The universities aim to strengthen their interaction with the business world and collaborate in the fields of education and research. Wageningen’s membership raises the prospects of brings in the possibility of interesting combinations of high-tech and agrofood, they say.
The boards of the four universities announced their plan to turn 3TU into 4TU in January. The staff-student councils and supervisory boards in Delft, Twente, Eindhoven and Wageningen endorsed this resolution in the spring. The technical universities already have five joint Master’s programmes, a teacher-training programme, nine research centres and a join data centre. Now that Wageningen University is on board, they intend to explore the possibilities for new joint research programmes. Topics they have in mind include data collection and data analysis for food safety; systems design for the food production chain; simulation of photosynthesis in new materials as an energy source; and the ethical implications of technological innovations. The 4TU federation expects the first joint activities to start in 2017.