2025: what a great year it has been for 4TU! As we approach the end of the year, we would like to take a moment to reflect on some of the highlights of 2025. Each milestone contributes to our mission: strengthening engineering research, innovation and education in the Netherlands.
Read below about the six milestones of 2025 that we are proud of:
1. We celebrated 10 years of Engineering Education
For ten years now, 4TU.CEE has been leading cross-institutional initiatives that strengthen innovation and research in engineering education and build a resilient network between teachers, educational scientists, and educational leaders. The value of the center's joint agenda is clear: better-prepared engineers contribute to better professional practice and, ultimately, to more effective responses to the societal challenges we face. This decade has shown that shared pedagogical expertise and knowledge exchange have a lasting impact on technical higher education in the Netherlands.
Read the interviews for 10 jaar CEE.
2. The 4TU Schools platform was launched
In April, the 4TU.Schools platform went live with the first lessons for teachers. The platform offers ready-made lessons that focus on research, design, and social relevance. Students are challenged to think and act like engineers: problem-solving, creative, collaborative, and analytical. Since its launch, many initiatives have been set in motion to introduce young people to the engineering perspective and the skills that go with it at an early age.
3. We welcomed a new chairperson: Sjoukje Heimovaara
In September, we welcomed Sjoukje Heimovaara as the new chair of our federation. She took over from Vinod Subramaniam, who had held the position for three and a half years. “Cooperation between universities is extremely important and, above all, a lot of fun,” says Sjoukje, “but it does take time, so we would like to divide the tasks a little.”
4. The 4TU.Impact Ideation Lab was widely embraced within 4TU
4TU.Impact has successfully established a national valorization approach for Hydrogen & Green Chemistry within all four technical universities. GroenvermogenNL will co-finance three editions of the ideation lab. During the preparation and launch of the first edition of the program, there was intensive collaboration with 4TU.Energy. It used its network and communication channels to effectively reach the right target groups – researchers and students. Eighty-four students applied, and 15 scientific cases were selected from multiple cases. This collaboration has led to a powerful joint proposition and has also managed to involve universities outside the 4TU in the broader valorization mission within the energy transition. The first edition will be completed in June 2026.
The FNS ideation lab was successfully completed just before the summer. Startups and partners make innovation tangible in the FNS Ideation Lab – Future Network Services. New editions will follow from 2027 onwards.
4TU.Impact has launched an ideation lab program with 4TU.Optics. Eighty researchers from the 4TU's participated in the workshop, which led to 21 follow-up actions and eight deep-dive discussions with research groups. In the coming months, we will support four research ideas with Customer Discovery Support and explore new opportunities to realize an additional program with PhotonDelta.
Read more about Ideation Lab.
5. The Utopys project was awarded a grant
The Netherlands is at the forefront of developing complex energy systems in which green electricity is generated, transported, and consumed. To maintain this position, the NWO program for large-scale scientific infrastructure has awarded the UTOPYS project €16.5 million. The successful application for this project, in which eight universities and SURF are collaborating, was made possible in part by 4TU.Energy and 4TU.NIRICT through the awarding of small financial grants aimed at stimulating inter-university collaborations.
Read the article about the grant.
6. We collaborated on the 4TU Strategy 2030
With input from our broad community, we laid the foundation for our new long-term strategy. More on this soon!