On Monday, October 28, Minister Kamp (Economic Affairs) visited Innovation Cluster member BD Kiestra. An important moment for the cluster and for Kiestra to draw attention to developments in the High Tech field in the Northern Netherlands. The Minister received extensive information about the history and innovative strength of BD Kiestra and of course a tour showing the latest technologies…

On Friday, October 4, Mr Wientjes, chairman of the business organization VNO-NCW, visited Drachten and the Innovation Cluster with a delegation. During this visit they were informed about developments in the municipality of Smallingerland, the plans of the Innovation Cluster and the product developments of a number of participating companies. The Innovation Cluster is working hard to generate a greater…

The students are asked to invent a gadget that has a stress-reducing effect. The invention may be electronic, megatronic or mechanical. The final is in June 2014, where all teams can show and explain their inventions. Due to the renovation of the theatre, the final will take place at a different, special location.

The project office will help the cluster to further increase the joint activities so that the cluster can do even more to attract and retain talent. Joost Krebbekx van Berenschot will start up and lead the project office. He has been actively involved in the previous phase and also has a large network in the Netherlands…

Months of inventing, preparing, testing, adjusting, testing again preceded it; and finally on June 4, 2013, the students were allowed to show their inventions. The Innovatiecluster Drachten had organized this competition with the question: invent something that promotes the self-reliance of older or less able people. And the students have…