The Smartest Places on Earth

by Antoine van Agtmael

  The Netherlands: The Akron of Europe?

  The coal-mining district in the southern part of the Netherlands is a classic example of a sleeping beauty searching for a prince to unleash its potential. The Dutch government closed the mines in the early 1960s after the biggest natural gas reserve in Europe was discovered in the northern part of the country. Initially, the closure was seen as a disaster, especially for employment, because the owner of the mines, DSM, was the largest employer in the area. DSM, however, turned to the production of basic chemicals, using a site near the abandoned mines. This provided employment for many years, but in the 1990s DSM decided to transform again, this time to the production of vitamins and bio-based materials. The unions and local authorities feared that the most important employer in the region would now leave and jobs would be lost forever. But Feike Sijbesma, who became CEO of DSM in 2007, convinced all concerned that his company would not only stay in the region but would enhance its role in the region. How? Sijbesma proposed the establishment of a research campus where companies and researchers could advance the field of bio-based materials, and which would be sited on the former DSM chemical-production site, near the city of Maastricht.

  The Netherlands has a long history of leadership in new materials development. Almost a century ago, the government created the National Aerospace Laboratory26 (NAL) to conduct research with two partners: KLM, the Royal Dutch Airlines, which was one of the first commercial airline companies in the world; and Fokker, the pioneering aircraft builder. The goal of the research was to make aircraft more reliable and efficient, and one of the most important contributors to these characteristics is the performance of the materials that make up the aircraft. In the 1980s, materials research focused on synthetic fibers. Two Dutch chemical companies, Akzo and DSM, introduced the synthetic fibers Twaron and Dymeera, which are similar to Kevlar, created by DuPont, but even stronger. Those fibers became key ingredients in the thermoset composite materials that became standard in the automotive and aerospace sector.

  Since the late 1990s, Sijbesma has been the connector in the southern region. His greatest contribution was to eliminate the skepticism prevalent in the trade unions and with the local authorities. He always thought in terms of solutions rather than about problems. This enabled him to shape the circumstances that ultimately led to a deal bringing the University of Maastricht, the local authorities, and his own company together as equal partners in the research campus, which is strongly focused on bio-based material research. Open innovation became the mantra, and the campus on the former chemical production site was named Chemelot, a combination of the words chemical and Camelot, the legendary city of King Arthur and his knights.

  Eventually, more than fifty companies moved to Chemelot, creating over 1,100 high-quality jobs. Among them is Avantium,27 a spin-off of Shell Oil company. It specializes in research on catalysts for companies such as BP, Shell, DSM, and Coca-Cola. Leveraging this knowledge, researchers at Avantium discovered how to substitute PEF—a plant-based, renewable material—for the ubiquitous PET now used for plastic bottles. In 2012, Avantium built a pilot plant on the Chemelot campus with the support of such partners as Coca-Cola, Danone, and the Austrian packaging firm ALPLA. The construction of a commercial facility got underway in 2015.

  Another Chemelot company is QTIS/e, a start-up whose goal is to develop new materials for health-care applications.28 Two bioengineers, Mirjam Rubbens and Martijn Cox, are conducting breakthrough research into living heart valves. In close cooperation with materials experts, they developed and patented a biodegradable polymer that merges with healthy body cells to create new vessel-and-valve tissue. Gradually, the new tissue takes over the original body function and the polymer melts away. The huge advantage is that young children who are born with a heart defect (4,000 each year in Europe alone) can have the problem corrected with a single operation, instead of the two or three operations that are commonly required with other plastic heart valves. The new technology has been tested in animals, and ten human patients have been successfully treated. Cox, now chief scientific officer of the company, said that in 2016, clinical tests with a larger group of heart patients will be done: “If these tests are successful, the commercial introduction of the valves will start in 2018.”29

