Impact

The AMIBM attracts significant revenue, having raised more than €20 million in additional funds. These resources create direct employment, especially for PhD and postdoctoral researchers, and technicians. The earning potential of the AMIBM also attracts many young, educated people from outside the region to Limburg.

The AMIBM has a diverse, international workforce, many of whom are young people who now enjoy living in the Limburg region and building their future here. They spend much of their income on housing and livelihoods in this region. This so-called indirect employment factor is estimated around 2 to 3.

The AMIBM has enabled spin-off companies to become established in the region. These companies often make direct use of AMIBM infrastructure, and AMIBM scientists are often directly involved as advisors and/or shareholders.

In 2017, Margareta Merke registered the company Boostani B.V. Boostani develops master batches and compounds for monomaterial packaging solutions with barrier properties, as a solution is needed that enables plastic used for food packaging to be fully recyclable. Boostani is located at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus.

In 2018, Professor Stefaan de Wildeman started the company B4Plastics. B4Plastics is a Belgian tech company developing, designing and distributing eco-plastic products. Tomorrow's sustainable world will increasingly require the use of local, renewable and/or biodegradable resources. B4Plastics is located in Maasmechelen (Belgium).

Due to the increasing involvement of AMIBM scientists in current and new educational programs, students benefit from an enriched educational portfolio. With its closely related Master’s program: Biobased Materials Master and Industrial Doctorate program: Biobased Value Circle, AMIBM provides students with training opportunities during their research studies or provides work in the institute, industry and/or its spin-off companies In this way, the AMIBM ensures that highly educated students find employment here and continue to work and live in the region.

The AMIBM’s significance for external (Eu)regional key stakeholders is of great importance.

AMIBM scientists work closely with companies and public-private partnerships in the (Eu)region. Within the Brightlands Chemelot Campus ecosystem, the AMIBM works closely with DSM (Materials Science Center), SABIC, GF Biochemicals and Sitech, and in public-private partnerships with Chemelot InSciTe, Centre of Expertise Chemelot Innovation and Learning Labs (CHILL), Brightlands Materials Center and the new initiative Brightsite.

The AMIBM also has crossovers with institutions located on other Brightlands campuses in Limburg, such as the Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine (MERLN) at Brightlands Maastricht Health Campus, and the BioTreat Center at Brightlands Campus Venlo.

Because the AMIBM was established with RWTH-Aachen University and has developed as a European cross-border research institute, there are close collaborations with the Institute of Applied Medical Engineering (AME), and the Center for Biohybrid Medical Systems, in particular, as well as the Fraunhofer IME and DWI Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials.

Furthermore, the AMIBM works together with more than 50 industrial partners. This large network of institutes, companies and public-private partnerships has led to many new projects in which the AMIBM is a participant or coordinator.

All these accomplishments underline the importance and significance of AMIBM for external regional key stakeholders.