Talents United is an initiative by the two incubators from Erasmus University Rotterdam and TU Delft to connect talents to startups and scaleups and prepare them to establish and grow the leading companies of tomorrow. 

Over the past ten years the number of support programmes for students and starting entrepreneurs offered by our own incubators has grown impressively. While this is a great achievement, these programmes were largely developed with our own target audience in mind. As a result, we see that at present there is insufficient exchange between startup teams coming out of our universities. This leads to a lack of diversity in skill sets, which we believe to be crucial to solve the pressing issues of today and to realise a better future.

In order to break down the boundaries between the alpha, beta, gamma and medical sciences, Talents United will facilitate the creation of more multidisciplinary startup teams. We do this by actively connecting students from different backgrounds to each other and to the startups and scaleups active in the region. By joining the Talents United community, students and young professionals have a direct and personal link to both YES!Delft and Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship. We offer personal advice to connect talents to the right opportunity or network, provide services that boost multidisciplinary collaborations and collect relevant entrepreneurship opportunities from our partner network in a monthly newsletter.

“What I hope to see in five years is that all startup teams coming out of our incubators each include team members from different study fields and universities.” – Martin Luxemburg,  Director Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship

Talents United is part of the broader strategy of Erasmus University to stimulate and accelerate entrepreneurship on and across campus via its new entity, Erasmus Enterprise, which includes Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship, YES!Delft and ERBS. Through this collaboration, we want to broaden students’ horizons and excite them about the entrepreneurial opportunities that exist outside of their own fields of study and traditional career paths. To that end Erasmus Enterprise channels all existing entrepreneurship activities on campus and enables students to navigate the entrepreneurial landscape.

Opening up the ecosystem networks of Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship and YES!Delft, Talents United functions as a matchmaker on – and beyond – the campuses of Erasmus University, Erasmus MC and TU Delft. With 40.000 students, internationally acclaimed research and education activities and programmes in all disciplines, it is only a logical next step in becoming the world’s leading universities for solving pressing issues. Together with the efforts of Erasmus Enterprise that support the connection between talents and new businesses, Talents United is also committed to strengthen the regional innovation ecosystem in South Holland.

“We want to enable startups and scaleups in the region to easily source talent from our universities so they will stay in the region while growing their businesses. This is crucial to ensure the competitiveness of province South Holland.” – EJ Lugt, Managing Director YES!Delft