Innovation Europe > News > Innovation EU Vol2-1 > Innovation Netherlands

The vision, ambitions and policy objectives of the cabinet for the Dutch society and economy is represented in “Towards an agenda for sustainable productivity growth” (2008). It contains three “policy agendas” (for Talents, Public & private research and Innovative entrepreneurship) with policy objectives and targets for 2011. The long-term strategy was developed by the new inter-departmental Knowledge & Innovation programme department (K&I). In K&I, all relevant ministries collaborate on joint issues in innovation policy.

In addition to developing a long-term strategy, K&I is responsible for developing innovation agendas for prioritised societal themes (sustainable energy, water, healthcare, education, sustainable agro-innovation and safety and security).

The stimulus package of the government to counter the economic crisis introduces two new measures to prevent the loss of knowledge workers by R&D intensive firms. The total policy budget for these measures is €280 million for 2009 and 2010. The Knowledge workers scheme enables firms to temporarily second their R&D personnel to public knowledge institutes for a period of one and a half years. The High Tech Top Projects scheme helps firms in the high-tech sector to keep their R&D workers employed by giving support for large R&D projects.

The tax-incentive R&D work Stimulation Act (WBSO) (NL 86) – by far the largest measure in the Dutch policy mix with a budgetary weight of €0.5 billion per year – is further broadened and extended. There are nine innovation programmes in all.

Main innovation challenges

• Raise the number of innovative SMEs, not only in industry, but also in the services sector.
• Improve the attractiveness of the Netherlands as a location for knowledgeintensive activities.
• Create an excellent climate for both learning and research to secure a sufficient supply of new (doctorate) graduates.

Conclusion

It appears that the level of political commitment to significantly increase the levels of investment in education, research and innovation has been too low to make progress in innovativeness. A stronger sense of urgency and closer co-ordination of R&D and innovation policies at the highest political level are needed. Also in the current economic crisis, the government has made relatively few additional investments in knowledge and innovation.

A first future policy action would be to mobilise more structural funding for investments in R&D and innovation. A second opportunity for innovation policy would be to increase the level of co-ordination and coherence between higher education, research and innovation policy. The long-term agenda of the K&I programme department – with its agendas for Talent, Research and Entrepreneurship – is a good first step, but it could be elaborated to become a common guiding framework for future investments in knowledge and innovation.