What started as an initiative of M2i has now been awarded a grant of over €6 million. Over the next few years, a consortium of research institutes, academia and industries will be working on research into technological innovations with real economic potential that could help us to achieve a more sustainable world.

The research project is known as: ‘ENLIGHTEN ‐ Enabling Integrated Lightweight Structures In High Volumes”.  The aim is to reduce CO2 emissions by making vehicles lighter and is a part of the Perspective programme.

Perspective is a programme that challenges scientists to establish innovative new lines of research that can have a genuine economic and societal impact. Consortia are then formed that involve partnerships with the business community and social organisations. The programme has been set up by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate has made €22 million in funding available for it. A total of six consortia are being set up in the Netherlands, with 138 companies and social organisations contributing a total of €10 million of their own funding.

The lighter a vehicle is, the less fuel it consumes and the less CO2 is emitted. Lightweight materials that are strong enough to ensure passenger safety are also popular among manufacturers of cars and aircraft. Thermoplastic composites – fibre-reinforced plastics that soften when heated – are light, strong, easy to work with and easy to recycle. Certain components in aircraft fuselages and wings are already being made from this relatively new material. However, they are not yet in wider use.

The aim of ENLIGHTEN is to find a way to produce reliable entire structures using this material (in a predictable, reproducible and cost-effective way).

Participants: Airborne, Airbus, Aniform, Autodesk, Boeing, Boikon, Bosch, Cato, Composites NL, DSM, DTC, Engel, e‐Xstream, GKN/Fokker, HAN University of Applied Sciences, Saxion University of Applied Sciences, JLR, KVE, M2i, Province of Overijssel, SAM|XL, SET Europe, Solvay, Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology, TNO‐BMC, Toray Advanced Composites, TPRC, University of Twente, University of Warwick, Victrex 

Six consortia in the Netherlands
The way in which the consortia are composed is particularly characteristic of the Perspective programme: the projects include all actors necessary to develop useable solutions in practice. The shared involvement of several universities in each project also strengthens the partnerships.

For more information contact:
Bert van Haastrecht | Director Programs | Materials innovation institute (M2i)
Direct: + 31 6 572 913 90 | b.vanhaastrecht@m2i.nl
Van der Burghweg 1 | 2628 CS DELFT | The Netherlands