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 at hotel
The Hotel chosen for the delegation:
Hotel de Roosevelt Nieuwe Burg 42 4331 AH Middelburg Zeeland Phone: +31 118 436 360 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.hoteltheroosevelt.nl/
Thursday 19 March 2015 morning OP 'OpZuid: Zeeland
08:30 – 09:00: The delegation meets in the hotel lobby and walk to the Abbey of Middelburg (5 min) guided by Mr Milos Labovic, Regional representative of the Province of Zeeland
Venue: Abdijplein at Onder de Toren Middelburg 6 The Netherlands
09:00 – 09:30: Meeting with Mr Han Polman, the Member of the executive board of King's Commissioner of the Province of Zeeland
Topics: Regional Development of Coastal Towns through the Bio based Economy
Venue: De Abdij Abdijplein Middelburg The Netherlands
09:30 – 10:00: Transfer to de 'Oesterij' - a successful oyster producing family farm. Venue: Havendijk 12 4401 NS Yerseke Zeeland
10:00 – 12:00: Walking lunch with oysters/local products hosted by Mr Ben de Reu, the Member of the Executive Council of the Province of Zeeland and Mr Kees van Beveren, the Member of the Provincial Executive Council for Fishery & aquaculture. Open for press
Topics: Visit project 'Oesterij'. Regional development in coastal areas with European funding
Venue: Havendijk 12 4401 NS Yerseke Zeeland
12:00: Bus transfer to The Hague
Venue: Ministry of Economic Affairs Bezuidenhoutseweg 73 2594 AC The Hague The Netherlands Phone: + 31 70 379 8911
Thursday 19 March afternoon National perspective The Netherlands Regional Policy 2014 - 2020
14:00 – 15:15: Meeting with Ms Sharon Dijksma, the State Secretary for the Ministry of Economic Affairs
Debate topics: Implementation of Cohesion policy 2014-2020 7 Smart Specialisation in Holland Urban Agenda Cross-border cooperation Synergies between ESIF Funds and other sources of financing
Venue: Ministry of Economic Affairs Bezuidenhoutseweg 73 2594 AC The Hague The Netherlands Phone: + 31 70 379 8911
15:15 – 15:30: Press conference (TBC)
15:30 – 17:45: Bus transfer to Eindhoven
Venue: High Tech Campus 1 5656 AE Eindhoven The Netherlands Phone: +31 40 230 5500
Thursday 19 March 2015 evening OP 'Op-Zuid': Noord - Brabant
17:45 – 19:45: Meeting with Mr Bert-Jan Woertman, Marketing and Communications Director of High Tech Campus Eindhoven, with Mr Huib van den Heuvel, Director of Holst Centre and Solliance and Mr Ton van Mol, TNO
Topics: Visit High Tech Campus Eindhoven: High Tech Campus 1 (Part E), The Strip and Holst Centre and Solliance Turning Technology into Business at High Tech Campus Eindhoven Start-up boot camp HighTechXL, Building the world’s leading High Tech Accelerator, including pitches from start-ups
Venue: High Tech Campus 1 5656 AE Eindhoven The Netherlands Phone: +31 40 230 5500
20:00 – 21:30: Working dinner on "The Strip" hosted by Mr Wim van de Donk, King's Commissioner of the province of North Brabant, joined by Ms Imke Carsouw, Brainport Development Director
8 Topics: ERDF Smart specialisation Synergies ESIF Funds and Horizon 2020 Open Innovation
Venue: Restaurant The Lounge High Tech Campus 1 The Strip 5656 AE Eindhoven
21:30 – 22:00: Bus transfer to the hotel and check in at hotel
The Hotel chosen for the delegation:
Holiday Inn Eindhoven Veldmaarschalk Montgomerylaan 1 Eindhoven, 5612 BA The Netherlands Phone: +31 (0)40 235 82 35 e-mail: [email protected]
Friday 20 March 2015 morning OP 'Op-Zuid': Noord - Brabant
09:00 – 09:15: The delegation meets in the hotel lobby
09:15 – 09:30: Bus transfer to Automotive Campus Helmond
Venue: Steenovenweg 1 5708 HN Helmond The Netherlands Phone: +31 (0) 492 56 2500
09:30 – 10:00: Meeting with Mr Benno Hüsken, the Director of Automotive NL and his operational staff and Ms Yvonne van Mierlo, the Member of City Council on Economic affairs. Open for press
Topics: Smart specialisation of the region.
