On December 6, 2022, two high level Dutch diplomats visited us to learn more about the latest technological developments related to future production.  

Ronald van Roeden is the Kingdom’s Ambassador to Germany and Peter Schuurman is Consul General in Dusseldorf. “Our work on Industrie 4.0 is very well known in the Netherlands, where this field of research is called ‘Smart Industry’,” said Prof. Dr. Martin Ruskowski, CEO of SmartFactoryKL. The two diplomats were given an overview of the various aspects of Industrie 4.0: artificial intelligence, data transparency among different systems, digital twins, 5G, and the closed loop economy. “Experts in both countries have been successfully working together for years on the production of tomorrow and I think some groundbreaking technical progress has been made that can lead to new industrial innovations that strengthen the structural competitiveness of European industries,” said van Roeden.  

A memorandum of understanding signed by SmartFactoryKL with Dutch Brainport Industries in 2018 has resulted in a close cooperation. German and Dutch scientists also collaborate in SmartFactory-EU alongside colleagues from Belgium and Spain. Peter van Harten, honorary ambassador of the Dutch Smart Industry program serves as chair of the steering committee and is responsible for foreign relations. The German-Dutch Action Agenda has stated since 2019 that Germany and The Netherlands are ideal partners in the digitalization and transformation of European industry. This was re-confirmed in a cooperation agreement between Smart Industry and SmartFactoryKL.