Building future technological leadership together
Policy and practice come together in the National Technology Strategy workshops.
Published on May 29, 2025
Team IO+ selects and features the most important news stories on innovation and technology, carefully curated by our editors.
In a series of sessions organized by the joint Regional Development Agencies, in coordination with KIA Key Technology, a workshop was held on May 7 at Brainport Industries Campus in Eindhoven. More than a hundred deep tech professionals came together to have their say on five key technologies. The goal? To bring policy and practice closer together – and above all, to ensure that SMEs and start-ups also have a real say in drawing up technology agendas and translating them into value chains.
The National Technology Strategy (NTS) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy describes strategic ambitions, but it is up to the field to translate these into concrete actions. The KIA Key Technologies coordinates this process nationwide, asking the field to come together and draw up action agendas that have broad support. At the same time, at the request of the ministry and in close consultation with the KIA, the ROMs translate the technologies into fourteen promising cross-regional value chains and develop a reinforcement plan for each of these chains. The ROMs thus play a connecting role for regional entrepreneurs.
The Brabant Development Agency (BOM) organized a regional working session in Eindhoven, together with LIOF, Impuls Zeeland, and Brainport Development, to gather insights from the field. This session focused on five technologies that are crucial to the future earning capacity of the Netherlands: optical systems and integrated photonics, imaging technology, semicon technology, mechatronics, and optomechatronics, and quantum technology. During a series of interactive sessions, companies, knowledge institutions, and policymakers discussed the biggest challenges—and, above all, the opportunities.
“What we are doing here is making policy tangible,” says Dirk van Meer of the Brabant Development Agency (BOM). “We bring the reality of entrepreneurs to the table, so that policy will be based on real needs. It is precisely these stories from the field that are indispensable for the successful implementation of the NTS.”
Semicon: a top sector, but too narrow?
An important theme in the session on the semiconductor industry was the vulnerability of current chains. The Netherlands excels in a number of niche markets such as lithography and chip design. But it is precisely this specialization that makes us vulnerable, as the discussions revealed.
“Geopolitical dependence on Asia is a risk,” said one participant. “If we only excel at the top of the value chain and outsource the rest, we run a serious strategic risk.” The call for broadening and diversification was therefore clearly audible: more attention to packaging, more mid- and back-end capacity, and more connection with sectors such as automotive, medtech, and defense.
It also became painfully clear that the Netherlands is lagging behind in crucial infrastructure. Large production capacity, such as 300mm fabs, is absent. At the same time, there are concrete opportunities in the region, for example, through crossovers with integrated photonics or by setting up lab-to-fab concepts in which startups can scale up their technology within the Netherlands. A good example is the InP ecosystem for photonics in Eindhoven, which is already internationally recognized.
The Defense potential
The session on Defense & Aerospace highlighted an important area of tension: the southern Netherlands has a wealth of relevant technology and talent, but is not yet able to sufficiently link this to defense and aerospace contracts. The causes are diverse. For example, there are hardly any large prime contractors for defense in the Netherlands, and the major manufacturers are located outside the region. In addition, companies often lack access to the right networks or tendering channels. The fragmentation of knowledge and the lack of a central innovation platform are also seen as obstacles.
At the same time, it was noted that there are great opportunities. In the coming years, €8 billion will become available through the European Defense Fund, and Brabant has a strong starting position in niches such as data analysis, cybersecurity, nanosatellites, and optical communication. By forming consortia and actively participating in European programs, companies from the region can play a greater role. One concrete proposal from the session was to set up a defense innovation network, for example, through the NIDV, which links SMEs to larger players and the Ministry of Defense itself. Pilot projects initiated by the Ministry of Defense, with regional companies as launching partners, would also help to create momentum. The message from the field is clear: the potential is there, now we need to organize the ecosystem more intelligently in order to capitalize on it.
ROMs as a connecting link
The role of the Regional Development Agencies (ROMs), including the BOM, is essential in this process.
Not only because they know entrepreneurs and bring their economic impulses to the very heart of the economy, but also because they bridge the gap between policy, implementation, and the market.
“We know where the problems lie,” says Van Meer. “Whether it's a lack of talent, the gap between research and market introduction, or finding capital in the middle phase—we stand alongside those entrepreneurs.”
This position has led the ministry to ask the ROMs to play a leading role in the regional implementation of the NTS. The ultimate goal is to develop a concrete regional reinforcement plan for value chains in which key technologies are translated into commercial applications that actually help entrepreneurs in the region to move forward. This will then be linked to the NTS action agendas that are being drawn up at a national level.
Representatives from each ROM are involved and we coordinate regularly, says Anton Duisterwinkel of InnovationQuarter (South Holland), who coordinates the ROMs' NTS process: "We have agreed that the ROMs will not focus solely on technology, because ROMs focus on regional entrepreneurs. Those entrepreneurs sell products and services. The further development and application of that technology takes place in value chains, which are precisely what makes them interesting for collaboration.“ These are value chains where substantial international market growth is expected and which help to make the Netherlands even more competitive and strengthen our strategic autonomy. ”Innovations simply come about faster and more effectively when these groups work together in a value chain."
Capital and talent: the indispensable foundations
In addition to technology and infrastructure, structural preconditions were also discussed. There is an acute shortage of specialized personnel, from secondary vocational education to PhD level. Training programs often do not match what companies need. The participants called for a clear “talent roadmap” for the sectors discussed, with a focus on lateral entrants and lifelong development.
On the capital side, there was some frustration about the lack of venture capital for scaling up: promising start-ups are often taken over by foreign parties at an early stage because Dutch investors are too risk-averse and think too small. Greater investment of capital from pension funds and regional funds could make a difference here, with a focus on a healthy balance between opportunities and risks.
From dialogue to action
The session in Eindhoven is part of a nationwide process: similar meetings have been and are being held throughout the Netherlands, coordinated by the regional development agencies in consultation with KIA Sleuteltechnologie. The input of entrepreneurs and experts from all parts of the country thus forms an essential building block for national innovation policy. This will complement the input gathered at a national level for the drafting of the NTS action agendas.
What remains at the end of the series of workshops is the need to keep listening. Not only to the big players, but also to the SMEs and start-ups that are building the technology of the future every day. Van Meer: “If we don't want the NTS to become a paper tiger, we have to flesh it out together. That starts with listening.”
At the end of June, the first outlines of a Regional NTS Strengthening Plan will be drawn up, with coordination with companies and other stakeholders on the proposed actions. In the summer, the final plan will be submitted to the client, the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The ROMs, the business community, and other stakeholders will then jointly take charge of its implementation. All the ‘low-hanging fruit’ for the short term can then be picked up immediately. In this way, the final roadmap will come closer step by step. The ROMs will remain open to input from the business community.
The Regional Strengthening Plan for the NTS also feeds into the NTS action agendas that are being drawn up at the national level, coordinated by KIA ST. The NTS action agendas are expected at the end of 2025.