Cooperation between industry and academia is essential DSM and TU Delft: close partners for more than a century

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1 Cooperation between industry and academia is essential DSM and TU Delft: close partners for more than a century Industry and academia need each other DSM attaches great importance to Open Innovation. Successful innovation requires extensive collaboration with and a strong focus on the external world to identify market opportunities and to benefit from scientific and technological developments. For real innovations you need both fundamental academic research and application oriented industrial research. That is why DSM considers ongoing interaction and cooperation between industry and the academic world to be essential. The interaction benefits both partners: industry gets to know what is going on at the frontiers of science and the universities get to know what the current and future needs of industry are. A win-win situation for both. Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and DSM are together paving the way for the bio-based economy. This is hardly surprising, since back in the nineteenth century the two partners predecessors were already working together on biotechnology (fermentation), though biotechnology was not such a widely used term at that time. Today, the collaboration between the two partners extends to numerous other disciplines, ranging from the production of advanced materials to research into process intensification. The university is literally just around the corner from the DSM site in Delft. The two also share a long history stretching all the way back to the time of the Nederlandsche Gist- en Spiritusfabriek (Dutch Yeast and Methylated Spirits Factory) in the nineteenth century. It is therefore only logical that the bond between us is very close and that TU Delft is a very important partner for us, says Rob van Leen, Chief Innovation Officer at DSM, of the cooperation between TU Delft and DSM. Rob van Leen Because of that history, the cooperation with TU Delft naturally focuses to a large extent on biotechnology, Rob continues. You might say that we are paving the way for the bio-based economy. But we also conduct a lot of important joint research in other areas, such as the Karel Luyben 11

2 production of advanced lightweight materials, process intensification and activities in the field of particle technology, to mention just a few examples. (See also the text boxes). Trust Another important aspect of the relationship is the intensive exchange of people between DSM and the university, says Rob: Many of our scientists also have part-time appointments with the university or previously worked there. And let s not forget the many graduates of TU Delft that work for DSM. Karel Luyben, the Rector of TU Delft, mentions mutual trust as one of the key success factors: The success of a partnership depends on the people involved, especially the level of trust between them. Without that trust, sooner or later things will go wrong. It is not difficult to find examples of that in the world around us. But not between DSM and ourselves, I am happy to say. As a researcher, Karel himself developed some crucial personal ties: For example, when I was still a professor in the faculty of Applied Sciences and Henk Noorman, who now works for DSM [see box Biokinetics, ed.] was studying for his PhD there. Sometimes, we would have to continue working through the night in the laboratory on an experiment. That kind of shared experience forges a bond and creates the trust I was talking about. Long term Naturally, we should keep in mind that a university and a company are entirely different institutions, Karel goes on. We, of course, do work of a more fundamental nature than DSM. And then there is the time horizon, which is very different for a company like DSM than for a university. Industrial research projects typically have a time horizon of one or two years. At the university, you are often talking about periods extending to two PhD studies, or eight years. As long as you are aware of that difference and accept it, you can work together fruitfully. I agree with Karel that we generally have a different time horizon than a university, Rob van Leen adds. But I want to stress that this certainly does not mean that we focus only on the short term in our research. There are plenty of examples of R&D initiatives to which DSM is committed for the long haul. Take our involvement in the Dutch Polymer Institute, the DPI, Hein Stam (left) and Han de Winde Biotechnology To us, industrial biotechnology is simply about using micro-organisms to improve production in a very broad sense; it could be the production of just about anything from penicillin to biofuels, says Hein Stam, principal scientist at DSM. As a company, you need to gain insight into the fundamentals of such processes, and a university like TU Delft is naturally very strong at providing that insight. One of Hein s most important contacts among his neighbors at TU Delft is Professor Han de Winde, head of the Department of Biotechnology and a former DSM research scientist. De Winde: We work closely with DSM on the production of bioethanol, not just because it is an important product but also because the production system serves as a model that can provide us with a lot of fundamental knowledge. I often draw the analogy with a petrochemical refinery that processes crude oil. Society will in time have to make the transition to biorefineries that convert biomass. The analogy is very real, and it means that, like its petrochemical counterpart, a biorefinery is an incredibly complex unit. Hein: In practice, it makes quite a difference what kind of biomass you use, for example poplar wood or rice waste. Ideally, the actual process development should take place in an industrial environment, but it could also be based on researach performed by academia. for example. And there are many other internal examples where we have commited ourselves to long journeys. Rob and Karel do not see any major pitfalls in the relationship between a university and a company. Karel: As a university we do have to be careful not to shift too far in the direction of applied research, in the sense of only carrying out assignments for companies. According to Rob, assigning ownership of intellectual property rights is often mentioned as a potential trap, but he does not see it as a problem: We fully understand that a university has to publish about its research. For a company, on the other hand, it can sometimes be smarter to wait a while before publishing R&D findings, particularly if it intends applying for a patent. So you have to make clear agreements in advance on issues like that. In general, this turns out not to be a problem. 12 Center of gravity As already mentioned, biotechnology is at the heart of the cooperation between DSM and TU Delft. One current activity that should be mentioned is the future Bioprocess Pilot Facility (see also the box BE Basic ). DSM and TU Delft are important partners in this extensive pilot facility for bioprocesses. The details of the initiative are to be further fleshed out by all of the partners (including government agencies and companies) in the near future. Another biotech activity is the work on bioethanol. Rob and Karel are both proud of this work: Excellent progress is being made in our joint efforts on the production of bioethanol. This is a shining example of the fruits of the cooperation between DSM and TU Delft. (See also the box Industrial microbiology ; ed.).

