2016 was a memorable year for the 4TU.Federation. It was the first year in which the federation no longer received any direct financial support from the Dutch Government, and it was the year in which Wageningen University & Research (WUR) became the fourth university of technology to join the federation. The annual report 2016 of the 4TU.Federation, which is to be published today, consists of the activity reports of the federation’s Board’s and Committees, its various research centres, the joint Master’s degree programmes and it reports on the formal external relationships that the 4TU.Federation has built up.

4TU.Centre for Research Data introduces two funds to support researchers in their research data management: the Data Refinement Fund and the Data Paper Fund.

On  October 17, 2016, Prof. Kees Vuik (TU Delft) on behalf of 4TU.AMI and Prof. Dr.Martin Skutella (TU-Berlin) on behalf of Matheon (Research Center “Mathematics for Key Technologies” https://www.matheon.de/) signed a cooperative agreement between these two national research centres with similar missions: “to bring advanced mathematics to key technologies and complex systems”. This in the confident expectation that working together will add value to the separate efforts of the two centres. This agreement is a continuation for 6 years of the previous successful cooperation period on Mathematics for Key Technologies.

4TU.AMI and its German counterpart Matheon form one of the largest clusters on the field of mathematics in Europe. This agreement establishes a framework for mutual assistance in achieving their aims in the field of Applied Mathematics and Education. It will support collaborative research, relationships, exchange of students, junior and senior researchers, educational programs in mathematical modelling and its applications, e-learning and didactics of mathematics for  university students of the TU-‘s, and programs that stimulate interest in mathematics for secondary students.

Wageningen University joins the collaboration between the three technical universities in the Netherlands (3TU.Federation). As of today the federation will be known as 4TU.Federation, or simply 4TU, and the cooperation in the field of education and research will be expanded. The four technical universities of Delft, Eindhoven, Twente and Wageningen will intensify their collaboration to strengthen the interaction with industry. With Wageningen University joining, some interesting crossovers between high tech and agri & food come to sight as well as in the areas of water and environment. 

Joint activities
The 3TU.Federation has been working closely together in the field of education and research. There are five 3TU.master programmes, a Centre for Engineering Education and the Institute of Professional Doctorate Education. They connect to the successful growth in student numbers in technical education. The federation has nine Research Centres and the data management is supported by the 3TU.Datacentrum, part of Research Data Netherlands. With Wageningen joining, possibilities for extending the activities are being explored, for example in the field of:

We are currently facing one of the greatest social challenges of this century: over the coming 40 years, the global food demand will be equal to the total amount of food produced over the last 8,000 years. Applying high-tech systems and materials and new ICT possibilities will support the agrarian and food sectors to meet the enormous social challenges associated with this. Moreover, the competitive position of these sectors in the Netherlands will improve and opportunities will arise to export new systems using these applications. Conversely, high-tech sectors will be challenged to find solutions to the problems that have stood in the way of such applications until now, such as non-uniform products, the circumstances in which systems have to function and limited economic scope for innovation. It is essential that the sectors concerned work intensively together on these opportunities.