On March 1st, Christophe van der Maat (State Secretary of Defence), Martijn van Gruijthuijsen (deputy of the province of North Brabant), Brigit van Dijk (Brabant Development Agency (BOM) and Paul van Nunen signed a declaration of intent on innovation on behalf of Brainport Development. Through more intensive and long-term collaboration, they will be looking at how the technological power of the unique ecosystem in the south of the Netherlands can be used for defense innovation.
Strategical collaboration
The Brainport region is a promising environment with many opportunities in the broad playing field of technological development. The Ministry of Defense already has various good initiatives and partnerships in this region, both in terms of knowledge and technology development and product development and innovation. Through the Safety and Security Campus located at Oirschot, the Ministry of Defense as well as the police, fire brigade, customs and the municipality of Oirschot work together on innovation and shared security issues.
Letter of intent
The letter of intent offers a starting point for better connecting these projects, people and knowledge, making collaboration more effective and structural. BOM guarantees the connection with other regions in the Netherlands through coordination and cooperation with the national regional development companies. The collaboration starts immediately with a first phase of two years. It examines how effective collaboration can be achieved. The parties aim to start work on the first projects before the summer. At the same time, we look at which capacities (knowledge, people and resources) are needed and available for a longer period of time.