3 Emile van de Sandt (left) and Luuk van der Wielen BE-Basic Jack Pronk (left) and Roel Bovenberg Industrial microbiology Roel Bovenberg, corporate scientist Biotechnology at DSM, is engaged in industrial microbiology. This crucial sub-discipline of industrial biotechnology is concerned with controlling, steering and genetically modifying micro-organisms, such as bacteria and molds. This field of research has entered a fascinating phase because, says Roel, the contours of the transition to the biobased economy are already starting to emerge. Over the last few years, the pace of development has accelerated tremendously. To give an example: a decade ago it would take years to map the DNA of a single organism, but now it can be done in just a few weeks. One of Roel s closest associates is Professor Jack Pronk of TU Delft. Jack: I am particularly proud of our collaboration in the production of bioethanol from vegetable waste (second-generation biofuels). We have developed a yeast variant that can convert sixcarbon and five-carbon sugars derived from this waste into ethanol. This used to be impossible, and it means that vegetable waste can now be converted into bioethanol far more efficiently. Kluyver Centre Both Roel Bovenberg and Jack Pronk are actively involved in the Delft-based Kluyver Centre for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation, one of the Centres of Excellence of the Netherlands Genomics Initiative. DSM was one of the co-founders of this public-private partnership, which employs microbial genomics to improve microorganisms for use in industrial fermentation processes. Roel Bovenberg is the current chair of the Kluyver Centre s Scientific Advisory Board and Jack Pronk is its scientific director and program leader. 13 Luuk van der Wielen, professor at TU Delft, is one of the driving forces behind the BE-Basic consortium (and its predecessor B-Basic). Among his close associates are Marcel Wubbolts, program director at DSM White Biotechnology (as of , Vice President R&T at the DSM Innovation Center), and Emile van de Sandt, principal scientist at DSM and an expert on separation processes. BE-Basic is a consortium of universities, research institutes and companies, including DSM, which is engaged in research into the large-scale production of chemicals, materials and energy from biomass. TU Delft is the consortium s coordinator. DSM and TU Delft have been partners in this initiative since 2004, when the first program was launched under the name B-Basic. The current program, called BE-Basic, was started in 2010 and is planned to go on until Luuk: The consortium is currently planning to establish a Bioprocess Pilot Facility. The facility will consist of separate modules. Users will be able to assemble the process to be tested from the available modules, ranging from different methods of pre-treatment of the biomass, fermentation, downstream processing and purification to third-generation bioprocesses. This means that the test facility will be flexible and capable of meeting the needs of a wide diversity of companies, small or large, in industries ranging from the chemical sector to equipment engineering. Marcel adds: The consortium has been able to secure 30 million euros in subsidies for this pilot plant, and the parties involved will invest in it as well. If it is approved, it will become an open access facility that can be used in several of the BE-Basic projmarcel Wubbolts ects, by DSM business groups, the investors and also by external parties. The various partners including Dutch government agencies will shortly be fleshing out the details of the project. Emile van de Sandt s role in BE-Basic mainly involves setting up new projects for the recovery of biopharmaceuticals. Because of his expertise in the separations field, he works with TU Delft in several other roles as well. He gives a few examples: I am a member of several Industrial Advisory Boards for projects within the Separations branch of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. TU Delft is a participant in these projects. And as DSM program manager for the Dutch Separation Technology Institute, I am also working with TU Delft.

