History

In 2008 representatives from leading Dutch industry laboratories and academic analytical science and technology groups at universities recognized three major concerns for future innovation and economic growth in The Netherlands: (1) a trend towards application-driven and sector-specific analytical R&D at Dutch universities and a concurrent decline of highly innovative fundamental analytical research, (2) increasingly difficult recruitment, due to a lack of high-quality researchers and technicians  at PhD, MSc and BSc (HBO) levels, and (3) the limited sharing of and access to rare, high-end analytical instrumentation. The sense of urgency for COmprehensive Analytical Science and Technology (COAST) was evident.

In the following, critical, step a group of ~60 large industrial companies, SMEs, institutes and university groups committed the initial funding for the development of the COAST Business Plan. This facilitated the formal established and registration of TI-COAST, Top Institute for Comprehensive Analytical Science and Technology, shortly COAST, as an independent foundation in December 2008. The COAST business plan was presented in September 2009 to the national co-ordination body for chemistry (‘RegieGroep Chemie’, RGC). Following the support by the RCG, the Ministry of economic affairs and the national science foundation NWO granted the TA-COAST R&D program. This was the first step in the realization of the COAST business plan.

Since 2011 COAST has been organizing and coordinating public-private research and innovation programs and extracurricular education programs for talented students. Form the start, COAST also co-founds and participates in projects that set out to develop unique high-end analytical research facilities.