Excellence Fund is a fixed asset within the 100-year-old University Fund

The TU Excellence Fund has become a fixed asset within the TU Delft ecosystem. Since its foundation over 6 years ago now, an involved community of founders has developed, which truly makes a difference for TU Delft. Amongst other things, their financial commitments have made it possible that TU Delft has attracted 9 top scientists.

As TU Delft, we want to push the boundaries of technological science and educate new generations of involved engineers. To be a solution-oriented contributor to the problems of tomorrow, and to the Dutch economy. In 2019, a few alumni and friends of TU Delft gathered their strengths to support this ambition and the excellence strategy of TU Delft, from three perspectives: research, education and innovation; together the ecosystem of TU Delft. This turned the TU Excellence Fund into fact.

How the flywheel works

An excellent ecosystem starts with scientific excellence. The Excellence Fund therefore focuses on attracting international top scientists in 5 well-known knowledge areas of TU Delft: Health care, Energy transition, Digital society, Climate and Urbanization & Mobility. These scientists act like a flywheel for the whole ecosystem: better research, better international positioning, better students, more attraction of business partners, more financing (NOW, ERC, public-private), more impulses for entrepreneurs, and eventually more impact on society and economic development.

Support from founders

To make this reality, the fund relies on the support of founders, alumni and friends of TU Delft, who want to commit to this strategy for a set financial contribution per year. In the last few years, this initiative has grown from 30 pioneers to more than 75 founders. Collectively, they commit to €5.3 million (autumn 2025). From this fund, preconditions are realised that allow top scientists to come to TU Delft: an infrastructure (labs, equipment), talent development (PhDs and postdocs) and the possibility to build their own research group. Including Talieh Giashi, who was attracted in 2025, 9 scientists have now been able to make a flying start in Delft, thanks to a contribution from the Excellence Fund.

Impact made measurable

To measure the aimed-for flywheel effect, and with that the impact of the scientists, 5 ‘drivers for impact’ have been formulated. The ‘driver for research’ is, for example, to express the number of publications or the growth of the research group. The ‘driver for education’ can be made clear from the number of students. There are also a ‘driver for international positioning’, a ‘driver for financing & collaboration’ and of course the ‘driver for societal impact’: the ability of scientific research to contribute to large societal challenges. This Impact Report maps this for each scientist and is also combined into a total overview.

‘It is important that TU Delft remains in a world-leading position. Top scientists ensure that the university increases in world ranking. During alumni gatherings with lectures by top scientists, it is fantastic to see how everyone hangs onto every word of one such talent. That is when it becomes tangible how important the university is, as a place where problems of the future are being solved.’

Menno Antal

‘On what is success based? A brilliant idea, or having each other? Personally, I see the Excellence Fund as a great adventure and a special undertaking, which I am glad to support with my knowledge and experience. Not only to help TU Delft to get higher on international rankings, but also to bring more attention to her projects and people. Come on, we need each other!’

Jeroen Kok

‘Technology has a crucial part to play in solving large societal challenges, such as climate change, hunger and disease. By investing in TU Delft, I am giving back to the university that has meant so much to me. That is how we improve not only knowledge and skill within TU Delft, but we create a flywheel effect: the impact of every euro spreads worldwide, both within and outside of the academic world.’

Guus Overdijkink

‘Studying at TU Delft has brought us a lot – a university we are still proud of. The Excellence Fund is a good way to give back to TU Delft.’

Chris de Ruyter van Steveninck & Marlene Sybrandy

‘I think it’s fantastic to be able to contribute to a long-term, reciprocal relationship between the university and alumni. That is how we work together to create ripples in the river.'

Karin Sluis

The development of a meaningful network

The flywheel does its job. Not just for education, research and innovation, but also for the community surrounding the Excellence Fund itself. This is steadily growing, partially thanks to the ‘bring a friend' concept. The founders have by now formed a close-knit and meaningful network when it comes to donating and developing alumni communities. They take part in the Delft Leaders Programme, find each other when coaching promising startups and meet each other during in-depth knowledge sessions or the Annual Founder Event. Click here to see the total impact of the community.

Small-scale, personal and exclusive

Being a member of the Founders community means, amongst other things, to be invited to important events of TU Delft, at tours and lunches, and at personal introductions of Delft scientists. Memorably, in December 2025, the founders were invited to the festive commissioning of the Dilution Refrigerator at QuTech, of Anasua Chatterjee, who came to TU Delft in 2024 (click here). Thanks to this cryostat, facilitated by the Excellence Fund, temperatures of almost 0 Kelvin can be reached. This is important for Chatterjee’s research about the scalability of quantum technology (read more here). Additionally, 2025 saw 12 online and 3 live Meet the Scientist sessions. During these sensational masterclasses, founders hear about the latest scientific insights of important scientists, and are introduced to groundbreaking startups or developments within TU Delft.

Annual Founder Event: from science to society

Almost 70 involved donors, alumni, scientists and colleagues of TU Delft came together in April 2025 during the Annual Founder Event in the field lab SAM XL. This annual event revolves around the impact of the Excellence Fund and how alumni support can make crucial differences. This year’s theme was valorisation: how can science bridge the gap between idea and impact? The evening contained an inspiring mix of vision, personal stories and meetings. Four Excellence Fund scientists revealed how their research reaches society through collaboration with external partners. And alumnus Ijsbrand de Lange demonstrated with his startup STIL how entrepreneurs can bring Delft knowledge to society.

Graduate Entrepreneur becomes Graduate Ventures

Aside from coaching students, giving guest lectures and opening their (international) network, the community around the Excellence Fund is also involved with the Graduate Entrepreneur. In honour of its 5th anniversary, it changed its name into Graduate Ventures and changed its ambitions. This collaborative initiative of TU Delft, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Erasmus MC is the largest ‘early stage’ financer of startups in the Netherlands. Alumni provide ‘capital’, ‘coaching’ and ‘community’. By the end of 2025, an initial investment of €56 million was able to support more than 70 pre-seed and seed startups. Graduate Ventures hopes to land 100 million in investments for its second investment round in 2026 (Seed II), partially thanks to a national scope. Additionally, it is the intention to integrate other university cities into the Graduate ecosystem. There is, for example, interest from Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Wageningen. The Pre-Seed Fund ambitions include receiving a minimum 20 million in donations and making the fund ‘revolving’ from 2030 onwards, so that successful startups can invest in the new cohort.

Founders autumn 2025:

Excellence Fund is a fixed asset within the 100-year-old University Fund

The development of a meaningful network

Impact Report 2025 – TU Delft Excellence Fund