Amsterdam wil nieuw wetenschappelijk topinstituut

Eind vorig jaar meldde Het Parool dat de Amsterdamse PvdA-fractievoorzitter Frank de Wolf graag een nieuwe universiteit binnen de muren van de stad zou laten verrijzen. Dat zou wel bij Station Sloterdijk kunnen, waar toch genoeg kantoorpanden leegstaan.

Nu komt zijn partijgenoot, wethouder Carolien Gehrels van economische zaken, werkelijk met een voorstel, aldus NRC Handelsblad. De gemeente stelt grond, patenten en gebouwen ter beschikking. Ook is er een fonds van vijftig miljoen euro. Maar bedrijven zullen het grootste deel van de investeringen op zich moeten nemen. Het idee erachter is om Amsterdam als economisch centrum te versterken.

Het grote voorbeeld is New York, waar zoiets ook is gedaan. De twee Amsterdamse universiteiten mogen er aan meewerken, maar het instituut moet wel zelfstandig zijn. Bestaande universiteiten zijn volgens een adviseur van de wethouder op zichzelf gericht, terwijl er juist grensoverschrijdende samenwerking is vereist tussen wetenschappers, bedrijven en overheid.

Name: Diego Quintero Pulido (MSc Sustainable Energy Technology)
Brand: Batavus
Price: 140 euros
Striking feature: Pretty fast   

“As soon as arrived in the Netherlands, I bought a bike from the shop in front of TU Delft’s Sport Center. My first bike was a yellow mountain bike with nice accessories, secondhand, but in a good shape. The first day I got a flat tire and had to have it fixed. That was the first time I learned that it’s really expensive to repair a bike in the Netherlands: it cost me more than 12.00 euros. Since that day I’ve tried to fix my bike myself. I didn’t have to search for the bike, as the university gives us the opportunity to buy one really easy on campus, although really expensively for a secondhand bike. 

For international students it’s very important to use bikes, as bus and tram are expensive. The bike then is an important way of transport – fast and cheap. The Netherlands has a culture of bikes, and I learned during my time here that the most important part of culture is trying to be part of it somehow, and one way of doing that was by using a bike every day. 

I use my bike for everything, from shopping to going to university, and I also used to travel between cities. In the summer I use it to go to the beach in Den Haag and also to the markets in Rotterdam and to Alexandrium shopping centre. 

The bike I have now is a racing bike; it doesn’t have any special features, but it is a pretty fast bike. I like everything about my bike, and it has especially nice wheels. I try to fix my bike myself, and the last time I had problems with a wheel I bought a new wheel and put it on with tools that I bought for bikes at Gama. Once I rode to the beach in The Hague, but once there something went seriously wrong with my bike and I ended up having to walk all the way back to Delft because I did not have any money that day. It took me more than 3 hours to walk back to home. I hated my bike that day.”