COMMITTEE ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT DELEGATION TO THE NETHERLANDS 18 – 20 MARCH 2015 "Regional Smart Specialisation and European cooperation in practice" SUMMARY REPORT The Committee on Regional Development organised a delegation visit to the Netherlands which took place from 18th to 20th March 2015. The thematic focus of this delegation was to show the practical applications of Smart Specialisation strategies in the EU and in particular in one of the innovation leaders - the Netherlands. The EU's Smart Specialisation Smart specialisation is a new innovation policy concept designed to promote the efficient and effective use of public investment in research. Its goal is to boost regional innovation in order to achieve economic growth and prosperity, by enabling regions to focus on their strengths. Smart specialisation understands that spreading investment too thinly across several frontier technology fields risks limiting the impact in any one area. A smart specialisation strategy needs to be built on a sound analysis of regional assets and technology. It should also include an analysis of potential partners in other regions and avoid unnecessary duplication. Smart specialisation needs to be based on a strong partnership between businesses, public entities and knowledge institutions – such partnerships are recognised as essential for success. (You can find additional information on the Netherlands and Smart Specialisation in an annex of the summary report). The REGI delegation visit to the South of the Netherlands The members of the delegation visited technology and innovation sites, business incubators and small-size family- ran innovative agribusinesses, but also had the opportunity to discuss and exchange experience and thoughts on the implementation of European programmes in support for growth, jobs and innovation and co-financed by European funding. Wednesday, 18th of March - Zuid-Holland On the first day of the trip to the Netherlands, the members of REGI committee visited the Southern part of the country. The first sites to visit was the outstanding Yes-Delft - a state of the art leading local business incubator with a global outreach, aiming at providing support to young entrepreneurs bringing their bright innovative ideas to marketed products and appliances. During the presentations and the discussions, REGI committee members could witness the high quality of projects that were carried by some 70 entrepreneur apprentices with the useful advice and support of senior trainers and bigger companies. EU funding was indeed used in a very efficient way (ex: project for cost efficiency solutions for agricultural producers; project on mini-satellites and space research). 2 Next, the delegation visited a brand new and technologically advanced Bioprocess Pilot Facility in the vicinities of Delft. The Bioprocess Pilot Facility is a unique facility where companies and knowledge institutions can develop new sustainable production processes. These processes serve many purposes, such as converting bio based residues into useful materials or fuels. The facility has been specially designed to enable the transition from the laboratory to production on an industrial scale. It allows users to construct complex operations by linking separate process modules. The facility is partly financed by the ERDF and also benefited from FP7 R&D programme. The first day concluded with a dinner in Rotterdam, given by the Vice -governor of Zuid -Holland Mr Rogier Van den Sande and Mr Maarten Struijvenberg, director of the managing authority. At the dinner an official speech was also given by the mayor of Delft Mr Bas Verkerk, leader of ALDE group at the Committee of the Regions. Thursday, 19th of March - Zeeland, Den Hague and Eindhoven The second day of the visit started with a meeting /discussion with the provincial authorities of Zeeland at the Abbey of Middleburg. The Zeeland province is covered by the Southern-Netherlands Operational programme. Mr Han Polman, member of the executive board of King's Commissioner of the province of Zeeland, presented the smart specialisation strategy for the maritime Delta region and handed over their manifesto stating the priorities of a modern circular economy based on business and technological development with a particular accent on connections with a variety of partners. On the way to Den Hague the members of the delegation stopped for a refreshing lunch at a family owned sustainable oyster farm 'Oesterij', delivering first quality oysters to consumers worldwide. In Den Hague the delegation was received by the state secretary for the Ministry of economic affairs of the Netherlands, Ms Sharon Dijksma. Ms Dijskma briefly presented the EIS Funds in the Netherlands (attached in annex). She also presented few of the priorities of the forthcoming Dutch presidency of the EU in 2016, putting the accent on the importance of the strong support for urban areas that the European Parliament should send through the adoption of the Urban Agenda report, currently discussed in REGI committee. A number of additional issues were discussed, notably the implementation of the Junker plan and its financial aspects. In the afternoon, the delegation travelled to Eindhoven, in the Noord -Brabant province, where the MEP's visited the High Tech Campus in the "Brainport" region. 