By: Tim van der Hagen, Rector Magnificus / President of the Board
In 2022, our university celebrates its 180th anniversary. For the past 180 years we have been building the future. Our research has created new knowledge and insight. Through design, engineering and innovation we have shared that knowledge with society. Our graduates have made the Delft engineer a byword for problem-solving and getting things done. Our campus has grown into a community where researchers are working hand in hand with entrepreneurial spirits to bring ideas and inventions to fruition. Our joint efforts have contributed to prosperity, safety and wellbeing in the Netherlands and beyond.
Immensely proud as we are of these achievements, we must also acknowledge that they have contributed to what we now see as the flipside of industrial development and economic growth: pollution, dwindling natural resources and climate change.
We will make sure we are also part of the solution. To achieve this, we equip new generations of engineers with the knowledge and skills they need to meet today’s challenges. We focus on concrete solutions through innovation, and we work on new research findings that may lead to prospective solutions. Our campus community is evolving into an innovative ecosystem, a space for the kind of co-creation that can accelerate innovation, so our latest discoveries can create impact in society at the earliest opportunity.
In the fight against climate change – our biggest challenge – the energy transition is a crucial weapon. Only if our energy system is carbon neutral by 2050 will we be able to mitigate the effects of climate change. But at the current pace, we will not get there in thirty years’ time. That is why ‘speeding up the energy transition' is the theme for our anniversary year – a year in which we celebrate our active role in the energy transition. In this edition of Home of Innovation you will read all about the movers and shakers who are making it come about: a clean, affordable, safe and reliable energy system in order to hold climate change in check.