The Economic Board is a triple helix partnership in which entrepreneurs, governments and educational institutions work together. The board members meet once every two months to discuss their joint efforts for a vital and sustainable life in Lifeport Region Arnhem Nijmegen.Semicon
The board meeting on Friday 29 November took place at
NXP Semiconductors in Nijmegen. Jean Schreurs, director of NXP Netherlands, spoke about the semiconductor industry. NXP in Nijmegen has a rich history that has its roots in Philips’ history. Although NXP’s international headquarters are based in Eindhoven, Nijmegen plays a vital role in chip production and is home to the company’s largest R&D department (approximately 2,750 employees of 60 different nationalities). In terms of economic activity, the Arnhem-Nijmegen region is the second-largest in the Netherlands in the field of semiconductors. NXP in Nijmegen is the only chip factory in the Netherlands that has been supplying billions of chips worldwide for decades. Not only for cars and consumer electronics, but also for bank cards and mobile phones.
Strategic Plan 2026-2030
The agenda for the meeting included the new Strategic Plan 2026–2030. The Economic Board acts and invests in our region based on a strategic economic agenda, with the aim of improving overall prosperity and tackling major challenges jointly with our partners. We are living in an era of major societal transitions – internationally, nationally and regionally. Think of transitions in the fields of energy, raw materials, protein, water, healthcare, digitalisation and the labour market. The period 2026–2030 looks set to be a pivotal one in this regard.For Lifeport Regio Arnhem Nijmegen, this has two implications. On the one hand, the region must successfully navigate these transitions itself, whilst also grappling with the underlying problems (such as grid congestion). On the other hand, these underlying challenges also present many opportunities to contribute to the solutions through innovation and, in doing so, to strengthen our region economically. Our Energy and Health clusters tie in directly with this, whilst High Tech, in a broader sense, can provide many solutions to societal challenges. For example, innovation within the Energy cluster can help resolve grid congestion issues for our region whilst simultaneously delivering products and services that can be successfully marketed.The decision to focus our programmes and projects on the Energy, Health and High Tech clusters aligns well with both the national and European economic agendas and the call to direct economic activities towards societal challenges and transitions. For the clusters, integration with themes such as Food, AI, digitalisation, the labour market and smart sustainability is essential. Over the coming months, feedback on the draft version of the strategic plan will be incorporated so that the Strategic Plan 2026–2030 can be adopted at the next board meeting.
Dashboard
Nicky Hogenkamp, programme manager at The Economic Board, and the students from the IT Student Lab, Daan Verlinden and Job Sluiter, presented the Dashboard they had developed for The Economic Board. A single integrated overview of all programmes and projects, designed to help focus efforts, set priorities, make decisions and measure impact. IT Student Lab ensures that students gain practical experience and get to know the various companies and organisations in the region. Their first assignment, carried out for The Economic Board, was to build a dashboard.
Thank you
This was the final meeting for Jean Schreurs and Daniël Wigboldus. The chair thanked them for everything they have done for the Board and Lifeport Arnhem-Nijmegen Region! Their enthusiasm and expertise have been invaluable!
