The Netherlands

The JM Burgerscentrum (JMBC) is the Dutch research school for fluid mechanics. The Delft University of Technology is the coordinating university. The main goals of the JMBC are:

• Stimulation of co-operation of the participating groups with respect to their research efforts. It is the desire to be one of the leading institutes for fluid mechanics in the world.
• Organization of advanced courses for PhD-students. Researchers from industries and technological institutes also attend these courses.
• Co-operation with industries and technological institutes. The aim is to promote the use of up-to-date knowledge on fluid mechanics for solving practical problems.
• Strengthen the contacts between Dutch fluid mechanics research groups at universities and the international fluid mechanics community.

About 55 professors with their groups participate in the JMBC. These groups are located at the Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology, University of Twente , the University of Groningen, the Radboud University of Nijmegen, Leiden University and Wageningen University. They are from a number of disciplines; such as Civil Engineering; Mechanical Engineering; Maritime Technology; (Applied) Physics; Aerospace Engineering; Applied Mathematics and Chemical Technology. The professors with their senior staff form the Council of project leaders, which meets twice a year. There are about 250 PhD-students in the JMBC.

The research projects carried out by the JMBC-groups have been ordered in a number of research themes. The reason for this ordering is to present in each theme a combination of projects which have coherence. The themes are:

• Complex dynamics of fluids
• Complex structures of fluids
• Mathematical and computational methods for fluid flow analysis.

The JM Burgerscentrum has many good contacts with industries and technological institutes in The Netherlands. For that reason there is an Industrial Advisory Committee (IA), in which Unilever, Gasunie, Corus, Rijkswaterstaat, Philips, AKZO-Nobel, Teijin Twaron, Shell, DOW Benelux, ASML and DSM participate. A Programme Committee (PC) also exists with the following members: NLR, NMI, TNO-Industry and Technology, TNO-Defence and Safety, MARIN, Deltares, KEMA and ECN/NRG. The IA and PC meet twice per year with the scientific director to discuss new activities of relevance to industries and technological institutes.

Each year there are many scientific contacts with research groups in other countries. For that reason there are often external visitors to the JMBC groups. JMBC staff also regularly visits foreign fluid-mechanics groups, and presents their work at international conferences. The number of publications from JMBC staff in well-known scientific journals is considerable.

The JMBC has attracted top-experts in different fields of fluid mechanics to the JMBC. These experts have been appointed as JMBC-professors at the three Technological Universities and are financed by the Boards of the Technological Universities. They contribute considerably to the achievements of the research school.

An important activity of the JMBC is the organisation of the annual meeting of the research school (Burgersdag).

Together with Engineering Mechanics (the research school on solid mechanics) the JMBC forms the Centre for Fluid and Solid Mechanics. This Centre has been recognized as a centre of excellence in The Netherlands and has received significant funding by the Dutch Government for stimulating new research areas in fluid and solid mechanics.