To take advantage of opportunities in the high-tech sector and to retain this industry in the Netherlands, a clear long-term strategy is required, together with appropriate financing instruments. The rapid development of technologies such as artificial intelligence, 'quantum' and photonics, in combination with the societal challenges in the field of sustainability, health and safety, offers opportunities. It is crucial that companies, governments and knowledge institutions work together to take advantage of these opportunities. Read the opinion piece by Arnaud de Jong, managing director High Tech Industry at TNO, here.
Focus on future technologies in mechanical engineering
The Netherlands is very strong in building complex machines. The best-known example is ASML, which makes machines that print delicate patterns on silicon for making computer chips. There are more strong high-tech companies such as Lely, which make large machines for dairy farmers. Or Vanderlande, which makes the luggage belts you find at airports all over the world. Or Canon (formerly Océ), which builds wall-to-wall printers that can be used to print books on demand.
These companies build devices that are so complex that they are sometimes the only ones worldwide that can build them. Value chains have sprung up around it with numerous suppliers and buyers. Our Dutch high-tech industry has a total turnover of more than eighty billion euros. As a small country we cannot be world champions in everything. We have to make smart choices about which technologies to use in the coming years.
Working together for a long-term vision
Judging by the groundbreaking research of universities and knowledge institutions and in those fields in which Dutch start-ups and high-tech (SME) companies excel, TNO sees several looming: quantum technology, artificial intelligence, integrated photonics, satellite communication and nanotechnology.
The follow-up question is perhaps even more relevant: what are we investing in within that value chain? What are the essential links on which the whole world depends and which we can develop in the Netherlands? TNO calls these control points in a value chain. We expect that by 2040, around 50 percent of the turnover of the high-tech sector will come from new value chains.
What those future gems are, is the key question. Current (SME) companies are already positioning themselves and we are slowly seeing the first promising startups emerge, for example in the field of energy storage, photonics or laser satellite communication.
An example of a promising technology is thin film and coatings for energy storage in batteries; very relevant for the automotive industry. Large-scale battery production in the Netherlands is not convenient for all sorts of reasons. Smarter is: using our knowledge of thin-film electronics to build the machine that makes the batteries.
In terms of AI, the Netherlands cannot beat the big tech companies in the United States. But we can help reduce the energy consumption of data centers significantly with photonics.
As a small country, we can be proud of our high-tech sector. Until 2030, for example, the ministry is investing heavily in this sector, mainly through Growth Fund programmes. But after that there is a threat to fall. For example, the European Chips Act will be implemented in the Netherlands in the coming period, while a clear translation of this is still lacking.
The question now is: what will we do if the funds from the Growth Fund will no longer be there in a few years? This requires a long-term vision and we must work on this together.