  Collaboration among local authorities, the university, and private companies was a critical ingredient in the creation and success of Chemelot. In recent years, the university has established some of its master’s programs in Chemelot, and both research and teaching are done in close collaboration with the companies located on campus. With a generous ten-year, €600-million investment from the deep-pocketed province of Limburg, the initiative has been able to attract top-notch talent. Professor Peter Peters, for example, made the move from Amsterdam where he was working at the Free University and the famous cancer hospital Antoni van Leeuwenhoek AVL, to Maastricht to assume leadership of the newly created Institute for Nanoscopy.30 Peters and his team will be exploring how cancer and some infectious diseases originate, and their work will be enabled by the use of specialized microscopes, thanks to financial support from DSM. Another big academic fish, Clemens van Blitterswijk—named the most entrepreneurial professor in Holland—left Twente Technical University to go to Maastricht University with a group of twenty researchers to specialize in tissue engineering.31 The group is using stem cells to create smart materials that can rebuild tissue and repair bones. Beyond his own research, van Blitterswijk’s goal is to work closely with DSM and other companies at the Chemelot campus to create a “pool of spin-offs.”

  From Textiles to Thermoplastics

  As we have seen, the polymer research in Ohio is not confined to the Akron area but is spread through the region, and there are strong ties between the different areas and institutions—the same is true for the Netherlands. In addition to the former coal-mining rustbelt of the south, there is much materials activity in Twente, located in the eastern part of the country near the German border, where the textile industry had blossomed for more than a century. In the 1960s and 1970s, cheap labor competition from countries in Southern Europe had a devastating effect on employment, just as it had in Maastricht. TenCate, one of the companies located in Twente, had been focused on the creation of thermoset composite materials. But these were difficult to manufacture and could not be recycled. After ten years of work, an engineer of TenCate patented a new production procedure for a material called Cetex, a more flexible thermoplastic composite that could be more easily produced in a variety of configurations.

  The production process for making Cetex, like the thermoplastics that came before it, is based on traditional weaving methods long practiced in the area. The first step is the weaving together of very thin synthetic fibers. Loek de Vries, CEO of TenCate, explained that weaving thin silk without breakage is an art.32 Expertise in weaving creates thermoplastic materials that are strong and highly shock resistant. And through application of a patented coating, the material can also be made resistant to dampness and fire.

  TenCate has focused its application of Cetex on three global niche markets: defense and security, aerospace- automotive, and artificial turf of the kind used in fields for American football and European soccer, as well as for public lawns in hot regions such as the Middle East. TenCate, which has become a world leader in artificial turf, continues to work with partners to make the material more flexible, durable, and safe for users.

  TenCate has built a strong position with its thermoplastics in the aerospace components market, where the materials must perform in extreme conditions and where failure can lead to catastrophe. The materials must withstand wide temperature fluctuations, from –55 degrees to +45 degrees C, or –67 degrees to +113 degrees F. In extreme cold, the fiber must not become so brittle that it might crack or shatter. In high heat, it cannot become overly flexible or reach the melting point. The material must also be able to endure the intense forces that an aircraft experiences during takeoff, landing, and turbulence.


  TenCate has always worked in brainsharing relationships with its clients, one of which is the Dutch company Fokker. Fokker went through a bankruptcy in 1996, then emerged as a components company, focused on fuselage, wing parts, and landing gear.33 Fokker’s chief technology officer, Wim Pasteuning, explained the importance of the collaboration with TenCate in the research into thermoplastics for its products. TenCate was required to test the materials frequently to achieve the certifications required for use in aerospace applications. “They were prepared to do this,” Pasteuning told us, “even when they knew we would order only in small quantities.”34 But for TenCate, it was a way to improve its product and reach the highest standards, and to expand its commercial activities gradually to enter the profitable automotives market.

  Over the years, TenCate and Fokker also worked closely with the National Aerospace Laboratory and the technical universities of Delft and Twente. In 2009, these partners shared their brainpower with Boeing in the Thermoplastic Composite Research Center (TPRC), which is located on the campus of Twente University, not far from TenCate’s head office.

