Rotterdam launches Innovation District

During the well-attended Innovation Festival 2015, Alderman Adriaan Visser presented the new Rotterdam Innovation District. Together, the municipality of Rotterdam and the Port of Rotterdam Authority are launching the largest innovation workshop in Europe.

Innovation Districts are areas in which progressive institutions and businesses are clustered and align themselves with start-ups, business incubators and accelerators. That is exactly what is happening in the Rotterdam Innovation District at the moment: the relocation of port operations to the West has created space at the RDM Rotterdam and in the Merwe-Vierhavens area for a rapidly growing innovation ecosystem for the smart manufacturing industry.

RDM Rotterdam houses a number of leading educational institutions and knowledge institutions, such as Albeda College and Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, and joined forces with Delft University of Technology and Yes!Delft.

Together with businesses and students, they are working to find sustainable solutions in the disciplines of construction, mobility and energy. Merwe-Vierhavens (M4H) is currently an experimental living and working environment for pioneers in the medical technology, food and clean tech clusters. Innovative new products are envisioned and made here. Erasmus University maintains a strong profile in the area as well, through the presence of the Erasmus Center of Entrepreneurship (ECE).

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