About us

The IHK Nord Westfalen, together with the economic development agency Oost.nl, the Twente Bord and committed support partners, on 21 May 2021 with the Memorandum of Understanding we were able to start the German-Dutch cooperation of the economy down a new path of cooperation between the regions of Eastern Netherlands and North Westphalia. Known best under the abbreviation MoU, this was an important step to deepen cross-border cooperation and bring the German-Dutch Innovation Pact in the Euregio to life.

With the cross-border strategy based on this, the Memorandum of Understanding was drawn up in 2023, together with our support partners: City of Münster, City of Enschede, Handwerkskammer Münster, Münsterland e.V., World Trade Center Twente and the Euregio as well as the universities in our region (including the University Münster, University of Twente, FH Münster, Westphalian University and Saxion Hogescholen) further developed in order to achieve more structure and visibility in Düsseldorf, in The Hague and in Brussels. Worth highlighting here is the joint meeting with the head of the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia in the House of the Provinces of the Netherlands in Brussels.

On 17 April 2024, together with our partners, including the Borken District Economic Development Agency, we were able to go one step further to turn the strategy into a cross-border program with our own resources and our own name. The German-Dutch TECH.LAND program, led by Hans Brouwers and with financial support from the Netherlands and Germany, will now transform the border into a connection.
Our motto is therefore: “Transforming Borders into Connections!”

Together we pursue the following goal: to overcome the social and economic challenges of our time and to increase the global competitiveness of our companies and scientific institutions in the areas of innovation and technology. For this purpose, we are joining forces as German-Dutch ecosystems in the heart of Europe.

The thematic focus of the TECH.LAND program includes the topics of energy (battery research and hydrogen), circular economy, advanced manufacturing and robotics as well as health and MedTech. All events, activities and projects that take place as part of this program can also be found on LinkedIn and on the Internet at www.techland.org.