  Now TenCate is building on its materials expertise in the aerospace sector to expand the use of thermoplastics in automobiles. In 2013, TenCate and the Swiss automotive parts producer Kringlan signed a cooperation agreement to produce molded composite structures, such as car wheels, and in 2011 BMW, the German carmaker, took a 17.5 percent minority stake in the start-up. BMW seeks to replace steel wheels with the lighter composites, and Kringlan is the first company that can produce them in the necessary volumes. The wheels will be 30 to 40 percent lighter than steel ones, which will reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

  The sharing of TenCate’s expertise with materials and Kringlan’s skill in manufacturing, combined with their deep knowledge of the automotive and aerospace industries, is sure to contribute to a safer, more fuel-efficient generation of vehicles on our roads and our aircraft in the skies.

  Chapter Four

  WHITE COATS AND BLUE COLLARS

  Cross-Boundary Collaborations in Bioscience and Medical Devices

  Not every brainbelt emerges from a rustbelt and not every seminal figure in the story conforms to the profile of a prominent, larger-than-life connector such as Alain Kaloyeros or the governors in North Carolina or Malmö. In Minneapolis, for example, the presence of a large company, Medtronic, loomed large. No single person played the role of connector; rather, there were several doctors, researchers, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists who were leading figures in the talent pool and helped put Minneapolis– St. Paul on the map as a life-sciences brainbelt, in particular for medical devices.

  The Minneapolis area had long been a center for health care, and this focus owes a lot to a key figure (if not exactly a connector)—a doctor and self-promotional maverick named C. Walton Lillehei (1918–1999). Lillehei was known as a brilliant surgeon, a talented teacher at the University of Minnesota (UMN), and a pioneer of open-heart surgery techniques and tools, especially for children with birth defects.1 He was, in other words, a triple threat: practitioner, academic, and entrepreneur, but he was not so much the nuts-and-bolts builder of ecosystems—those people would come later. (Lillehei was also known to “live large” and had some disputes with the IRS, details that add to the complexity of his character but are not particularly relevant to our story.)

  In the 1950s, heart surgeons relied on a cumbersome, electrically powered piece of equipment to control the patient’s pulse during surgery. One day in 1958, Lillehei was operating on a child when the hospital’s power shut down. The equipment failed, the patient’s heart stopped, and the child died on the table.

  Lillehei did not intend to let that happen again. One of his nurses was married to an electrical engineer named Earl Bakken, who ran a company that repaired medical instruments for the University of Minnesota hospital. Lillehei asked Bakken to devise a small, portable, battery-powered device to replace the stationary, electrically driven clunker that had essentially caused the death of his young patient. Working from Lillehei’s napkin sketch, Bakken repurposed the mechanics of a metronome—the little machine that helps music students keep a regular beat—into a prototype. This was before the days of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, so Lillehei was free to test the gadget the next day, and it worked. Eventually—after much refining of the device and convincing skeptical surgeons of its reliability and effectiveness—the product became the central product of Medtronic, now the world’s leader in pacemakers. In the process, Lillehei’s innovation sparked the creation of a network of doctors, scientists, hospitals, and universities that made Minneapolis a center of the life-sciences industry, with a particular focus on medical devices.

  Dr. Lillehei, known as the Father of Open-Heart Surgery.

  Credit: University of Minnesota, Lillehei Institute

  Life sciences, the newest and most explosive area of brainsharing activity, encompasses bioscience, biotechnology, biomedicine, and medical devices. Biotechnology is an area of inquiry as ancient as the fermentation of beer, which dates from around 7000 BC, but the term biotechnology was coined only in 1919 by Károly Ereky, a Hungarian engineer who believed that the fermentation process could be used to develop a wide variety of products, including medicines.2 He was right. In the 1940s, the process gave us not only steroids and hormones but also penicillin, which has saved millions of lives over the years and has delivered billions of dollars in revenues and profit to pharmaceutical companies.

