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.”
Other topics in this article:
- Semicon: a top sector, but too narrow?
- The Defense potential
- ROMs as a connecting link
- Capital and talent: the indispensable foundations
- From dialogue to action
