Public-private partnerships

Partnerships with companies

Over the past few years, the universities have intensified their partnerships with companies, primarily with funding from the Economic Structure Enhancement Fund (Fonds Economische Structuurversterking, FES), which is financed from Dutch natural gas revenues.

The Dutch research universities and companies have laid down principles for cooperation in the Innovation Charter. Following up on that document, the VSNU, the Dutch Ministry for Economic Affairs and the employers' organisation VNO-NCW have studied good practices in companies and universities regarding public-private partnerships. The main results of the study are presented in the publication "Taking advantage of patents. Effective cooperation between companies and universities".

Publishing with companies

A recent ranking shows that Dutch universities score well on public-private co-publications. In fact, the statistics show that they are among the top producers. Of the world's 350 largest research universities, Eindhoven University of Technology is ranked first in public-private co-publications and Delft University of Technology is ranked fifth.