  We have seen tremendous advances and breakthroughs in biotechnology over the years since then. In the 1960s, the study of molecular biology3 eventually gave rise to the creation of biotechnology firms such as Genentech, Biogen Idec, and Amgen. Starting in the 1990s, the mapping of the human genome and advances in immunotherapy led to the development of new drugs, particularly for the treatment of cancer.4 Research continues into cloning, stem cells, and genetic modification. In the past decade, computing and data analytics have become important elements in life-sciences research and product development.

  Because we made great progress in the twentieth century in developing treatments and cures for infectious and communicable diseases, such as cholera, tuberculosis, malaria, venereal disease, HIV, and many others, today the world’s biggest health challenge is chronic diseases—cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and obesity—and those account for more than 60 percent of deaths worldwide and 75 percent of medical expenses.5 The development of new products and technologies in this sector depends on brainsharing. Clinical research is often too expensive, too complicated, and too multidisciplinary for any single player to pursue alone—just as we have seen in chips and sensors and new materials. The big pharma and life-sciences companies have cut back on their own research activities, especially in new fields and riskier ventures, preferring to focus on a smaller number of surer bets. But they still need the research that creates new knowledge, and so they increasingly buy the “R” in R&D and work in close collaboration with start-ups that are often founded by professors and students to pursue unorthodox ideas. These smaller companies typically do not have enough talent (particularly in management), the necessary technology, or deep enough pockets to pursue their research as they would like. So they, in turn, seek collaborations with bigger players to help fund development and also work with them to manage the process that takes a concept from an early trial to a marketable product. The big companies sometimes take a financial stake in their smaller partners or purchase them outright.

  Some of today’s most exciting action in the life-sciences field is in medical devices, now a $300 billion industry. These devices will bring major changes to medical practices and procedures. Sensors will collect far more useful medical data than ever, thus taking much of the guesswork out of diagnosis and monitoring the effects of treatments and medications. Surgeons will rely on implantable, disposable sensors to precisely position and monitor implants.

  Wearable devices—such as watches, clothing,
and patches—with sensors embedded in them, will monitor and track various bodily organs and functions, analyze performance, and provide health alerts. Just as the portable pacemaker replaced the operating room machine, these small and unobtrusive wearables will replace the stand-alone testing equipment that has been confined to the doctor’s office and the patient’s hospital room. They will wirelessly transmit large amounts of data to your health-care provider, the device manufacturer, regulators, and others. (Security and privacy issues are already being hotly discussed.) “Soon all medical devices will be collecting real-time information,” Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky told us. “The era of dumb products is over and the era of remote medicine is upon us.”6

  In this chapter, our journey takes us to Minneapolis, pacemaker capital of the world, as well as to Portland, Oregon, where big data reigns; Zurich, Switzerland, home of an extraordinary science park; and the BioSaxony region in Germany and Oulu, Finland, where a life-sciences brainbelt emerged from the remains of the mobile telephony industry.

  Minneapolis: Self-Reliance Can Be Key to Collaboration

  Minneapolis–St. Paul has experienced economic upturns and downturns over the years, but the area never fell into the kind of rustbelt status experienced by cities and regions such as Akron and Malmö before it began to emerge as a brainbelt. The metropolis was long a center for milling grains, brewing beer, and sawing lumber. Although activities in those sectors slowed down, the city avoided a devastating decline, because important Fortune 100 companies—including 3M, General Mills, and Cargill—which had long been headquartered in the Twin Cities (as the neighboring communities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are known)—did not abandon the area. Minneapolis also had an early role in the computer industry, as the home to Control Data, the creator of the first supercomputer. The company’s presence—along with the many spin-offs it created—attracted venture capital firms and IT talent to Minneapolis that later benefited the region’s medical-device companies.