universities in and outside the Netherlands, including within the fifteen new master’s tracks to be set up with the Beethoven funds. “We’re already doing so with Optics, in collaboration with TU Delft and the University of Twente. So we’re looking into setting up joint master’s programs where students complete a portion here and a portion in, say, Leuven. Ideally, they would also do an internship at IMEC or ASML. And we’re exploring the options for organizing more guest lectures here at the university.”

Growing step by step

The commitment on the first part of the Beethoven money came faster than expected, and according to Lenaerts it shouldn’t have come much sooner, since she herself had only recently come on board with the university. "Suppose I had just started and had immediately received 90 million to grow. Then I wouldn't have known where to begin. I think it's good that we had the time to get things sorted out."

One of the elements in the plan, which was tweaked until the very last moment, is the growth figures per department. That number has been scaled down. “We’ve adjusted the numbers slightly from 2000 extra students to 1903 to keep things realistic,” says Lenaerts. “We shouldn’t promise all kinds of things that we won’t be able to deliver in the end. We really have to grow step by step. That’s how we’ve structured things.”

Recruiting students

Dutch students aren’t included in the forecast for the additional 1903 students. “I don’t know how many more we can recruit within the Netherlands, so the biggest growth will come from international students,” says Lenaerts. The plans are primarily focused on an international recruitment campaign that has yet to be realized, partly with the three other Beethoven universities in Delft, Twente, and Groningen, with each one doing its own branding.

The university will continue to focus on recruiting minority groups in the technology sector. “What I always notice and am very surprised about is that there are still so few women in the programs. I still see potential there, but I’m not getting my hopes up too much because of the declining demographics.”

“We also want to ensure that more bachelor’s students also do their master’s here,” says Lenaerts. “We think that if we can give students that Brainport feeling, they might be more inclined to stay here. What can help is having them do an internship or master's thesis with a company from the region and inviting speakers from the industry who aren’t purely academic.”

Facilities

The large increase of master’s students at four departments will also require more facilities. The plans therefore incorporate a new lab building and a cleanroom. The preparation and designing phases will start in 2025, with construction to begin in 2026 and 2027. To accommodate growth until then, a ‘shifting program’ will take place to have extra room in the existing buildings available for the new students and researchers as early as next year.

“Our intention for the cleanroom is to give every student who comes here and wants to do something with semicon an experience in the lab. That’s a very nice proposition, because other universities can’t do that. That way students can really feel what a job in semicon is like. Students shouldn’t just sit in a lecture theater, but make that connection with real life through the companies and partnerships that are there.”

Recruiting personnel

In addition to the students, 146 members of academic staff and an equal number of support staff are to be recruited. It’s a one-to-one ratio in order to prevent the already high workload from increasing further, with the university looking strategically at what’s needed within the Future Chips Flagship.

Lenaerts: “We have competencies in which we excel – anything to do with materials for example – but we have to turn those materials into a process to be able to use them in an industry setting. If we see that we don’t have a certain competency within that process, we’ll look for it. So we want to recruit to boost our own research strengths.”

Evaluation

Now that things have gotten underway, an evaluation of the targets will take place in two years. This is when the university will get the remaining portion of the money for the subsequent period (2027-2028). The key performance indicators (KPIs) for this are yet to be determined, says Lenaerts. “A program agency will be set up at Brainport, which will help us determine those KPIs. Because now is the time to get concrete about things.”

Those KPIs will eventually be followed up by the Platform Talent voor Technologie, which is responsible for the evaluation of Project Beethoven at the national level. The university itself will have an internal evaluation after a year. “It’s something unique for us as well, so there are a lot of uncertainties we have to deal with. It’s kind of like a co-development project.”

Honest story

Lenaerts emphasizes that the different departments will get the honest story every step of the way. “Suppose one department isn’t reaching the targets and another one is, then it’s up to us to say: either make extra efforts for recruitment, or roll things over to another department. Together with the other parties within Beethoven and the Brainport region, we’ve also committed ourselves to being open and honest if we don’t reach our targets. That won’t be the end of the world; it will be for good reason. Then we have to see how we can compensate. If we don’t have that flexibility, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot, because as education institutions in Brainport we’re jointly facing an immense challenge, also when it comes to lifelong development.”

The rector magnificus thinks the entire university should benefit from the growth. Throughout the interview, she stresses the importance of this ‘one TU/e story’, as she calls it herself. “At the strategy day with the deans I also pointed out that we really are one TU/e. Everyone must be able to achieve personal growth at the university. That’s why we’re also looking at more collaboration partners in other areas, such as health. I don’t like it when elitist clubs are formed and people are left behind; I won’t stand for that. Someone who conducts research in chemistry or logistics should also get the chance to develop themselves.”