
Starting in 2022, Twice's hub Catalyst will have a new resident: the Smart Biomaterials Consortium Foundation. The objective of this recently established foundation is to realise a high-quality infrastructure of a production ecosystem for bio- and biocompatible materials for life sciences applications, in particular for use in regenerative medicine. This form of medicine is aimed at developing new treatments that make smart use of the self-healing capacity of the human body.
The Smart Biomaterials Consortium Foundation will realise two facilities: a development facility and a pilot production facility. SBMC will first of all set up a 'Pilot factory' for regenerative medicine in the context of the growth fund programme RegMed XB. This is being carried out in collaboration with a hub in Leiden, Utrecht and Maastricht. The consortium will jointly receive 56 million euros from the National Growth Fund for this. Of this grant, 12.8 million euros will go to the Smart Biomaterials Consortium.
Development facility and pilot production location
The development facility will be realised in the vicinity of Eindhoven University of Technology. In the development facility, parties work together in projects on the optimised production and assembly of biomaterials (including hydrogels), functional testing, assessment and prediction of implant function, scale-up problems and the restrictions for clinical production.
In the pilot production location, the focus is on the industrial production of biomaterials and degradable implants.
“Innovation and development projects will be carried out in the facilities to gain knowledge about biomaterials, their processing and their application in conjunction with production processes and scalability”, says Jan Rietsema (quartermaster SBMC).
About the Smart Biomaterials Consortium Foundation
The Smart Biomaterials Consortium Foundation will start off with office and laboratory spaces in the business centre, Catalyst, on the TU/e Campus in Eindhoven. The initiative for the foundation was taken by the Brabant Development Agency (BOM), the Province of Noord-Brabant and TU/e.
Board members include Peter Struik (chairman, Executive Director FUJIFILM Europe), Menno Lammers (treasurer, VP Biomaterials Corbion), Joep Brouwers (secretary, on the recommendation of the Province of Noord-Brabant), Judith Heikoop (CEO Vivolta), Erik Rutten (DPI, Business Development Manager Biomedical Polymers) and Frank Baaijens (Rector Magnificus TU/e, on the recommendation of TU/e).