North Rhine-Westphalia supports 3D Competency Centre and Entrepreneurship Offensive at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences

Bild
Grant agreements are formally presented by Minister Duin to President Naderer and other project representatives.

The Land of North Rhine-Westphalia has recently earmarked some four million euros in funding for two major projects involving Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences: the development of a 3D Competency Centre at the Kamp-Lintfort Campus and an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Offensive for the Lower Rhine region. In an official ceremony, Garrelt Duin, Minister of Economic Affairs in North Rhine-Westphalia, presented two formal grant agreements to President Heide Naderer of Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences and other project representatives from Ruhr-West University of Applied Sciences, RWTH Aachen University and the University of Duisburg-Essen. Minister Duin stressed that “the ingenuity of small and medium-sized enterprises is a deciding factor in our ability to weather future economic crises. These two projects in particular make lasting contributions to the better transfer of knowledge between academia and the private sector, which enhances our regional enterprises’ potential for innovation.”

3D Competency Centre Lower Rhine

Additive manufacturing and 3D printing have become integral parts of the Industry 4.0 landscape. Developing a competency centre for 3D printing at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences in Kamp-Lintfort will advance the transfer of knowledge and technology between academia and business. The Land government has dedicated 3.3 million euros towards this collaborative project of Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Ruhr-West University of Applied Sciences and RWTH Aachen University. This is the highest funding volume for any single project within the Land’s ongoing regional development programme Regio.NRW.

IGNI – The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Offensive for the Lower Rhine

This project is a joint effort of Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences and the University of Duisburg-Essen with the common goal of bringing entrepreneurs and academic researchers together in collaborative projects via various networking event strategies. Also planned are an innovation-focused network and the development of a support platform at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences for start-up activities originating at Lower Rhine universities in particular. The Land government will be supporting the realisation of this project over the next three years to the tune of 700,000 EUR.

Funding for both projects comes from the European Funds for Regional Development (EFRD) and resources from the current Land budget. Both projects were submitted for appraisal as part of an open call for the Region.NRW development programme and selected for funding by a committee of experts.

 

Information

Queries from the press

Press office of the state chancellery in Düsseldorf

Rabea.Ottenhues@mweimh.nrw.de

Tel.: 0211/61772 -124