Science Centre Director to leave because of a ‘difference in approach’

This is what TU Delft’s Communications Director Carola de Vree wrote in an email to her staff. In terms of organisation, the Science Centre falls under the Communications department. It is the successor of the Technique Museum and was founded in 2009. Van der Meer has been its Director since the start.

In her email, De Vree noted that she and Van der Meer have different ideas about the future of TU Delft’s public centre. She refers to a ‘new phase’ of cutbacks on the one hand, and growth plans with campuses in The Hague and Rotterdam on the other. De Vree says that it is ‘important to bring focus and to look for new means of financing and positioning … This calls for different kinds of knowledge, skills and management.’ She says that it was a hard decision to take.

Moving

Exactly where Van der Meer and De Vree were not in agreement is not clear in the email. Neither were prepared to answer Delta’s questions while the discussions about the stepping down of the Director are ongoing.

The Science Centre had to reinvent itself after the Executive Board’s decision in 2020 that it had to move. The Board had sold the large historic building on the Mijnbouwstraat in TU Delft north to the Royal HaskoningDHV engineering company. Doing so was part of the campus strategy to move all outlying parts of TU Delft to the centre and south of the campus in order to use the space efficiently.

• Also read: Was the sale of the old Mijnbouw building loss-making? ‘It is hard to compare costs and benefits’

For the Science Centre, this decision meant moving from a large, atmospheric historic building close to the city centre of Delft to a generic office block on the edge of campus. The new location has been partly open since 2022. In 2024, Van der Meer came up with a new concept after which a renovation was done. The official reopening is due in phases from Saturday 22 Februari onwards.

De Vree’s email suggests that the Head of Corporate Communications, Evelyne Esveld, will take on Van der Meer’s tasks. Her job is to compile a multi-year strategy with the staff of the Science Centre. After that, a successor will be found.