ACTS History and background
How it all started…
In 1999 the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs instigated the Technology Radar, a number of studies with the objective to identify the areas of prime importance for the sustainable economic development of our country. From these studies Catalysis –in its broad context of chemistry, energy and sustainability– emerged as a main area for industrial innovation and is of major importance for the knowledge economy of the Netherlands.
Catalysis, Key to Sustainability
The above conclusion justified a so-called “Technology Roadmap” exercise, which was executed in 2000/2001 by experts from industry, academia and government in a unique cooperation process. This exercise resulted in the internationally well-recognized report “Catalysis, Key to Sustainability”, in which research and development strategies for the future were outlined to meet with a number of high priority research goals. In order to turn the recommendations of the Technology Roadmap Catalysis into reality, ACTS was founded early 2002. From that moment, ACTS quickly developed to its current state as the Dutch platform of all key stakeholders active in the broad area catalysis, sustainability and related chemistry.
The ACTS Mission
With the aim to provide and promote the scientific and technological developments needed to guarantee sustainable health and wealth for the inhabitants of tomorrow’s world, ACTS received the mission to initiate and support the development of innovative technological concepts for the sustainable production of materials and energy carriers, essential for the supply of food, comfort, health, shelter and mobility for the future society. Through its activities ACTS should contribute to a sustainable economic growth, it should play a role in the strengthening of the knowledge infrastructure in the Netherlands, and, finally, by its activities, ACTS should attract young talent to a career in science and technology.
ACTS started in 2002 with this mission. Since then, an organization has been built that took off with a business plan covering several activity areas. The ACTS research portfolio has grown large over the years of its existence. The present portfolio (i.e. mid 2005) amounts to more than M€ 100 covering five high quality research programs running from 2003-2011 and involving all Dutch universities together with the majority, over 25, of the national chemical industries. Furthermore, ACTS closely cooperates with NWO Chemical Sciences on vision and strategy development for the academic research in chemistry and related areas in the Netherlands. This report gives an overview of the ACTS activities of the past three years and at the same time presents the vision for the future.
Foundation of ACTS