Techport expands network with new partner SURF
Since the beginning of 2021, SURF is the new partner of Techport. And it is not the least because with approximately 108 members, including universities, colleges, ROCs, TNO, teaching hospitals and knowledge institutions, SURF (a cooperative of Dutch educational and research institutions) is a major player in the field of ICT innovations.
"Within SURF, Dutch knowledge institutions in the field of education and research work together on ICT innovations and is thus the linking pin for providing access to knowledge gained, but also offers knowledge in the form of consultancy and training," said Erik Kentie, program manager at SURF and responsible for the rollout of Data Value Center - Smart Industry (DVC-SI) in the northwestern Netherlands.
SURF is a partner of the DVC-SI launched at the Brainport Industries Campus in Eindhoven in collaboration with TNO, FME, Jheronimus Academy of Data Science and Koninklijke Metaalunie, among others. "DVC-SI is there to help SMEs in the manufacturing industry realize added value. They can count on support in optimizing processes, developing new services and earning models and strengthening the knowledge and competencies required for this. In doing so, use is made of data. By combining knowledge, expertise, partnerships and initiatives, the DVC-SI wants to help companies become more competitive with data," Erik said.
Techport provides a link between the demand, ideas and needs of entrepreneurs on the one hand, and the supply of knowledge, expertise and facilities and services from suppliers and knowledge institutions on the other. This is where SURF fits in very well. By providing access to acquired knowledge through its infrastructure, software support and development, and software procurement.
In the field of data, there are still many questions such as: where does data come from? Who can access the data? In what format do you want to exchange data? How do you know you keep ownership of this data? How do I know which operations are done? The DVC-SI introduces entrepreneurs to the possibilities of big data, open data and their own data.
In the Northwest region, SURF is working with universities, colleges, ROCs and field labs to create a European Digital Innovation Hub. This is a region-specific initiative initiated by the EU to give companies better access to digital knowledge. Techport, as one of the fieldlabs, is also involved in this and thus the partnership came about.
An example of the collaboration between Techport and SURF is the collaboration between the Free University and a number of companies associated with Techport, where data sharing in the joint projects is important: "The first case we are taking up together is about predicting the failure of machines, also called predictive maintenance."
Specifically, SURF wants to facilitate the flow of data towards VU researchers. Aspects we are looking at include data sovereignty and data security. Data sovereignty is about ownership of data and maintaining control over that data. Furthermore, SURF can offer knowledge in the field of processing (IOT) data, cloud technology, data sharing, data visualization and the way an independent so-called data spaces are set up for the region. In this way, the institutions, universities , colleges and ROCs in the region can exchange data through the fieldlabs with the business community.
From the DVC-SI and in collaboration with partners TNO and FME, knowledge gained in Brabant is also being applied in other regions including North Holland, Flevoland and Utrecht . "With TNO, SURF has tested the so-called IDS/-connector to share data between companies on a public cloud environment, allowing SMEs to use different platforms of service providers to exchange data with each other," Erik explains. He continues: "Data sharing does not yet work optima forma, and there is still a very nice and big opportunity there to get data sharing off the ground properly. The partnership between Techport and SURF is therefore a great opportunity to further develop education, development, innovation and digitization in the MRA."
Want to know more about SURF? Then contact Erik: erik.kentie@surf.nl or Gerik ten Berge of Techport(gerik.tenberge@techport.nl).