Arnaud de Jong (TNO): stop spreading innovation funding too thin
“Connect world-class research with commercial boldness more quickly, and we can build tomorrow’s tech champions here.”
Published on October 29, 2026
Bart, co-founder of Media52 and Professor of Journalism oversees IO+, events, and Laio. A journalist at heart, he keeps writing as many stories as possible.
The Netherlands has the research talent but produces too few global high-tech companies. At the NXTGEN Conference, Arnaud de Jong calls for larger programmes, expert leadership and a government willing to act as a first customer.
A technology that works in the laboratory is not yet a product. And a product is not yet a company that conquers global markets. It is precisely between these stages that the Netherlands is missing opportunities, argues Arnaud de Jong, managing director of TNO High Tech Industry. His message today at the NXTGEN Conference at the Fokker Terminal in The Hague: maintaining economic independence requires much more targeted investment to build and scale a new generation of high-tech companies.
Under the title “Invent. Build. Scale.”, De Jong links that challenge to an uncomfortable diagnosis. The Netherlands writes ambitious technology strategies but fails to organise the funding, speed and commercial strength needed to deliver them. “A strategy without funding is not industrial policy; it is a statement of good intentions.”
Beyond ASML, the foundations are too narrow
For De Jong, the urgency is both economic and geopolitical. Europe needs to strengthen its defence capabilities while safeguarding its future earning capacity. Sustained productivity growth is essential to fund healthcare, education and social services. In his view, high-tech has a central role to play in achieving that.
Yet the Dutch ambition to spend 3% of gross domestic product on research and development remains out of reach. De Jong describes a country that has hovered around 2% for decades. According to the TNO analysis cited in his keynote, the annual gap between current spending and the 3% target exceeds €11 billion.
Behind the Dutch high-tech sector's success lies a vulnerability. According to the figures presented, ASML accounts for around 40% of R&D expenditure among the Netherlands’ top 50 corporate research investors. For De Jong, this illustrates how heavily the country’s research base depends on a single company. Beyond the ASML ecosystem, he describes the industrial R&D landscape as thin and fragmented.
Greater public investment can, he argues, unlock more private funding. He points to TNO research showing that every euro of public R&D spending mobilises up to 90 cents in private investment. His warning: if the government steps back, companies will not automatically make up the shortfall.
Arnaud de Jong, TNO, © TNO
A strategy needs funding too
For De Jong, the National Technology Strategy adopted in 2024 was an important step. By identifying ten priority key technologies, the Netherlands finally made explicit choices. It now needs to stick to them.
That, he argues, is where the problem lies. The strategy must not become a framework into which every stakeholder can slot their own project. Nor does it help to spread scarce resources across as many parties as possible with what he calls a “policy butter knife”. That dilutes the focus needed to make an international impact.
Moreover, according to De Jong, the National Technology Strategy has virtually no dedicated, ongoing public funding. That risks repeating the familiar innovation paradox: the Netherlands produces excellent research but struggles to turn that knowledge into commercial activity.
Quantum technology offers an example. In the figures he presents, the Netherlands accounts for 2.4% of global scientific publications on quantum technology and 2% of international patents. For venture capital investment, that share falls to around 1%. No Dutch quantum unicorns appear in the overview he cites. The message behind those figures: a strong knowledge base does not automatically translate into an equally strong market position.
From laboratory to first production line
According to De Jong, the main bottleneck comes when technology leaves the laboratory. A promising research result then needs to move to a pilot line, be validated in a cleanroom, or be prepared for initial production. This requires substantial investment while commercial risks remain considerable.
This phase, roughly corresponding to technology readiness levels TRL 4 to 6, is known as the “Valley of Death”. The National Growth Fund still finances activities in this area, but De Jong argues that it provides no permanent funding solution. For ongoing public-private collaboration, he points to the PPS-I funding scheme, which has a budget of €180 million, albeit on a downward trajectory.
His proposal is to pool that funding into just a handful of major programmes. This would allow partners to work together on the infrastructure and development needed to scale up. The decisive question then becomes which industrial capabilities the Netherlands wants to build, and what it will take to do so.
NXTGEN as a model for national policy
De Jong sees NXTGEN Hightech as an example of this approach. The National Growth Fund programme brings together almost €1 billion across six strategic application domains, 53 projects and 330 project partners. It connects companies with knowledge and technology in fields including optics, robotics and systems engineering.
For him, two principles make the difference: expert leadership and accountability. Domain experts, entrepreneurs and industry leaders should steer programmes based on their understanding of technology, supply chains and markets. Funding should then be tied to clear milestones and swift decisions on whether to continue or stop.
“Those who fail to deliver are out,” De Jong says of this approach. Speed is essential. A company may have excellent technology and still stall because decisions and follow-on investments take too long.
According to De Jong, investors want well-organised consortia, sufficient scale and a clear route to market. This underpins his optimism: private capital is available, he argues, provided the Netherlands can organise partnerships that investors are willing to back.
Government as the first customer
More can be done. Alongside larger programmes and expert leadership, De Jong advocates a more active government role as a buyer. Public-sector customers can help Dutch innovations prove themselves and scale up by becoming their first customers. He identifies defence, the energy transition and digital infrastructure as areas where public needs and technological opportunities converge.
An initial contract gives a company the opportunity to prove its technology in practice. It also provides a reference for subsequent customers and investors. In this way, public procurement can help bridge the gap to commercial growth.
De Jong is calling for an innovation policy that supports the entire journey from research to global markets. The Netherlands has the engineers and the knowledge. The task is to turn those strengths into industrial capability. “Connect world-class research with commercial boldness more quickly, and we can build tomorrow’s tech champions here.”