4 From l. to r.: Peter Jansens, Andrzej Stankiewicz, Raf Reintjens Process intensification Henk Noorman (left) and Sef Heijnen Biokinetics Biokinetics is all about the speed at which biochemical processes occur and how that speed is connected with the process conditions. The better the speed is controlled, the higher the productivity of the process and the efficiency of the conversion of substrate into desired product. Professor Sef Heijnen of TU Delft (who, before his appointment in 1988, spent 15 years working at DSM, then Gist-brocades) and Henk Noorman (corporate scientist Bioprocess Technology at DSM and teacher of several advanced courses at TU Delft) both work in the field of biokinetics. Their collaboration is a remarkable one, because back in the late 1980s Henk was Sef s first PhD student. Since then, many of Sef s PhD students have joined DSM. Henk and Sef s joint insights have, for example, helped DSM to improve the production of the antibiotics penicillin and cephalosporins. Sef: A lot more is possible than people used to think, particularly in terms of modeling micro-organisms. Although they are complex systems, the funny thing is that they can be described with relatively simple mathematical models. Among the other successes, Henk mentions various patent applications and publications from the B-Basic program ( ). He notes that the nature of the partnership projects is changing: In the past, we did a lot of individual and relatively small projects under an umbrella agreement. Nowadays the trend is towards more comprehensive programs executed by consortia, often in private-public partnerships. 14 Peter Jansens, Corporate Scientist Process Technology and director of ACES (Advanced Chemical Engineering Solutions) at DSM, Raf Reintjens, competence manager Process Intensification at DSM and Professor Andrzej Stankiewicz of TU Delft concentrate, among other things, on the important subject of process intensification. Their collaboration is illustrative of the close ties between DSM and TU Delft. Peter Jansens: ACES and its predecessors have partnered with TU Delft in various R&D projects for several decades, mainly on topics like crystallization, separation technology and process intensification. In this partnership I initially represented TU Delft as a PhD student and later as professor, but two years ago I changed sides and joined DSM. Andrzej, by contrast, used to be a senior scientist at ACES but is now a professor at TU Delft, although he still works at DSM one day a week. It may look as if we have changed places, but the two moves were not connected in any way. The three men feel that the transition to renewable, organic feedstocks will certainly help to make chemical production more sustainable in the future, but will not provide a total solution. The efficiency of the processes also needs to increase dramatically. This calls for process intensification, one aspect of which is the miniaturization of chemical reactors and processes so that less waste is produced, less energy is used and greater efficiency is achieved. Andrzej: There are various ways of achieving process intensification, such as the use of microwaves. A lot more research is needed into this, but the discipline is now maturing and great advances are being made. EUROPIC DSM and TU Delft are both involved in the European Process Intensification Centre (EUROPIC), an industry-driven platform for knowledge and technology transfer in the field of Process Intensification (PI) that was established in 2008 by the representatives of leading chemical and pharmaceutical companies from Germany, France and the Netherlands. The Centre has its headquarters in Delft. Professor Andrzej Stankiewicz of TU Delft is chairman of the Management Board of EUROPIC, while Michael Kuczynski, R&D director at DSM, is on the center s Senior Advisory Board.

5 Scientific Publications DSM and TU Delft scientists have published many peer-reviewed papers on research projects they have carried out together or in teams involving many other internationally renowned institutes and companies. A major publication was the paper published by the renowned scientific journal Nature Biotechnology in 2008 on the unravelling of the DNA sequence of the fungus Penicillium chrysogenum, a landmark in the history of penicillin, arguably the most important drug of the 20th century. Adriaan Beukers (left) and Roel Marissen Advanced lightweight materials Adriaan Beukers, professor at TU Delft, and Roel Marissen, principal scientist at DSM Dyneema, carry out research into lightweight materials primarily, but by no means exclusively, for applications in the aviation sector. Roel is also a part-time professor at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at TU Delft, where he works one day a week. Their research focuses mainly on fiber-reinforced plastics. Since the 1960s, these materials have increasingly been used in applications traditionally reserved for metals. Gabrie Meesters (left) and Andreas Schmidt-Ott Particle technology Andreas Schmidt-Ott, professor at TU Delft, and Gabrie Meesters, Senior Scientist formulations DSM and assistant professor at TU Delft, are both fascinated by very small particles particles of a variety of sizes, with many potential applications. Andreas mentions electrospraying, for example, a technique for highly controlled spraying of very small particles. If the technology can be scaled up, it could prove useful for delivering drugs inside the body in a more targeted way, for example. Gabrie: But there are other, very different potential applications of particle technology. DSM, for example, could use it to apply protective coatings to certain food products, such as cheese. We are also investigating the strength of these particles when do they collapse, and why? Adriaan explains the background to the cooperation with DSM: TU Delft is the birthplace of a number of significant advances in materials technology for the aviation sector, such as the development of the composite materials CETEX (TenCateAC) and GLARE (GLAss REinforced Aluminum), a fibre metal laminate that is now used in the Airbus A380. Over the years, DSM has also become an important player in the field of materials for the aviation sector. Roel confirms TU Delft s unique expertise: The research carried out at TU Delft has been helpful to us, for example in the development of Dyneema-based aviation applications such as air cargo containers and nets. Our direct link with Adriaan Beukers lab in Delft, with its unique facilities and application expertise, holds a lot of potential for DSM Dyneema s Aviation group and other groups at DSM Dyneema. Universities are still some way ahead of industry in the field of particle technology, but the worlds are converging, thanks in part to cooperation of the type that exists between TU Delft and DSM, concludes Gabrie. 15