Venue: Steenovenweg 1 5708 HN Helmond The Netherlands Phone: +31 (0) 492 56 2500 9 10:00 – 11:00: Tour Automotive Campus together with Mr Daniël de Klein, Projectmanager Automotive Cluster Development and Mr Ton van Lier, Strategic Policy Advisor / Subsidies Coordinator. Open for press
Topics: Smart specialisation of the region.
Venue: Steenovenweg 1 5708 HN Helmond The Netherlands Phone: +31 (0) 492 56 2500
11:15 – 13:00: Bus transfer to Schiphol Airport
End of the official program of the Delegation
10 The route of the delegation
11 The Netherlands in the context of Cohesion policy
The formal position of the Dutch government during the negotiations was that Cohesion policy should only be targeting less developed regions. The Cohesion Policy allocation to the Netherlands has been reduced by more than 35% and shrunk under Investment for Growth and Jobs (IGJ) goal from EUR 1,6 billion to EUR 1 billion for ERDF and ESF. The budget for the programmes under the European Territorial Cooperation goal is EUR 390 million. There was a clear commitment from the Dutch regions during the programming phase to the reform of Cohesion policy, in particular to performance orientation and thematic concentration. More than 90% of the ERDF allocation will be invested in activities stimulating private investment in research and innovation and supporting challenges in renewable energy and energy efficiency as called for in the European Semester staff working paper for NL. - Boosting research and innovation to attain the target of 2.5% of GDP invested in R&I (compared to 2.13% in 2012) by using EUR 333 million ERDF as a lever for R&I investments in SME's; - Increasing the share of renewable energy sources in the energy mix to 14% (compared to 4.5% in 2012) and realize yearly 1.5% energy savings (compared to an average of 1.1% from 2004-2012) by investing EUR 121 million ERDF in the promotion of the adoption of innovative low-carbon technologies; The NL ERDF programmes are implemented on a provincial level. The twelve provinces are grouped into four programmes (North, East, South and West). The implementation of the 2007-2013 ERDF IGJ programmes is advancing well in order to meet both the policy and the financial objectives. The 2014-2020 Partnership Agreement was adopted in August 2014 and the operational programmes in November-December 2014. Currently the programmes are in a start-up phase with the first monitoring committees being organized and the first tenders and calls being opened.
Operational Programme 2014-2020
ERDF Priority Axis OP Noord OP West OP Zuid OP Oost Total Cofinancing Strengthening research, technological 78.693.000 112.586.899 74.993.857 66.199.513 332.473.269 36% development and innovation Support the shift to a 20.708.000 36.450.635 34.088.117 30.090.688 121.337.440 36% low carbon economy
12 Promoting employment and supporting labour 0 11.659.647 0 0 11.659.647 50% mobility as part of a sustainable urban development strategy Promoting social inclusion and combating poverty as 0 21.555.994 0 0 21.555.994 50% part of sustainable urban development strategy
Technical assistance 4.140.823 7.593.882 4.545.082 4.012.091 20.291.878 50%
Total 103.541.823 189.847.057 113.627.056 100.302.292 507.318.228 37%
To ensure the effectiveness of the ERDF operations, the four programmes have put in place a more rigorous project selection process for the 2014-2020 period that requires potential projects to demonstrate a clear link with the Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) and which includes selection criteria focusing on the innovativeness and the solidity of the business cases of the project proposals. The Top Sector Policy is the national enterprise policy introduced in 2011 and it has been a guiding framework for the regions when developing their RIS strategies. Nine sectors have been selected as part of the policy; Agri-food, Horticulture and propagation materials, High Tech, Energy, Logistics, the Creative Industry, Life sciences, Chemicals and Water. Within the context of the European Semester, the Top Sector Policy is the Dutch policy answer to the 2011 and 2012 Country Specific Recommendation (CSR) to “Promote innovation, private R&D investment and closer science-business links by providing suitable incentives in the context of the new enterprise policy.” This CSR was dropped in 2013 and 2014 as the Netherlands had shown to have taken appropriate measures. However, the EC remains vigilant in the Commission Staff Working Documents of 2013 and 2014, as the positive impact of the Top Sector policy on private R&I investments is not (yet) apparent, and the public investments in R&I are decreasing. Each region has identified in its RIS a number of sectors for which the investments will be prioritized. The strategies were developed after having analysed the strengths and weaknesses of its economic and innovation system and after having consulted the relevant regional partners. The Southern-Netherlands’ strategy (Zeeland, Brabant, Limburg) is the most elaborated strategy, built around the Brainport strategy. The latter strategy, which was gradually developed after the closure of important industrial plants in the nineties, is often cited as a blueprint for the concepts of regional innovation strategy formulation, built on extensive consultation of the triple helix partners.
