Of €450,000,000 set aside by The Hague to improve education for the microchip sector in the Netherlands, 34 per cent flows to the regions of Twente, Delft and Groningen. According to Nieuw Sociaal Contract (NSC), this is too little, while to Eindhoven, the €275,000,000, would be just too much money.
The Members of Parliament want clarification on this, according to parliamentary questions that have been raised. This happened after Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RUG) critisiced that too little money is going to their university.
In fact, RUG submitted a proposal worth €265,000,000 – more than half of the available funds. This while there is hardly any microchip industry present in the region.
According to the NSC fraction, the growth in Groningen and Twente, among others, should be stimulated more, partly because there is more living space for students in the cities. At the same time, the Brainport Region should actually be relieved because livability and facilities in the region are already under pressure they say.
“Illogical”
Allocating more money to the ‘strongest region’ at this time is illogical in the opinion of NSC. In addition, NSC also thinks that investments in, for example, Arnhem/Nijmegen, Almere and Limburg should be looked at. In those areas the microchip sector is hardly present, but the sector is not present in Groningen either. The group wants to know why Groningen can expect funding, and the other regions cannot.
68 per cent
Through 2030, the need for technical personnel is expected to grow by an additional 38,000 jobs; 26,000 of those jobs will be created in the Eindhoven region. With this, a good 68 per cent of the chip sector growth lies in the Eindhoven region, while only 63 per cent of the available funds will go directly to Eindhoven.
In Twente, the demand for personnel in the microchip sector is expected to rise by 10 per cent, while 17 per cent (€72 million) of the Beethoven money will flow to that region. Delft gets 10 per cent of the money (€43 million) while the expected growth there is 4 per cent. Finally, Groningen gets 7 per cent (€29 million).
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
