TU Delft puts money into companies, TU/e does not

While TU Delft invests money in companies such as HollandPTC and does not shy away from financial risks, TU Eindhoven does not put money into companies. So reports Cursor, TU/e’s independent news website.

Dutch newspaper NRC recently reported that HollandPTC, the proton clinic on the TU Delft campus, is in financial dire straits from its inception in 2018. This is partly because patient numbers are lagging behind expectations. TU Delft is keeping the clinic afloat with cash injections and would pay for it together with the academic centres of Rotterdam and Leiden, should the clinic go bankrupt.

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Commenting on the NRC article, the rector magnificus and college president Tim van der Hagen explained why it still continues to invest in HollandPTC. It would stand for something bigger: “The way a modern university should stand in the world. Not just making inventions in dusty laboratories, but bringing innovations ‘to society; making sure they also have a function outside academia.”

TU/e holds a different view. “We do not invest TU/e money in participations or other companies”, says a spokesperson. Yet the university is a shareholder in dozens of spin-offs, startups and other companies. How does that work? The TU/e invests in the form of knowledge, Cursor noted. The shares it receives in return, it disposes of them “when we are confident that the company is in good independent standing”.