In five years’ time, every company in the region that has a demand in the field of ICT will have to be able to walk in to Fontys at Strijp-T in Eindhoven. Director Ad Vissers of Fontys University of Applied Sciences hopes to be able to start realizing this dream soon. It is a question of the final signatures and licenses.
by Debbie Langelaan, Fontys Bron
His school would like to move some three hundred third- and fourth-year students, thirty employees, mainly from the research groups, and some fifty people from the field into the TQ building. They would then occupy two floors, a total of two thousand square meters.
It is intended to be a place where Fontys shares expertise and helps companies that have questions and problems in the field of ICT, Vissers outlines. “It may be a research question that our students work on for months, but it may also be a problem that we solve in five minutes. That’s why we’re thinking of a seats-to-meet-like facility, among other things.”
Strijp-T is one of the former Philips locations in Eindhoven. A total of 5,500 to 7,500 people will be employed in creative, innovative and manufacturing companies. Other organisations, such as Fontys, must have a link with these companies. Building TQ, at 40,000 square meters, is the largest building in Strijp-T.
Vissers thinks it is ‘fairly unique’ within Fontys to work with so many people in a ‘field’-location. At the Automotive Campus in Helmond, the GreenTechLab in Venlo and the care innovation centers, for example, the number of people is smaller. Moreover, after the hoped-for relocation, some 90 percent of the people still remain present at the original ICT locations in Tilburg and Eindhoven.
There is a great deal of enthusiasm among companies in the field to move together with Fontys, says Vissers. “We have about a hundred companies in our network Partner in Education, with which we provide co-creation education. Many of these companies want to participate. But we are still far from reaching the point where we have made a choice.”
The first Fontys people might already be moving into TQ right after the summer holiday. The lights are on ‘light green’ when it comes to formalities and permits, yet Vissers keeps a close eye on the situation. “We have the ambitions and the plans, but formally it is not done yet. There are no specific obstacles, but as long as not all signatures have been signed, I prefer to remain cautious.”
