In October 2016 the Dutch Organization for Applied Sciences (TNO) and the Technical University of…

In October 2016 the Dutch Organization for Applied Sciences
(TNO) and the Technical University of Delft (TU Delft) signed an
alliance-agreement for the initiation of Dutch Optic Centre. 2 Against the
background of internal development at TNO (for example, stagnation of financing
existing RD activities in this field) and external development (such as SMEs
need to get affordable access to fundamental knowledge to realise their product
innovation, and increased use of field labs and government pressure to do more
in publicprivate partnerships), TNO decided to explore the possibilities of

In October 2016 the Dutch Organization for Applied Sciences
(TNO) and the Technical University of Delft (TU Delft) signed an
alliance-agreement for the initiation of Dutch Optic Centre. 2 Against the
background of internal development at TNO (for example, stagnation of financing
existing RD activities in this field) and external development (such as SMEs
need to get affordable access to fundamental knowledge to realise their product
innovation, and increased use of field labs and government pressure to do more
in publicprivate partnerships), TNO decided to explore the possibilities of
realising their ambition by setting the DOC alliance together with TU Delft.
The Dutch Optics Centre (DOC) aims to boost Dutch industry in the field of
optics and opto-mechatronics by increasing the utilization of Dutch science
through joint R&D. The Netherlands is unmatched in the field of optics and
opto-mechatronics, holding a leading position in science and industry. The
Dutch Optics Centre is an innovation-oriented alliance consisting of knowledge
institutes and more than 20 hi-tech companies from all over the Netherlands.
The ambition of DOC is to become an ambitious publicprivate partnership in the
field of optics and opto-mechatronics by 2020. It strives to realize three
objectives. The first is to develop (fundamental) knowledge focused on the
long-term needs of companies. Second, it seeks to support and collaborate with
companies to develop new products up to the highest technology readiness level
and to introduce products on the markets. Finally, DOC aims to promote the DOC
brand in order to attract new R&D partners and also create an interesting
environment for students and PhDs. TNO and TU Delft fulfil the leadership role
and will be guided by the needs of the industry. Before focusing on the functioning
of the alliance set-up team, we will briefly explain the set-up process. In
2014 TNO started the process of setting up the DOC alliance. The period between
2014 and the start of 2016 can be characterized as the exploration phase. TNO
and TU Delft explored the possibilities of creating a viable DOC alliance. This
was done by holding meetings with internal and external stakeholders such as
SMEs and the Ministry of Economic Affairs. During that period, more and more
people started to believe in the power of concepts like field labs, test beds,
ecosystem thinking and joint innovation centres. This fostered the creation of
a viable DOC alliance. Between the start of 2016 and October of that year, the
alliance set-up team created a DOC website, defined the set of potential
products/service of the alliance, organized two network meetings with SMEs,
aligned the interests of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and RVO with those of
the DOC alliance partners and other stakeholders (such as SMEs), and developed
a DOC business plan and a contract supported by top management of each partner.
This resulted in the signing of a DOC alliance agreement on the 19 October
2016. An alliance formation team was created in early 2014, led by the managing
director of TNO industry and a full professor and head of the Optics Research
Group at TU Delft. The objective of this team was to create a feasible and
executable DOC business plan, including a business model (costrevenue
structure), an assigned collaboration-agreement and first step in the execution
(for example, a website and initial projects with SMEs). This team consists of
a research manager of expertise and a business developer from TNO, and a
professor and some members of the valourization centre of TU Delft. Both
organizations put someone in place with knowledge of this field of expertise,
as well as someone who is external and more business oriented. The 382
employees of TNO and TU Delft had worked together for a long period of time and
therefore have a good understanding of each others interests and capabilities.
This helps the process of creating a common ambition and plan. Moreover, the
set-up team was located in the same building, which supports the communication
between the members: a lot of informal, face-to-face communication. They spoke
to each other frequently (almost daily), and held a meeting every Friday to
discuss progress and set new actions. At the beginning of 2016, a new person
entered the alliance set-up team. This person was also externally oriented and
pragmatic, but also more entrepreneurially oriented and had no background in
this field of knowledge and no prior collaboration experience with the
individuals from TU Delft. This had consequences for the team dynamic. For
example, there was uncertainty about whether this person understood the
interests of the other organization well enough. This resulted in constructive
debate but also conflicts, which were resolved as alliance preparations
continued. The basic attitude of alliance team members was pragmatic; that is,
it was not about making plans first and then doing, but more about
thinkingdoing and dealing with obstacles as they appeared. The advantage of
this mind-set was that they made a lot progress in terms of making plans and
actions (examples included constructing a website, defining first projects
inclusive of SME partners, and finding funding). Because of this, higher
management saw the immediate consequences of setting up this alliance. This
provided energy but also internal friction and questions. For instance: Is this
what we want; for example, working on a higher technology readiness level than
we used to do? What is the relationship between my technology road map and
the roadmap of the alliance? Is this sufficiently aligned? What does it mean for
the relationship between TNO and SMEs and for the DOC-alliance and their
stakeholders (also including SMEs); would we cannibalize our own initiatives or
not? In order to acquire and maintain support from their own organizations, the
alliance setup team communicates frequently, via a newsletter, to their
internal stakeholders regarding the status, actions and questions concerning
DOC. This helps the team to speed up the progress, and the internal
organization feels that they have to be alert; otherwise, the situation is set.
The fact that more internal people see consequences (both positive and
negative) of this alliance for their work also creates internal tensions.
Moreover, TNO has a unique (legal) position in the market and is still learning
how to collaborate with external partners within the legal framework. Finally,
the collaboration agreement was created with support from the legal department
at TNO as well as TU Delft, and signed by the chief executive officer of TNO
and the rector magnificus of TU Delft. Moreover, a detailed business plan and
business model has been developed. From July till October 2017, they will
transition from designing the DOC alliance to having fully operational
functioning. This is the result of this team, with support of management of TNO
and TU Delft, and great help from the various secretaries and legal support.