Biography Jaap Lombaers

In 1982 Jaap Lombaers received a MSc degree with honors in Industrial Design Engineering (Delft University of Technology). Meanwhile, in 1979 he worked with Ampex Corporation and FMC in California. For two years he was researcher at TNO’s Human Factors institute. In 1984 he became human factors consultant for Dutch Railroads, involved in the introduction of new technology in locomotive cabs, control rooms and passenger information systems.

In 1987 he moved back to TNO. He had various positions in management of product development, working for industrial clients worldwide. Projects included food vending equipment, parking ticket readers, barcode readers and a self-scanning system for supermarket customers. In 1996 he became manager of the Product Development Division involving mechanical, electronics hardware and embedded software groups. In 2001 he became board member TNO Industrial Technology, coordinating the research programming of this institute, including the institute’s participation in EU programs.

In 2005 he co-founded and became managing director of Holst Centre, an open innovation research center by imec (BE) and TNO (NL). Holst Centre orchestrates and executes joint research programs on wireless sensors and on large-area and flexible electronics. Holst Centre grew to over 200 researchers of 30 nationalities, working together with researchers of over 70 participating companies. It gained global recognition in its field and became a role model for joint innovation in the Netherlands and abroad. TNO adopted this way of working and further deployed it as the JIC (Joint Innovation Center) model. In 2010 he co-founded Solliance, an initiative in the field of thin-film photovoltaics and involving TNO, ECN, TU Eindhoven (NL), imec, University of Hasselt (BE) and Forschungszentrum Jülich (DE).

In 2014 he became director of TNO’s business in the fields of flexible electronics (Holst Centre), thin-film photovoltaics (Solliance) and additive manufacturing / 3D Printing. In 2015 he co-founded Brightlands Materials Center (BMC), an initiative of TNO and the province of Limburg on polymer-based innovations, with TU Eindhoven, University of Maastricht and a growing number of companies participating. In 2016 he co-founded AMSYSTEMS Centre, in which TNO and TU Eindhoven work together with industry in the field of additive manufacturing / 3D printing. In 2019 he was co-founder of Chip Integration Technology Center (CITC), an initiative involving the Nijmegen semiconductor ecosystem, the Province of Gelderland and City of Nijmegen and the TU Delft.

Since 2019 he is TNO’s director of Knowledge Management and partnerships, responsible for TNO’s portfolio of ‘Early Research Programs’ and for TNO’s account management process towards its most important clients and towards key universities. Additionally serves in the boards of several Joint Innovation Centers and provides support to teams setting up additional ones.