3 Brainport Innovation Strategy The clearest showcase for the link between an individual project and the regional smart specialisation strategy are the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven and the Automotive Campus in Helmond which are both part of the Brainport innovation strategy. These projects also have an apparent European dimension, as the aspects of European (Leuven and Aachen) and international cooperation are integrated in the strategy. Once again, the delegates were impressed by the outstanding qualities of the business incubator developed on the campus, where the Eindhoven University of Technologies has its premises. The incubator and the campus are enabling businesses and boosting collaborative and open research programmes of institutes like Holts Centre, Solliance and others. In the evening, the members of the delegation were invited to a dinner hosted by the King's commissioner of the province of North Brabant, Mr Wim Van de Donk and by Ms Imke Carsouw, Brainport development director. Friday, 20th of March - Helmond Automotive campus. End of delegation The delegation ended on Friday after a visit to the automotive campus in Helmond. The Automotive Campus in Helmond - located in the Brainport Region - is the national and international hotspot, meeting point and place of business in the field of automotive (technology) and smart mobility. The delegates could witness the attractive learning and working environment, state of the art technological (test) facilities and flexible accommodation concepts offered by the campus. The Campus is a one-stop-shop when it comes to automotive technology and mobility concepts. It welcomes engineers, suppliers, scientists, testers and assembly workers. For a "pit stop", co- creation or as a new home base for innovation and product development. It is also a meeting place where know-how and companies can get together with the aim of promoting cross-sector cooperation, exchange of knowledge and open innovation. Smart, safe and sustainable mobility solutions for people, roads and vehicles of today and tomorrow are realized at the Automotive Campus. The automotive campus benefited from some 1,5 million EUR from ERDF under the 2007 -2014 period to build facilities. 4 Programme EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT COMMITTEE ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Delegation to the Netherlands 'Regional Smart Specialisation and European cooperation in practice' 18 – 20 March 2015 Wednesday 18 March 2015 afternoon OP 'Kansen voor West': Zuid- Holland Individual arrival of the Members and the Staff to Schiphol Airport 12:00 – 12:30: The participants of the delegation meet at the Meeting Point of Schiphol Airport. Near the railway platforms you will see a giant cube constructed of red and white blocks and with panels displaying photos of objects. 12:30 – 14:30: Bus transfer to Delft, Zuid-Holland including the light lunch and pre-briefing on the projects visited 14:30 – 16:00: Meeting with Mr Pieter Guldemond, the Director of the project Yes!Delft Topics: Visit the project Yes!Delft in Delft, Zuid - Holland. Meeting with the companies from business incubator on European funding. Venue: Molengraaffsingel 12-14 2629 JD Delft Netherlands Phone:+31 15 278 2816 16:00 – 16:30: Bus transfer to the Bioprocess Pilot Facilitatoran - ERDF co-funded facility which stimulates scaling-up laboratory experiments to an industrial scale Venue: Alexander Fleminglaan 1 2613 AX Delft Phone: +31 (0) 15 5150 200 E-mail:[email protected] 16:30 – 17:45: Meeting with Mr Hans van Leeuwen, the Director of the Bioprocess Pilot Facilitator 5 Topics: Visit and presentation of the project and discussion on European funding opportunities and cooperation. Venue: Alexander Fleminglaan 1 2613 AX Delft Phone: +31 (0) 15 5150 200 E-mail:[email protected] 17:45 – 18:15: Bus transfer to Rotterdam Venue: SSRotterdam 3e Katendrechtse Hoofd 25 3072 AM Rotterdam http://ssrotterdam.nl/ 18:30 – 21:00: Dinner hosted by Mr Rogier van der Sande, the Vice-Governor of Zuid- Holland, Chair of the Monitoring Committee and Mr Maarten Struijvenberg, Managing Authority of the OP West Netherlands Venue: SSRotterdam 3e Katendrechtse Hoofd 25 3072 AM Rotterdam http://ssrotterdam.nl/ 21:00 – 22:30: Bus transfer to Middelburg and check in