Contract negotiations with the Ministry of Economic Affairs are in faull swing, but it is clear that the UT will score well in the new Bsik-grant round. The Executive Board is expecting sixty million euros from the investment fund for the Dutch knowledge infrastructure, to be spent on UT research.
The Cabinet `Decision about Grants for Investment in Knowledge Infrastructure' (Bsik) comprises a total of 800 million euros. At this time, the stimulation measure is directed primarily at ICT research areas, space allocation, durable system innovations, microsystem- and nanotechnology, and health-, food-, genetic- and biotechnology. The national government expects the approved projects in these areas - all joint ventures of business and science - to make an important contribution to the competitive position of the Netherlands internationally.
The UT, which did not bring in any funds in the last grant cycle (then called Ices-Kis), scored best with projects in the area of free-band technology and embedded systems (submitted by research institute CTIT), nano- and microtechnology (Mesa+) and biomedical technology (BMTI). Several smaller projects of the faculties of BBT and Engineering Technology have also been approved.
The anticipated allocation of sixty million will be used to fund research for four to eight years. The grants fund at most 50 percent of the actual project costs. That means that the UT will have to come up with matching funds. A complete survey of UT involvement in Bsik projects is not yet available.
Trans. Jeroen Latour
