As of 2022, hub Catalyst at Twice has a new resident: the Smart Biomaterials Consortium Foundation. The objective of this recently established foundation is to realize a high-quality infrastructure of a production ecosystem for bio- and biocompatible materials for life sciences applications, particularly for use in regenerative medicine. This form of medicine aims to develop new treatments that make smart use of our body's self-healing ability.
Smart Biomaterials Consortium Foundation will establish two facilities: a development facility and a pilot production facility. SBMC will first set up a "Pilot factory" for regenerative medicine under the RegMed XB growth fund program. This will be carried out in cooperation with a hub in Leiden, Utrecht and Maastricht. The consortium will jointly receive 56 million euros for this from the National Growth Fund. Of this allocation, 12.8 million euros will go to the Smart Biomaterials Consortium.
Development facility and pilot production site
The development facility will be realized in the vicinity of TU Eindhoven. At the development facility, parties will collaborate in projects on the optimized production and assembly of biomaterials (including hydrogels), functional testing, assessment and prediction of implant function, scale-up issues and clinical production constraints.
In the pilot production site, the focus is on the industrial production of biomaterials and biodegradable implants.
The facilities will host innovation and development projects to increase knowledge of biomaterials, their processing and application in conjunction with production processes and scalability
said Jan Rietsema (SBMC quartermaster).
About Smart Biomaterials Consortium Foundation
The Smart Biomaterials Consortium Foundation is starting office and laboratory space in Catalyst business center on the TU/e Campus in Eindhoven.
The initiative for the foundation was taken by the Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM), Province of North Brabant and TU/e.
Board members are Peter Struik (chairman, Executive Director FUJIFILM Europe), Menno Lammers (treasurer, VP Biomaterials Corbion), Joep Brouwers (secretary, nominated by the Province of North Brabant), Judith Heikoop (CEO Vivolta), Erik Rutten (DPI, Business Development Manager Biomedical Polymers) and Frank Baaijens (Rector Magnificus TU/e, nominated by TU/e).
