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¹û¶³´«Ã½â€™s Executive Board founded EIRES back in 2020 to consolidate the university’s research on the energy transition. ‘We want to achieve maximum impact by bringing together our smartest energy scientists, and by working together with industry,’ ¹û¶³´«Ã½ president Robert-Jan Smits stated at the occasion.

Building a community

EIRES first and foremost is a scientific institute, Van de Sanden emphasizes. ‘We were set with the task to program research across ¹û¶³´«Ã½â€™s disciplinary departments and in conjunction with industry. This also makes sense, since the energy transition is an intrinsic inter-, multi- and transdisciplinary endeavor. That is why we have always maintained an open and welcoming attitude toward anyone working on energy transition related research in any way.’

To establish a vibrant energy community on campus, from its inception, EIRES has prioritized organizing close proximity, Van de Sanden says. ‘Through our online lectures, EnergyDays, Energizing Days, onboarding events and multitude of site visits, we actively connect people across the borders of disciplines and organizations.’

Expanding the network

Where energy research at ¹û¶³´«Ã½ used to be most visible at the departments of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, over the past five years, other departments like that of the Built Environment, Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, and Applied Physics and ¹û¶³´«Ã½ have also become well-connected to EIRES, Van de Sanden is pleased to witness. ‘Next to that, we have managed to attract a myriad of partners from outside university in articulating demands for our scientific research.’

We were set with the task to program research across ¹û¶³´«Ã½â€™s disciplinary departments and in conjunction with industry.

Richard van de Sanden

‘When we started out, we basically had a phone book role,’ Boneschanscher explains how the institute’s role has evolved over the years. ‘We directed people who came looking for an expert on e.g. energy technology to the right researchers on campus. As one of our first actions, we performed an elaborate landscape analysis to determine what contribution this university could make, and what our unique research profile should be.’ ‘From our extensive conversations with different stakeholders, both inside and outside of university, we soon decided to focus on modular, scalable systems, and to help stimulate the Dutch manufacturing industry to produce these systems or components thereof,’ Van de Sanden adds.

Risky move

At that time, the choice for this specific focus was a rather risky move, both men remember. Boneschanscher explains: ‘Up until then, the prevailing idea had been that we needed to focus on converting existing chemical plants into new, fully sustainable industrial sites. But we have witnessed over the past decades that renewable energy technologies like solar panels and batteries are developing way faster than anyone could have predicted. Modular technology penetrates the market faster, is more cost efficient, more easily accessible to a larger group of people, and poses less risk of a technological lock-in than large scale systems. In other words: if you want to accelerate the energy transition, you should not go for bulky, costly changes, but for smaller-scale, modular technologies instead. And by establishing an industry to produce these systems, you can create an economic advantage and earning capacity for the years to come.’

Modular technology penetrates the market faster, is more cost efficient, more easily accessible to a larger group of people, and poses less risk of a technological lock-in than large scale systems. In other words: if you want to accelerate the energy transition, you should not go for bulky, costly changes, but for smaller-scale, modular technologies instead. And by establishing an industry to produce these systems, you can create an economic advantage and earning capacity for the years to come.’

Setting agenda’s

By consistently delivering this message in its expanding network, EIRES has helped set the agenda for energy policies at a regional and a national level, Boneschanscher and Van de Sanden say with pride. ‘Until 5 years ago, climate policies were all about direct reductions of CO₂. As a result, a manufacturer producing electrolyzers could not claim any funds from climate policy schemes.

Instead, they would have to compete in high tech granting rounds. Now, an organization like the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) has a scheme called IMKE that is specifically designed for the manufacturing industry producing electrolyzers, batteries or solar panels,’ Boneschanscher says.

‘The fact that the Brabant Development Agency (BOM) is now actively stimulating entrepreneurship in this field, and that the National Growth Fund Programs on Circular Batteries, SolarNL and GroenvermogenNL have allocated parts of their budgets to the manufacturing industry, are clear signs that our message is resonating,’ Van de Sanden adds.

The reason why EIRES is lobbying for a strong energy technology manufacturing industry is threefold, both men explain. First of all, the manufacturing industry is simply needed to produce the small scale renewable energy systems the researchers are working on.

