Sigrid Helbig is now exactly one year CEO of Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo. Her first year was inspiring and challenging with the aftermath of corona, merging two organisations, an ambitious annual plan, expanding the ecosystem and building consortia. She is convinced that 2023 will be the year of Brightlands: "There are some great projects in the pipeline!"
Sigrid Helbig has been fully engaged in merging the campus organisation with the real estate arm over the past year. She sees this merger as an important milestone to build the regional ecosystem even more effectively. "The labour market remains a big challenge," says Helbig. "Companies locate where they find the people and facilities they need. This is where we as a campus play an important role: how can we best facilitate companies? The involves a functioning ecosystem as well as facilities such as office and business space and laboratories. Die two relate to each other like hardware and software: without housing (hardware), companies and knowledge institutions cannot 'land' anywhere. Without an ecosystem (software), there will be no campus with specific themes, just a business park without thematic coherence and innovativeness. By making it one organisation, we are setting a common course."
Neighbours
In the coming years, she wants to put a lot of effort into strengthening the ecosystem. Helbig: "By bringing the right parties together on and around the campus, you can make optimal use of each other's knowledge, expertise and network. It is precisely through cooperation that companies can maintain their competitiveness and the best innovations emerge. Actually, the question is very simple: who do you, as a campus resident, want as your neighbour? That are the parties we would like to add to our ecosystem."
Research facilities
For the ecosystem to grow even further, Sigrid says the campus must continue to respond to the needs of campus residents and businesses in the region. "We are putting considerable effort into creating (shared) research facilities that will give agri-food SMEs access to innovative facilities, knowledge, technology and resources, something not every SME can do independently. We This distinguishes us as a campus and therefore makes us an attractive location for companies to locate, develop and collaborate."
Future of nutrition
This year will see the start of the further development of the Test & Taste Centre, the Laboratory of Behavioural Gastronomy and the Food Claims Centre Venlo into a Food Concepts Centre. At this new centre with high-end facilities will support companies working on innovative, healthy and sustainable food products in product and concept development. Also on the agenda is the development of an Experience Centre for Future Food, which will focus on the latest trends for product development and accelerating products to market. With these two new centres, the entire chain, from product development to launch, will be offered on campus.
Next Generation Farming
There is another big project in the pipeline: Next Generation Farming. At this project is about developing a shared research facility revolving around a sustainable and forward-looking way of doing business. "Via this project, under the Brightlands umbrella, partial facilities will be developed in areas such as vertical farming, LED lighting, seed technology and closed greenhouses. This we do in cooperation with parties who are experts in their own subfield: they develop and operate some of the facilities themselves."
Accessible
For Sigrid, accessibility and approachability are central to everything the campus does. "The campus is open to all: to campus residents, regional companies, researchers, students and even children through Kokkerelli's teaching programmes," the CEO says. "We already have quite a few courses on campus, but in the coming years, we want to engage with all green courses in the region - from mbo to university. So we connect scientific content with practical education and entrepreneurship." The campus is developing well, according to Sigrid. "We are a respected player in the region. That is also evidenced by a hefty financial boost for the campus from the Provincial Council of Limburg and the Venlo municipality. There is confidence in the campus and with these contributions, we can continue to grow into maturity as a young campus."
