A look at the Industrial Liaison Officer (ILO) network

Making things run smoothly

The position of ILO is not new. The NWO Executive Board approved the appointment of ILOs and the funding of the ILO network about 15 years ago. Since then, the network has grown and the website bigscience.nl has been launched, with 13 associated Big Science organisations. In December 2022, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy awarded funding for a period of 4 years. NWO also supports the ILO network via the involved institutes and the NWO-I office. The most important goal of the ILO network is to identify Dutch high-tech companies for the institutes and Big Science organisations, and to bring these parties into contact with each other. “So that Dutch industry can win challenging contracts”, says Gerard Cornet. “As an ILO, you ensure that everything runs smoothly”, adds Jan Visser.

Importance for the Dutch economy

Gerard Cornet was a policy officer at SRON and coordinator of the ILO network for five years. His retirement in October 2023 was marked with a special symposium about the importance of industrial involvement in large-scale scientific infrastructure. Via this edition of Inside NWO-I, he would like to raise the profile of the ILO network by making a resounding plea for it. “We need to advance science and underline its importance for the Dutch economy”, because, he states, “many studies show that an investment in Big Science yields multiple returns on investment in a wide range of applications that generate wide-ranging benefits for society.

International prestige

The Netherlands was a founding member of the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and CERN (a European organisation that conducts fundamental research into elementary particles, for which Nikhef serves as a home base, ed.).

Cornet: “The World Wide Web, which originated at CERN, is the best-known example of this kind of application that benefits society. The Netherlands has a lot of high-tech companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises, which can compete at an international level. However, without a concerted effort, the Netherlands cannot maintain its position as a frontrunner in innovation. Specific support would help, such as funding for companies that often need to prefinance the development of technology for Big Science.”

Other roles

Jan Visser gained his PhD from Nikhef and is now a full-time ILO at the institute. In mid-2021, he succeeded Cornet as coordinator of the ILO network. Visser explains that, broadly speaking, the connection between industry and science has three variants. “Selling components or systems, co-development and knowledge transfer. CERN does all the development itself and subsequently tells industry ‘to apply for a tender and produce it’. ESA outsources all development, which means there is development in cooperation with industry.”

“Subsequently, there is the knowledge transfer variant: scientific institutions try to share their knowledge with a company that can use this to become more innovative. Each ILO has a different combination of roles, depending on how an organisation operates. DIFFER, for example, develops a lot for the international nuclear fusion reactor ITER that is under construction in France. The common factor is that all ILOs continue to actively search for companies that can contribute to development.”

Industry afternoons

Despite the different positions and accents in their jobs, the ILOs from the institutes work together well because the Big Science organisations use a lot of overlapping technology. The ILO network organises joint industry afternoons where each ILO presents the possibilities, which in most cases concern upcoming tenders, within the Big Science organisations. Sometimes there are theme days, says Visser: “Last year, at SRON, we held a workshop about cryogenics (technology for extremely low temperatures, ed.) and one about knowledge transfer. On 3 May, DIFFER – in cooperation with the ILO network – organised the Dutch Fusion Day, and on 12 June, we will convene a meeting at Nikhef about Advanced Instrumentation.“

Champions League

“The world market has grown so fast and changed so much that companies can manage without Big Science but the converse is not true”, opines Visser. “Companies have a variety of motivations to bid for contracts: some want to be able to call CERN their client because it represents the Champions League; the absolute top in technology and science. A small group of companies see Big Science as a chance to innovate. Their reasoning is as follows: ‘If we participate in Big Science, then we will be challenged and learn things that we can use to improve or develop our company portfolio or to retain good people.”

Early-stage involvement

Cornet and Visser wholeheartedly agree about one thing: it is crucial to involve companies in big-science developments at an early stage’. Visser: “So, in other words, as soon as a Big Science organisation has an idea, it should involve companies from that stage onwards. By doing so, a Big Science organisation – or we at Nikhef – can forestall companies turning around and saying: ‘We do not know how you conceived this product but we foresee problems and cannot produce it’.”

“However, companies also understand that Big Science organisations have an engineering department and are quite capable of developing technology at a fundamental level. In general, the best way to secure their interest is by involving companies in early-stage developments. I try to convince the technical group leaders at Nikhef of this as well by asking them to seek advice from industry once the research group starts a new project for which they foresee that companies have a role to play during the production phase. The earlier this contact is made, the better.”

Click with Big Science

Once every two years, nine large European Big Science organisations (together with a number of smaller ones) organise the Big Science Business Forum (BSBF) at which they present their future investments. This event attracts 1200 participants from industry. In October 2024, the BSBF will be held in Trieste, Italy. Visser indicates that he has already received commitments to attend the event from 17 Dutch companies. He is aiming for 20 participants. Visser: “Within two days, companies can find out whether they have a click with the needs of Big Science. BSBF regularly results in successful contracts. The company ATG Europe produces a lot for the space industry and, partly thanks to BSBF2022, it came into contact with ITER.”

Also at the European level

Cornet and Visser are pleased with NWO-I’s recognition of the ILO network and with the funding from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy. The ILOs also talk to each other at a European level. NWO-I (the ILO network) had the same aim when it participated in the H2020 funding project ENRIITC, the pan-European network for collaboration of Big Science institutions and industry: this network of industrial contact persons and liaison officers was meant to improve the collaboration between Big Science and industry and stimulate Europe’s innovation ecosystem.

Cornet points out that the insights from ENRIITC (concluded in 2023) have been published in a book about Big Science. NWO-I is cooperating on the follow-up of ENRIITC, which is called INPROCAP. Recently, the European Framework Programme awarded funding to this follow-up: European colleagues and NWO-I ILOs will together examine how companies and Big Science organisations can optimally respond to questions from science, thereby promoting innovation.

Professionalisation

Partly in view of how other countries fill in the role of ILOs, both men are of the view that the position of ILOs within NWO-I merits further professionalisation as well. Cornet: “As a vital liaising function, the position of ILO deserves to be permanently embedded and recognised.” Visser asserts that an active ILO contributes to realising and maintaining relationships between industry and Big Science organisations. “I’m always on the lookout for unique competencies. For example, if a company can print porous metal, then I think: ‘That could be useful for CERN’.”

“Last October, representatives from CERN visited Dutch companies. Due to their full agendas, they need to be certain in advance that such companies have competences that could be useful for CERN. Conversely, companies often have no idea that with their technology, they could make a contribution to a project at Big Science organisations. ‘I see it as my task to convince them that, on the basis of their competencies, they should bid for CERN tenders.”

More information

Would you like to know more about Big Science? Please visit the Big Science website. There, you can also read which research organisations are affiliated with Big Science.nl (ILO network).

Text: Anita van Stel

Newsletter Inside NWO-I, May 2024
You can find the archive of the newsletter Inside NWO-I on the NWO-I website.