TU/e revamps research institutes and integrates AI across organization

TU/e revamps research institutes and integrates AI across organization

Research institutes and flagships play a pivotal role at TU/e, serving as cross-disciplinary hubs for talent attraction, strategic alignment, research excellence and collaboration with industry.

While research institutes focus on strategically important domains for the longer term, flagships are intended to quickly position TU/e strongly in strategically important initiatives and roadmaps in the Netherlands or the EU.

In general, TU/e prioritizes the following domains in research, education, and valorization: Energy Technologies, Health Technologies, Digital & Semiconductor technologies, and Advanced Materials. To better align the landscape of institutes and flagships with this strategy, TU/e will explore new directions in AI, health and advanced materials.

AI will be embedded more broadly

AI will be given a more prominent role within TU/e. The aim is to embed it across the entire breadth of the organization: education, research, valorization and operations. This broader scope may be better suited to an entity other than just a research institute. A task force, led by General Manager of EAISI Carlo van de Weijer, is set up to explore the appropriate form to strengthen and implement AI in the organization over the next six months.

EAISI may therefore not continue as an institute, but what EAISI has brought together - the people, the community, the research, and valuable initiatives EAISI has built in recent years - will remain and become more firmly embedded in the organization. Regardless of what this form will be exactly, the impact of AI within and outside TU/e will grow significantly.

New institute in the field of health

A proposed new institute for health will focus on the transformation of healthcare, based on TU/e's strengths in areas such as biomaterials, medical devices and technology for humans and society. This institute will help to further expand the health-ecosystem in Brainport.

It will do so by bringing together all parties inside TU/e and building on previous programs such as the strategic area Health, the Health program in EAISI, the strategic collaboration e/MTIC, Research Support Network (RSN) Health and more. A task force with several deans, led by prof.dr. Maarten Merkx (Biomedical Engineering), is asked to formulate the vision, mission and goals of this new institute.

Advanced Materials flagship

The domain of advanced materials is one of the four priority domains for technology leadership in the TU/e Institutional Plan 2026-2030. It is of growing importance as a key enabling technology for the desired diversification of the Brainport innovation ecosystem.

To meet this growing demand and take a leading role on the European level, TU/e will bundle forces into a new flagship Advanced Materials. The flagship is being led by ICMS Program manager Nicholas Tito, with support from prof.dr.ir. Marc Geers (Mechanical Engineering), Monique Bruining (managing director ICMS), and representatives from all TU/e departments and research institutes.

Resilience and Security

As geopolitical tensions rise, so does the need for knowledge and technology that can strengthen the safety and resilience of our society. The Dutch Ministry of Defense, for instance, is increasingly seeking collaboration with universities.

Within TU/e, a working group led by prof.dr.ir. Geert-Jan van Houtum, dean of the Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences, explored how the university can and wants to contribute to the security of our society. A task force led by Van Houtum will further develop how to embed this domain in TU/e's organization.

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