Event Reports

SOFT 2024 Symposium

The Symposium on Fusion Technology (SOFT) 2024 in Dublin highlighted the Netherlands' contributions to fusion research, with active participation from Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research (DIFFER), Eindhoven Institute for Renewable Energy Systems (EIRES), and industry partners. The event provided an excellent platform to showcase Dutch advancements, including the work at DIFFER on divertors and the Magnum-PSI facility.

DutchPhotonicsEvent 2024

DutchPhotonicsEvent 2024
Date and Location: 19 September 2024, De Haagse Hoogeschool, Den Haag.

Advancements in Photonics and Optics took centre stage at the Dutch Photonics Event. Everyone in optics and photonics enjoyed this intensive day, regardless of their field within photonics. The primary focus was on innovation, ensuring a comprehensive exploration of the latest developments. The keynote presentation set the stage: 'Putting light into practice: optical sensing technology for real-life applications'

Industry Space days

September 18th  and 19th, a number of BigScience.NL network members visited the Industry Space Days at the European Space Agency ESA/ESTEC. Jan Geralt bij de Vaate (SRON), Ramon Navarro (NOVA) and Robbelien Kooistra (NWO-I office) were able to attend sessions on current trends in the space sector. Through the extensive exhibition and B2B/one-on-one meetings, there was ample opportunity to explore potential collaborations with private parties and with the ESA.

EPIC Technology Meeting on Photonics for NewSpace – Optical communication

EPIC Technology Meeting on Photonics for NewSpace – Optical communication
When & Where: 16 & 17 September 2024, Noordwijk
 
Adjacent to the ESA Industry Space Days (ISD), EPIC (European Photonics Industry Consortium) organized a Technology Meeting on Photonics for NewSpace: Optical communication. This exclusive event focused on the forefront of NewSpace, with a dedicated emphasis on optical communication. The event started with a pre-event networking dinner, an excellent way to discuss matters in a relaxed environment. Several companies from The Netherlands were present: Bright Photonics, Demcon Focal, Lionix, Molenaar Optics, Single Quantum, Tiny Telescope and TNO. The event itself contains two sessions.

Holland HighTech Network event

Four of the running NGF projects were invited to report in a five-minute pitch about their status to the HighTech community. Rob van der Meer presented the Einstein Telescope challenges and calls. During the following two-hour network opportunity with food and drinks our ET-team had a continuous stream of company representatives with questions and suggestions and lively conversations, way after many of the other project representatives had left for home.

Business day of ET-NGF valorisation programme

The first business day of the Dutch valorisation programme ‘Einstein Telescope for business’ took place on 1 July 2024 in the MECC in Maastricht.

There was a diverse plenary programme with a crash course in gravity waves from Gideon Koekoek (Maastricht University and Nikhef), as well as a look behind the scenes of the first R&D project on vibration-free cooling technology, by Demcon Kryoz, Cooll and the University of Twente. During and after lunch there was an information market on the five ET-NGF calls on ET-R&D projects.

Stimulus 30 jaar celebration event

Stimulus, the organization executing the program management for subsidy programs in the three southern provinces of the Netherlands, celebrated their 30-year anniversary with an afternoon workshop in het Evoluon in Eindhoven.

The two main topics of the keynotes of this afternoon were “road to Brussel” and “Done with Europe Chagrin”, both calling for widening European collaboration to really getting things done.

SPIE Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation

SPIE Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation
Sector/theme: Space, Advanced instrumentation, Astronomy
Date and location: 16-21 June 2024, Yokohama, Japan
Netherlands pavilion partners: ASTRON, Cosine, Demcon Focal, DUI, JPE, NOVA, SRON, TNO, TU Delft, VDL ETG
 
The biennial SPIE Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation conference is the largest in its sector and focused on astronomical instrumentation on the ground as well as in space. More than 2,300 experts, scientists, policymakers and industry representatives from all over the world have participated in this conference. Every other year, the conference takes place in Europe and North America, and in 2024 for the first time in Asia. As part of this conference, the three-day exhibition is an excellent opportunity for Dutch industry and research institutes affiliated with astronomy and space instrumentation to present themselves and connect with potential partners, customers and policymakers.

Advanced Instrumentation gathering at Nikhef

On the 12th of June, a gathering was organised at Nikhef on the topic of the strategic plan on Advanced Instrumentation in the realm of the top sectors. The strategic plans are a new method of financing developments in various domain in collaborations between knowledge institutes and industry. Depending on the stage of developments, more or less co-funding is required from industry.