Without a structural successor to the National Growth Fund, a gap arises in Dutch innovation policy
Research: Without a structural successor to the National Growth Fund, a gap threatens in Dutch innovation policy. Long-term public-private cooperation is essential to stimulate investments, bring technologies from the lab to the market, and strengthen the Dutch competitive position.
The National Growth Fund supports large-scale collaboration between companies and knowledge institutions for the long term. Due to the lack of a successor, a large gap may now arise in Dutch innovation policy, concludes TNO in research commissioned by NXTGEN Hightech. Hundreds of companies and knowledge institutions will soon lose crucial support in bringing promising new technologies and prototypes to market.
The Growth Fund was established in 2020 with €20 billion, but has been downsized since 2024. The then-cabinet canceled all new rounds to economize. Only ongoing projects, such as NXTGEN Hightech, PhotonDelta, and POLARIS, were allowed to continue. There will be one more extra round of €375 million, mostly from released funds within the ongoing NGF.
Innovation takes ten to fifteen years
TNO Vector therefore investigated how this gap can best be bridged. The researchers looked at three ongoing Growth Fund programs. Among them is NXTGEN Hightech, which has been working since 2023 with 330 companies and knowledge institutions on the machines and production technologies of the future. In addition, they studied three foreign programs for public-private innovation cooperation in Australia, Norway, and the United Kingdom.
An important conclusion of the report is that such programs demonstrably lead to more investment in research, faster innovation, and better collaboration. The condition is that they are well organized and run long enough. Participants say a duration of ten to fifteen years is desirable, especially in deeptech. Those who have to start over every few years build nothing lasting, say participants in the studied programs. According to TNO, this exact long-term approach disappears if the Growth Fund does not get a successor.
On Budget Day, the cabinet allocated funds for two new instruments: €500 million for a National Agency for Disruptive Innovation (NADI) and over €3 billion for a National Investment Institution (NII). NADI finances the breakthrough, the NII the scaling up. The current Growth Fund strengthens innovation ecosystems and makes it possible to develop new businesses rapidly in strategic areas.
For that role, there is no structural successor after the last round. The research therefore makes recommendations for a new coherent and long-term innovation instrument that is complementary to the other instruments and at a greater distance from politics. Continuity is essential and gives parties confidence to invest. This aligns the research with earlier advice from former ASML CEO Peter Wennink and the Advisory Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (AWTI) from 2025.
Companies pay half
The example of NXTGEN Hightech shows how such a program works in practice. This program has a size of €970 million. The Growth Fund pays roughly half, and the participating companies themselves contribute the other half. Money is not just distributed. In 2025 and 2027, all projects must pass a review moment. Then it is examined what they deliver for the market position of Dutch companies, for the knowledge in the Netherlands, and for the collaboration.
Projects that do not deliver are adjusted or stopped. Thus, NXTGEN provides a practical answer to questions now posed by the House of Representatives about the new Growth Fund round: do companies themselves contribute, and does public money lead to production and jobs in the Netherlands?
The Netherlands must bring more innovation from lab to market, but now risks losing an important driver for this. NXTGEN Hightech stimulates innovation and private investment with public money. But only with a long-term approach. According to TNO, the Netherlands can break the innovation paradox with a fixed successor to the Growth Fund: the country excels in knowledge but converts too little of it into new products and companies. Without that successor, the paradox remains.