News

Clear and fair IP agreements should lead to more academic spin-offs

4TU.CEE’s anniversary year is drawing to a close. The Centre is already looking to the future: its new Strategic Plan is ready.

The fifth edition of the FAIR Data Fund is now open for applications! 

On 1 January 2026, Ena Voûte, Pro Vice Rector for International Affairs at TU Delft, will join the board of CESAER, the European network of technical universities. Her appointment contributes to the international representation of 4TU within this strategic partnership.

Sjoukje Heimovaara, who started as chair of 4TU in September, steps into her new role at a time of significant budget cuts in higher education. The technical universities are heavily affected, leading to difficult decisions such as discontinuing research projects and staff reductions. Her own Wageningen University and Research is also facing substantial cuts.

Arlene John, Assistant Professor at the Biomedical Signals and Systems (BSS) group (EEMCS, TechMed Centre), is among ten female researchers from the Netherlands and Belgium nominated for the TOPX Females to Follow Award 2025 in the Rising Star in Science category. You can support her by casting your vote

At Dutch Design Week 2025, Federico Andreotti from Wageningen University & Research presents Game Design and Play for a Thriving Planet, a project that uses serious game design to make complex systems, such as food and farming, tangible and playful.

As of the end of September 2025, the 4TU Federation has a new chair: Sjoukje Heimovaara. She took over this role from Vinod Subramaniam, who held the position for three and a half years. “The only real resource the Netherlands has is knowledge.”

When a jubilant Hubert Martens (Salvia BioElectronics) was announced the winner of the LEVEL UP Awards, the more than 1,550 participants could already look back on a full day of celebrating entrepreneurship. During the day, they discussed deeptech, deftech, medtech & life sciences, gaming, big data, quantum, AI, plant-based food, cybersecurity, and many related topics. And what's more: all these debates had impact and sustainability as the central theme. If LEVEL UP 2025 made one thing clear, it's that there's no innovative progress without positive societal consequences.

In April, the four technical universities jointly launched 4TU.Schools: a platform aimed at bridging the gap between secondary and higher education. Since then, many initiatives have been set in motion to introduce young people early on to the engineering perspective and the skills that come with it.

With a healthy dose of ambition, young entrepreneurs took to the stage on 28 August to pitch their ideas during the final of the 4TU Impact Challenge. Of all the participating start-ups, each of which is helping to advance society with their innovations, two teams won prizes. Vindi Biosystems won the Jury Award. This start-up is developing a portable device for real-time monitoring of biomarkers associated with various diseases. The Audience Award went to SimplyPill with their innovative pill dispenser.

Over 100 international alumni of  TU Delft, Eindhoven University of Technology, the University of Twente and Wageningen University & Research (together 4TU) gathered last week in Utrecht  for an inspiring evening of connection, reflection, and forward-looking dialogue. The event, organized by 4TU.Alumni, aimed to foster a stronger sense of belonging among the estimated 20,000 international graduates in the Netherlands and highlight their vital role in Dutch society and innovation.

4TU.Ideation Labs connect researchers with entrepreneurial students to explore the market and societal potential of research outputs through guided workshops and coaching. This supportive environment allows researchers to contribute to innovation and entrepreneurhsip without taking on the role of founders or leading commercialisation efforts themselves. 

For ten years now, 4TU.CEE has focused on innovating engineering education. It’s a question of trial and error - just as in other design processes. What is already going well? How does this translate into practice? And what still needs to be done? Four experts (see text box) shed light on this, in the second part of our interview series celebrating 10 years of 4TU.CEE.

After almost six years, Robert-Jan Smits will step down as President of the Executive Board of TU Eindhoven (TU/e). Looking back on wonderful years during which the university raised its profile and grew despite budget cuts, he also saw positive developments within the 4TU Federation. But progress could be faster. "Dare to make decisions via smart specialisation. See to it that as 4TU, you are an example to others."