Belgian R&D institute IMEC and neighboring Dutch TNO have initiated a new research collaborative called the Holst Centre to develop technologies that can be incorporated in innovative healthcare and lifestyle products. By exploiting the ability of advanced technologies to scan, sense and interpret data from any source, including humans, the Holst Centre believes citizens and society can better control their healthcare and potentially reduce their medical costs.

Philips, a leading player in the field of polymer electronics and microsystems, has committed to become the center’s first industrial partner.

The Holst Centre envisions electronics being worn by athletes in training, by patients with chronic illnesses who need to monitor their conditions, and by consumers who simply want to manage their own lifestyle. 

The Holst Centre will initially focus on two areas. The first is the development of wireless autonomous transducers that can sense relevant information, collect it, interpret it, record it and communicate it to a personal computer, a doctor’s office, a medical center or hospital. 

As Europe’s leading research institute for semiconductor process technologies, advanced microsystems and system design, IMEC will take the lead on further developing the wireless autonomous microsystems that are the basis for new products. Technologies of specific interest are ultra-low-power radio; ultra-low-power signal processing; micro-power generation, storage and management; sensor and actuator technology.

The second area of interest is the development of systems-in-foil technologies. This will allow electronic devices to be worn as easily as a digital wristwatch.  TNO will take the lead in this area. It will contribute its expertise in the industrialization of microsystems and polymer electronics to the Holst Centre. At the Holst Centre, capabilities in the fields of printing of polymers, large-area deposition and structuring of thin layers and design of device architectures will be further developed. The center will use these capabilities to create and demonstrate ‘sensing and acting surfaces’, large-area, thin-layered products such as organic lighting and signage, sensor tags and organic electronics.

In addition to medical, healthcare and lifestyle products, the Holst Centre will also examine other uses for the technologies. These include industrial process monitoring & control, agriculture, mobile gaming, automotive, home and industrial buildings, and transportation/logistics/asset management.

The Holst Centre will operate as a program organization, offering industries research based on well-defined program roadmaps.  Companies, institutes and universities around the world are invited to collaborate in the two program initiatives of the Holst Centre.

The start of the Holst Centre was made possible by financing from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, together with the contributions of other partners.  According to Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, Dutch minister of economic affairs, the government has committed 12.5 million € to complete the first phase of the cooperation agreement.

Minister Brinkhorst and Fientje Moerman, Belgium’s Flemish minister of economics, science and innovation, also gave the go-ahead for the new Holst Centre to be located at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.  The Holst Centre will begin with 75 employees.

The center is named after Gilles Holst, a Dutch pioneer in research and development and first director of Philips Research.

For more information:

Katrien Marent
Corporate Communication Manager
IMEC, Kapeldreef 75
B- 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Tel +32 16 28 18 80 Fax +32 16 28 16 37
Email: Katrien.Marent@imec.be

TNO
Elly Heemskerk
Tel: +31 40 265 08 70
Email: Elly.Heemskerk@tno.nl