On the 26st of March, the Indian Embassy organized the India Seminar on “prospects for the Indo-Dutch economic cooperation in science & technology” at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven. This seminar was the first of its kind in the Brabant region. Around 180 people joined this seminar, in which the strengthening of the cooperation between India and the Netherlands was emphasized. We were very honored to support this seminar together with the High Tech Campus and to welcome the Ambassador of India, H.E. Mr. Venu Rajamony to the region once more.

India is developing at rapid pace, offering many opportunities.

The mayor of Eindhoven, Mr. John Jorritsma, was also present during this seminar and welcomed the Indian Ambassador. He adds: “India and the Netherlands can cooperate much better in the field of science and technology.”

During this seminar, an advisory letter on the strengthening of the cooperation between India and the Netherlands in the field of science, technology and innovation was presented by Prof. Dr. Uri Rosenthal. This letter is drawn up by the Advisory Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (AWTI) and was handed to the Ambassador of India. The advisory letter encourages the Dutch government to take action on the cooperation in the field of knowledge and innovation with India to a higher level. More information on the content of this advisory letter can be found here.

The cooperation with India was underlined by a great mix of representatives from both corporate and small-medium sized enterprises as well as academia. Mr. Jeroen Tas, Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer from Royal Philips and former entrepreneur of Mphasis, gave an interesting presentation. Furthermore, Dr. Dirk Smit, Chief Scientist and Vice President R&D from Shell shared his thoughts on their innovation mission and longstanding and committed history with and in India.

In addition, Prof. Dr. Ir. Maarten Steinbuch, Professor at the Technical University of Eindhoven and CEO Medical Robotics Technologies, inspired the audience with his future vision of the impact of technology on our society. He emphasized the unique level of technology coming from this region, with examples in autonomous driving and that companies like ASML are basically dictating the speed of innovation and contributing to Moore’s Law.

The seminar concluded with a presentation from Ms. Anupam Nayak, Chief Operating Officer of Medical Robotics Technologies. The company provides advanced knowledge and technologies, assisting surgeons to do the impossible with their RoBoSculpt and providing the ability to navigate autonomously in high precision bone surgery. A very promising technology start-up, incubated at the Technical University of Eindhoven. The company intends to ramp up to a 1000+ people team, utilizing the collaborative R&D network between the Netherlands and India, using the scale of the market that India offers.

During the Q&A, the audience expressed the need for funding of collaboration projects between the Netherlands and India. In response to this, the NWO (The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research) mentioned that their organization is able to provide this funding by means of Joint Research Calls. Furthermore, Mr. Michiel Sweers, Deputy Director Enterprise and Innovation for the Ministry of Economic Affairs, stated that funding can be arranged via finance and tax instruments. Additionally, both Philips and Shell indicated to welcome start-ups and SME’s in their special incubator programs.

Source: Indian Embassy, AWTI, Medical Robotics Technologies, Philips, Shell and Brabant Development Agency.