The announcement has finally been made: the Beethoven funds will be allocated, the ministers involved write in a letter to Parliament regarding the National Reinforcement Plan for Microchip Talent. This does not mean that The Hague will transfer the entire sum – estimated at a total of over 90 million euros for TU/e – to the university’s bank account all at once. Instead, ministers Beljaarts (Economic Affairs) and Bruins (Education, Culture and Science) state that they have opted for a 'learning approach' and a 'phased allocation', as 'No Dutch government has ever implemented such a comprehensive set of measures for training specialized talent before.' If there is a positive evaluation after two years, the government will release the rest of the funds.

Project Beethoven

A total of 450 million has been earmarked within project Beethoven to train 33,000 additional technicians across senior secondary vocational education (MBO), higher vocational education (HBO) and research-oriented higher education (WO). In these first two years, educational institutions within the Brainport region will collectively receive a total of 45 million euros. Twente will receive 20.4 million euros, Delft 9.4 million and Noord-Nederland 5.9 million.

The goal of the plan is to rapidly train technical talent for the microchip industry. TU/e wants to achieve this by adding 2,000 master’s students across the departments of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics and Mathematics & Computer Science by 2030. To that end, the university will intensify student recruitment and work towards increasing the transition rate from bachelor’s to master’s programs, among other things. Within the Beethoven departments, new master’s tracks will be created with a focus on semiconductor technology.

The university also intends to hire 147 new scientists in that field, Patrick Groothuis recently told Cursor in an interview. “They will supervise around four hundred to five hundred PhD candidates. In total, that amounts to almost seven hundred additional researchers, which will provide a major boost to semiconductor-related research and education.”

Cleanroom

In addition to the funds from The Hague, TU/e will receive co-financing from the region and additional revenue from tuition fees. In total, the investment amounts to over 200 million euros, the university writes in a press statement. The university is also starting preparations for the expansion of buildings and facilities, including a new cleanroom and lab building. The cleanroom – partially financed by ASML – will be built on parking lot P6; the lab building will likely be built across from it, next to Traverse.

Members of the Executive Board are very pleased, as evidenced by the press statement. Robert-Jan Smits, President of the Executive Board, describes it as 'a highly important step for us and for the Brainport region, but also for the strategic autonomy of the Netherlands and Europe.' Rector Magnificus Silvia Lenaerts says she is proud of the recognition of the plans’ quality. According to her, TU/e has 'outlined ambitious yet realistic growth scenarios' in collaboration with partners in the region and beyond.

Infrastructure

In total, the government and the region are allocating 2.5 billion euros for education, knowledge and the infrastructure. This means that, in addition to training talent, they are also investing in strengthening the power grid, improving roads, public transport and housing in the Brainport region, according to the press release by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.