While the academic procession entered and the dignitaries took their seats in the reserved rows of the Blauwe Zaal, soft piano music could be heard to the familiar tune of the song Brabant by Guus Meeuwis. As there was no singing, the chants of a pro-Palestine protest outside the room were sometimes audible. The group Eindhoven Students 4 Palestine took the opportunity to make its presence known, chanting slogans like “TU/e, take your responsibility.” It sounded quite far off, even though they were right outside the room. Inside, the opening ceremony continued as normal.

“Let’s make sure that the attention of everyone in the room is on everyone who will be speaking in the room,” Barry Fitzgerald (CEC) said to start off the program, which was met with loud laughter from the room. The attention was definitely there for the first speaker, Wopke Hoekstra, the former CDA party leader who was recently nominated by the cabinet for a new term as European Commissioner for Climate Action. “Indeed, I’m hearing something,” he said at the start of his speech, referring to the protest outside the room. “It reminds me of doing this occasional video conference at home and the children butchering each other on the second floor.”

China problem

“Eindhoven to me is Europe’s innovation capital, and some in the room might actually say this is the one and only innovation capital of the world,” said Hoekstra. This was followed by a brief history of the city, which had almost seemed to have lost its glory in the nineties. It was a fair cry from the way the region looks now. This took a typical Dutch blend of vision, innovation, and entrepreneurship. “Eindhoven didn’t just bounce back, it actually jumped to a truly whole new league,” said Hoekstra. “You are an absolute magnet for people, for business, and for ideas. You have aced all of the opportunities.”

Hoekstra then zoomed out to the opportunities outside of the Brainport, to Europe as a whole. He referred to the ‘China problem’. From electric cars to electrolyzers for green hydrogen, China is flooding the European market thanks to immense state support, at prices we simply cannot compete with. So this has to change, and change soon. “It is derailing our economy and increasing our dependence. If you look at the European economy, it lacks the innovation and entrepreneurship required to deliver the sustainable economic growth we need.”

Single market

A single European market is therefore the solution for the growing competition from China, says Hoekstra. But the road to this is paved with bureaucracy. He told the audience important points that are needed to realize a strong European market, one of them being a ‘fair level playing field’: a balanced and economic arena where Europe and China are equal. “We need to diversify our supply and cherish key industries in Europe.”

According to Hoekstra, it needs to become easier to run a business across in the whole of Europe, for one thing by standardizing laws and regulations between countries. He gave the example of the varying quality standards of electric charging stations, a real obstacle for entrepreneurs.

Needless to say, this single European market requires funding. “What will it all cost?”, Hoekstra summed it up in typical Dutch fashion. Not only governments must take out their wallets, it’s also – and especially – up to the private sector to invest. “They should have seamless access and thus we must bridge the gap between public and private.”

Plea to Dutch politics

Short panel discussions then covered green growth, innovation, sustainability, and the climate for start-ups. No real debates materialized; the speakers took turns saying what was on their minds and had little time to react to one another.

Afterwards, Mark Verhagen (of TU/e spin-off RIFT) and Maurice van Tilburg (director of the National Growth Fund) were asked to remain on stage. After Hoekstra joined as well, the trio received a sign shaped like a cheque: a plea to Dutch politics consisting of five points for improving the start-up climate.

The presentation was continued with a short video about the impending budget cuts in education and science. This is a broadly supported point of criticism for all universities in the country, Barry Fitzgerald said as he introduced the video. “Our universities help the Netherlands move forward,” a voice rang through the room. The video shows students and researchers. Medicines, education, growth, and jobs, we could lose it all, is the message. It ends with another call to Dutch politics not to cut education and science. “The budget cuts seriously jeopardize the advancement of the Netherlands.”

Earlier on, President of the Executive Board Robert-Jan Smits had also indicated he thinks the cuts are ‘unacceptable’. “This will hamper the Dutch economy in the long run. The countries that keep on investing are climbing up the ladder of competitiveness, and we have dropped. I am outraged by the budget cuts and I hope many of you here as well,” Smits said to the audience, which applauded loudly.

Long-term thinkers

Rector Magnificus Silvia Lenaerts closed the event with her rectoral speech, in which she quoted philosopher Roman Krznaric. “His vision is a response to the fast-moving world we live in. He says: ‘If we manage to be long-term thinkers, we might become the good ancestors that future generations deserve.’ Here in Eindhoven, we want to be these long-term thinkers. What we do today, we do for our future generations.”

The Rector Magnificus first reflects on the past academic year. She mentions the Future Chips Flagship, an initiative with regional partners to provide impetus to the semiconductor industry. This is part of the Beethoven program, which also involves collaboration with other large education institutes such as Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Summa College and ROC.

“We have made a start with academic career profiles, the Bio-sketch, simplification of the BAC (selection method for academic staff, ed.), the professor title for assistant and associate professor, and the permanent positions.” But there’s plenty left to do, Lenaerts believes. “Not least for the support staff. There we have to do more and go faster.”

Core values

“That which isn’t good for the hive, isn’t good for the bee”, Lenaerts said, a famous quote by Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. “These beliefs are the making of a very strong culture, one in which people are committed to the organization and to one another.” That’s why Lenaerts wants to commit to a value-based community, which is summarized by a series of new core values.

This started a few months ago, with a session where those interested could provide their input. This yielded four new core values: curious, open, respectful, and responsible. As perceptive readers may have noticed, this means two of the old core values have made a comeback. It goes without saying that this new set of core values has a new acronym: they are the CORe values.