13 The Netherlands – general state of the economy
The following is a copy of the executive summary of the recently published EC staff working document (country report). It gives a good overview of the challenges that the Netherlands is facing, seen from an EU perspective. Source: http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/pdf/csr2015/cr2015_netherlands_en.pdf
“The Netherlands is experiencing a gradual economic recovery mainly driven by domestic demand. Following the contraction in real GDP in 2012 and 2013, the Dutch economy returned to positive economic growth in 2014. Economic growth is expected to accelerate to 1.4 percent in 2015 and 1.7 percent in 2016. The economic recovery is increasingly being driven by domestic demand, based on real wage growth and better labour market conditions. Consumer confidence and households' investment are also supported by the nascent recovery in the housing market. The Dutch labour market showed a moderate revival in 2014, which is expected to continue in the coming years. Inflation is expected to remain muted, supporting real wage growth in the short term but limiting deleveraging. Government finances are expected to improve in 2015 and 2016. This Country Report assesses the Netherlands' economy against the background of the Commission's Annual Growth Survey which recommends three main pillars for the EU's economic and social policy in 2015: investment, structural reforms, and fiscal responsibility. In line with the Investment Plan for Europe, it also explores ways to maximise the impact of public resources and unlock private investment. Finally, it assesses the Netherlands in the light of the findings of the 2015 Alert Mechanism Report, in which the Commission found it useful to further examine the persistence of imbalances or their unwinding.
Overall, the Netherlands has made some progress in addressing the country-specific recommendations issued by the Council in 2014. The Netherlands has made some progress in protecting expenditure directly relevant to growth but has only made limited progress in further reforming the housing market. In particular, the partial phasing-out of the mortgage interest deductibility has not been stepped up despite the opportunity created by a recovery in the housing market and an improving economic environment. Some or even substantial progress has been made regarding the recommendations concerning the pension system, long-term care and the labour market.
The Country Report reveals the policy challenges stemming from the analysis of macro- economic imbalances: The Netherlands has to find the right balance between the necessary deleveraging, in particular of households, and giving sufficient support to domestic demand to sustain the economy recovery. As long as households increase their savings to deleverage, the current account surplus will remain high and above the level justified by fundamentals. Raising the growth potential will depend on attracting sufficient labour and facilitating the most efficient allocation of capital. Greater labour utilisation is needed to soften the effects 14 of demographic changes. Reforms have been implemented to make work financially more attractive but disincentives to work from taxes and social security contributions remain high. The role of pension-regulation and the tax system in the allocation of capital will be increasingly important in fostering economic growth. With an ageing society, the Netherlands faces the challenge of maintaining its level of welfare in the future. With an ageing population economy growth depends ever more on improvements in the efficiency and the resilience of the economy. In particular, a regulatory framework that supports growth and investing in research, innovation and education plays a key role.”
The Netherlands – Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) The Netherlands have opted to draft four RIS, for the four so-called 'landsdelen' which are groupings of provinces but which have no further formal administrative role. These are also the territories of the four mainstream ERDF operational programmes. - Northern-Netherlands: Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe; - Western-Netherlands: Zuid-Holland, Noord-Holland, Utrecht and Flevoland; - Southern-Netherlands: Noord-Brabant, Zeeland and Limburg; - Eastern-Netherlands: Overijssel and Gelderland. The RIS strategies are the guiding strategic framework for the 2014-2020 ERDF investment programmes. In 2011, the national government launched its renewed enterprise policy “to the top” which contains a strong research and innovation (R&I) component. Nine so-called top sectors, in which the Netherlands has a strong position, were identified: Agri-food, Horticulture and propagation materials, High Tech, Energy, Logistics, the Creative Industry, Life sciences, Chemicals and Water. For each top sector, a top team has been composed, consisting of stakeholders from SME’s, knowledge institutions, government and sector organisations. This team maps out the various opportunities and challenges and presents action plans in which it details its ambitions, its advice and specific action lines. This national top sector policy already contained the elements of smart specialization; a strategy based on strengths and weaknesses in which priorities are established through entrepreneurial discovery with all relevant stakeholders. The sectors identified in the context of the top sector policy are particularly strong in the West and South regions and to a lesser extent in the East region around the universities of Wageningen and Twente. It is therefore no surprise that the RIS strategies of these regions were heavily inspired by the work done in the context of the national top sector policy and
