RSA CE&C 2015-2021

5. Evidence and accomplishments 35 Most of the above is part of a self-sustaining culture in the department without written rules (except for rules regarding open access publishing from funding agencies). The consensus is that quality is more important than quantity. This is especially advocated with respect to publications in the framework of PhD projects, which make up the largest share of the scientific output. 5.3. RELEVANCE TO SOCIETY As stated in the introduction, recent global developments strongly show the importance of science to society and scientists in the department have a strong sense of responsibility regarding their contribution to challenges related to energy, circularity and health, both in educating people and in performing research with a societal impact. The four case studies in Appendix B all provide clear evidence of this. Other evidence includes the leading position of the department in several public-private partnership programs. The Chemelot Institute for Science and Technology (InSciTe) is a partnership set up in 2015 by TU/e, DSM, Maastricht University, Maastricht University Medical Center and the Province of Limburg. The aim of this institute is to develop and apply the production of biobased building blocks and biomedical materials with a focus on technical validation. More than €75 M has been invested in projects, leading to the employment of more than 100 people. The department has been mainly involved in the biobased domain. Highlights include the operation of a biobased pilot plant, the start-up company Vertoro (see case study 4 in Appendix B), several patents and license deals, and over 100 scientific publications.