Philips, DSM and seventeen other organisations thread to relocate parts of their research departments to other countries if the government is unwilling to invest in research in biomedical materials. Vice president Jan Zuidam of DSM states “it’s minute to twelve, the competition is closing in on us and we do not want to be shushed anymore.”

The research demands 120 million euro for the first 5 years. The companies want to invest half of that amount their selves. The ministry of Economic Affairs has postponed the decision for the million euro support twice already. In September last year the government had to make this decision, but postponed it to January this year, however now it looks like the decision will be made in May. According to Zuidam in the Parool that constant delay breaded bad blood among the participants of the research to biomedical materials, like bandages that accurately distribute medicines to the body or coatings needed to insert operation equipment in the body.

The companies under the guidance of DSM has the ambition to bring the Netherlands in this research field to a high level, to world leadership. “But we do not want to wait any longer. We can go to other places like Singapore or the US, but we try to save this project for the Netherlands by asking the government to make a decision quickly.”

Source: Science Guide