Minister Beljaarts: “Although the Netherlands is one of the most productive countries in the world, our productivity growth lags behind countries such as Sweden and the United States. By helping SMEs with process innovations, they can increase their productivity and quality of work and thus also strengthen their competitive position.”

This investment is part of the minister’s broader approach to promote productivity growth in the Netherlands. The government is working on a productivity agenda for this purpose, which should be ready before the summer.

The Shaping the Future of Work project is an initiative of TU Delft, RoboHouse, Koninklijke MetaalUnie, Bouwend Nederland and TNO, who have jointly submitted a subsidy application to the ministry. The aim of the project is to ensure that technological innovations are better aligned with the practice of SMEs and employees. Central to this innovative approach is that professionals, innovators, engineers and social scientists are actively involved in the design and development of innovations. This makes work more attractive and productive, and technological innovations will be better aligned with the practice of SMEs. The intention is to start recruiting and selecting participating SMEs for the first projects at the end of 2024.

Economic growth and vision for the future

The Dutch economy grew by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter of 2024 compared to the 2nd quarter. To make this growth sustainable, more productivity growth is needed.

Minister Beljaarts emphasized: “FRAIM and projects such as Shaping the Future of Work are crucial to making the Netherlands future-proof. Collaboration between science and business is the key to success.”

FRAIM

FRAIM is located in RoboHouse, the field lab of TU Delft, which supports companies in their search for innovation. It has a learning center for courses and workshops, a demonstration center with industrial robots and a test center where companies can develop and test new applications.