About IXA
Innovation Exchange Amsterdam (IXA) helps drive the transition of academic and practice-based research and knowledge into ground-breaking innovations and applications that improve lives, transform industries, and create substantial societal and economic impact.
Since 2014 the University of Amsterdam (UvA), Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA), Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam and Amsterdam UMC join forces of their so-called knowledge transfer offices (KTO) under the name Innovation Exchange Amsterdam (IXA).
Our main focus
IXA is the expert interface between Amsterdam-based universities and parties interested in their research findings and knowledge. Being an interface, IXA deploys its expertise in two directions:
- Assisting Amsterdam researchers from all disciplines– including PhDs, postdocs, and teacher researchers, etc. – in generating societal and economic impact from their work.
We also include master’s students in this category, who – as part of their studies – would like to learn more about valorisation, or how to develop an idea.
Go to For researchers to find out more.
- Assisting external parties – e.g., companies, non-profits, governments, healthcare and educational institutions, NGO’s, etc. – in navigating the academic landscape to find a solution or spot an opportunity.
Go to For companies/non-profits to find out more.
In addition, IXA supports UvA, HvA, VU, Amsterdam UMC, AHK and KNAW management and teaching and supporting staff (HRM, legal, financial, administrative, secretarial and communication) seeking expertise or advice on research-based entrepreneurship, and research funding and grants.
Your first point of contact
At every campus location throughout Amsterdam, our business developers, legal advisors and grant advisors contribute to developing the Amsterdam innovation ecosystem by bringing people together. Meet the IXA Teams.
IXA offices are an integral part of the universities’ service infrastructure. Therefore, our services, facilities and expertise are free of charge.
Impact in education and beyond: VU researcher Laura Rupp secures Comenius Leadership Fellow grant
Laura Rupp has been awarded the Comenius Leadership Fellow grant for a three-year period. This grant of 500,000 Euros, will fund a project titled “Global English and International Dutch on the VU Campus”. Over the years, Rupp has successfully reached more than 100,000 people online worldwide, teaching how to understand diverse English accents and speak […]
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Funding from KWF for palliative cancer patients in meaning-making at home
The diagnosis of incurable cancer profoundly disrupts patients’ lives, often causing existential crises and a sense of lost purpose. The KWF-funded project “In Search of Stories” (ISOS) aimed to support these patients by partnering them with spiritual counsellors and professional artists. This co-creation process proved highly beneficial. New funding from KWF Dutch Cancer Society supports […]
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Max Nieuwdorp’s innovative research on gut microbes: a path to combat fatty liver disease
Internist Max Nieuwdorp, of Amsterdam UMC, discovered a few years ago that the microorganisms in the intestines of many overweight people produce alcohol to an increased extent. Breaking down excessive alcohol leads to fatty liver disease, which in turn poses a risk of serious conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Nieuwdorp has now received an ERC Advanced Grant of 2.5 million euros for a major study into the underlying causes of this excessive alcohol production.
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