But there is more. Van de Sanden: ‘Traditionally, in the Netherlands, we harbor a lot of energy-intensive industry that set up their base here because we could supply them with cheap gas. Now, we have to come up with new ideas to create earning capacity.’ ‘Also here in the Brainport region, there is a need to diversify the value chains, and create synergy to the economic dependence of companies like ASML, DAF and Philips,’ Boneschanscher adds.

Demonstrate possibilities

Besides consistently conveying this same message at every possible occasion, EIRES also quite literally puts its money where its mouth is. Van de Sanden: ‘We initiate collaborations and programs to demonstrate what is possible when you take a holistic, systems thinking approach. Take the recently started GENIUS project, which brings together energy, artificial intelligence and asset management to prevent grid congestion on campus.

Large scale projects on topics like hydrogen and recycling tend to be very slow. Small scale projects like GENIUS fit the manufacturing industry better, and lead to much faster innovation and actual impact.’

Boneschanscher: ‘This project is a nice illustration of our philosophy: when it comes to the energy transition, we should stop talking, and start acting. It helps if you just start implementing things together, solving any problems you might encounter along the way. And it also is a demonstration of our added value as an institute and its program officers.

We are in no way competing with the academic departments, but we create synergies by actively connecting research, innovation and business, involving the principal investigators of the departments. And this approach works: though the GENIUS project itself is rather modest in size, the spin out has already been tremendous. There are three follow up programs in the making, and we get many requests from people who want to come here and witness what we are doing.’

By consistently delivering this message in its expanding network, EIRES has helped set the agenda for energy policies at a regional and a national level.

Mark Boneschanscher

As a research institute located at a university, EIRES has an indirect link with educating the next generation. ‘We are not an educational institute,’ Van de Sanden stresses, ‘but of course, we acknowledge the intertwinement between research and education. So, naturally, our efforts to program research indirectly also affect the energy-related education on campus, if only since our researchers are the ones teaching the courses.

But as an institute, our involvement in the educational programs is limited. We only get involved with educational activities that specifically focus on impacting the energy transition, like the energy transition honors track or related student teams.’ ‘From the sidelines, we are somewhat involved with the master program Sustainable Energy Technology, but again, more specifically on the impact aspects thereof.

And indeed, we happily support the energy-related student teams on campus, for example by providing coaching and access to our network of researchers and companies,’ Boneschanscher adds.

Return on investment

In 2025, EIRES finds itself at a tipping point, the managing director says. ‘We are on the verge of our mid term review, based on which the university’s Executive Board has to decide on future funding.’ The ten million euros that were originally allocated to the institute has been money well-spent, the directors argue.

‘So far, the energy research community in Eindhoven has managed to earn each year at least triple that amount in grants they obtained for their research. Our role as an institute has been to stimulate and facilitate scientists in this, by scouting for interesting funding schemes, bringing together researchers and industrial partners on topics of mutual interest, aiding in consortium formation, and providing support in writing grants,’ Boneschanscher summarizes.

‘In addition, our program managers have been instrumental in increasing the presence of ¹û¶³´«Ã½ at relevant bodies and influencing new programs and calls for research proposals,’ Van de Sanden says.

Looking ahead

When asked what the institute intends to focus on for the next years, both managers are unanimous. ‘Now that the research staff is rather well-connected across the different departments, we want to also get master students, PhD researchers and postdocs more involved in our activities. When it comes to programming research, our first priority is to further develop the Future Chemistry program, adding the new projects that will be funded through the Growth Fund Groenvermogen and establishing synergy and cross-fertilization between everything that is going on in Eindhoven in that field.

In addition, we want to expand our research portfolio by defining new interdisciplinary programs, for example on the topic of materials science and end-of-life issues surrounding renewable energy technology.’

Another strong wish both men share is to establish a central energy lab on campus, bringing together all of the existing energy related facilities. ‘By directly coupling existing facilities like SolarBEAT to storage solutions (e.g. GENIUS) and the Eindhoven Grid lab, we can evolve from research at a device level to research a system level, enhancing the relevance of our research for industry and society.’

All in all, the directors look back with pride on what has been achieved over the past five years, and eagerly look forward to building on these strong foundations for the future. Boneschanscher concludes: ‘So far, it has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with this team of talented and passionate people on our shared dream of making the energy transition a reality. We can’t wait to write our next chapter.’