An interview with Professor Ignaas Verpoest, the new cluster coordinator at M2i
“… M2i is very interesting, it brings in a structural way the long term questions from the industry to universities…”
Professor Ignaas Verpoest is appointed as new cluster coordinator at M2i of cluster “High performance light weight materials” since 1 July 2010. He is replacing Prof. Laurens Katgerman, who retired earlier this year. We had an interview with the Flemisch professor.
Prof. Ignaas Verpoest (22 februari 1948) graduated as metallurgical engineer. He has a PhD in Materials Engineering and is now full professor at the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. His research focuses on the development of new composite materials (textile reinforcements, sandwich materials, natural fibres) and sustainable production processes for composites, leading more and more to the development of innovative composite products, in cooperation with designers. Prof. Verpoest was president of the European Society for Composite Materials and of the International Committee on Composite Materials. He is now chairman of the Leuven Materials Research Centre and from July first he starts as a cluster coordinator at M2i.
Verpoest: “the concept M2i is very interesting. M2i brings in a structural way the long term questions from the industry to universities. If that can happen on an equal basis it will bring interesting developments. I hope and I think it also brings more information from the universities to the industry.” Verpoest has regularly had questions out of the industry. “It often involves short-term questions. As a cluster coordinator at M2i I now get the opportunity to focus on long-term questions.”
When we talk about financing and directing joint strategic research by universities and companies, the subject turned to the Strategic Initiative Materials ‘SIM’. This institute looks a lot like M2i and was founded mid 2009 by the Flemisch government together with 10 major materials producing and materials processing companies and the 5 Flemish universities.
The difference between SIM and M2i is that SIM works with major research themes which companies can join. At M2i there are individual projects. “both models have their opportunities. The advantage of a theme is that a strategy can be developed and that companies and universities can recognize themselves in the themes. The advantage at M2i is the strong coordination regarding to the content. Both models can work if there are sufficient resources across. The high investment will eventually be multiplied.”
Verpoest has good contacts at the TU Delft and the University Twente. “At this moment there are a few projects together with the TU in Delft and I hope that this can be developed further in the near future”. With TU of Eindhoven Verpoest has little contacts, but he hopes that to intensify this in his function at M2i.