15 have also selected the dominant top sectors of their region as focus areas in their RIS strategies; - Western-Netherlands: all nine top sectors - Southern-Netherlands: HTSM, Chemicals, Agri-food as international top clusters and supporting clusters life sciences, bio-based, logistics and maintenance - Eastern-Netherlands: Agri-food, HTSM, health and energy The top sector policy is less tailored to the northern Netherlands, which is a less urbanized, more rural region. The northern provinces have therefore taken the requirement (ex ante conditionality) to draft a RIS in order to receive European funding as an opportunity to build a strategic framework with a new governance for their region. On the basis of extensive consultation of their stakeholders, four priorities were defined in terms of societal challenges; - Health, Demography and Welfare; - Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Bio-economy; - Reliable, Clean and Efficient Energy; - Clean, Safe Water; An English version of the strategy of the northern-Netherlands can be found here: http://www.snn.eu/upload/documenten/europa/ris3/draft-ris3.pdf
Southern-Netherlands – Regional Innovation Strategy
An English version of the strategy of the southern-Netherlands can be found here: http://www.brabant.nl/dossiers/dossiers-op-thema/internationaal/europese-programmas-en- projecten/-/media/40FC8B9CAEDF4987B15A7404F1601BA8.pdf Three sectors (high tech systems & materials, chemical engineering & chemistry and agrofood) are substantial contributors to the national accounts as they make up for 68% of all private spending on research and development, and together represent almost half of all Dutch exports. These three sectors have strong regional links to southeast Netherlands (i.e. central and eastern part of Noord-Brabant and the province of Limburg), as several companies with strong export positions in the aforementioned sectors are located there. Therefore, it is only if the knowledge economy of the southeast Netherlands gets the opportunity to grow that the national ambition to be amongst the top 5 of most competitive economies (now ranking at 8) can be achieved for the country. Brainport 2020 is the strategic vision and implementation programme that outlines the direction and the concrete actions that should support this claim to develop a technological and economic top region of world stature. Brainport 2020 is a comprehensive programme that sets down the required actions in the area of: employment (People), Research & Development/Design (Technology), economy (Business) and environmental quality and infrastructure (Basics). The strength of the region lies in three aforementioned sectors.
16 At the core of this strategy lies intense triple helix cooperation. The trigger for an intensified, and formalized cooperation between governmental, entrepreneurial and knowledge instances came in the 1990's, when massive lay-offs at Philips and DAF heavily affected the regional economy and the industrial backbone of the region risked to disappear rapidly. 21 municipalities then gathered under the 94-99 ERDF "Stimulus" programme and approached industrial and scientific partners to subscribe to a common strategy. This programme was considered a success by the three partners. Building further upon the good experiences of the 94-99 period, the triple helix partners then intensified and formalized their cooperation under the label 'Brainport'. Consolidating and extending this triple helix strength is essential to making Southeast Netherlands a world-class innovation region in 2020. Indispensable to this is the use of existing strong, but 'light' executive organisations. The supra-regional part of the implementation of Brainport 2020 is coordinated and monitored by the Brainport 2020 committee. The committee is characterized by strong leadership (president is Eindhoven's mayor Rob van Geysel) and strong involvement of all actors (e.g. Philips Benelux CEO Hans de Jong). In addition to the committee, an executive regional development agency was created that needs to develop and promote the region independently and proactively. The 'institutionalization' of the triple helix helped to build a strong identity and branding which in turn proves beneficial in marketing the region internationally. It is a silent consensus that the government partners have a strong facilitating and coordinating role in the Brainport triple helix. They should create the preconditions in which the two partners can develop. The Brainport strategy is only a part of the investment strategy for the southern- Netherlands, as it does not cover the western part of Noord-Brabant (around Breda) and Zeeland. Nevertheless, the Brainport strategy and its governance is the backbone of the common RIS strategy of the three provinces, and is complemented with a focus on logistics and chemicals, to accommodate the strengths and opportunities of Zeeland and the western part of Noord-Brabant. The main challenge for the triple helix governance structure lies in the need to retain a strong 'sense of urgency' and to develop the international dimension of the strategy by (a.o.) strengthening the links with Flanders and Nordrhein-Westfalen. In that sense, the ERDF funding could again trigger intensive cooperation, similar to the 94-99 period, but this time with partners across the border.
Western-Netherlands – Regional Innovation Strategy
The western Netherlands (also called Randstad region) is the strongest driver of the Dutch economic accounts. It is a highly urbanized agglomeration, with approximately 7 million inhabitants (40% of population of NL) with strong economic activity around the four big cities (Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Utrecht and The Hague). The region can link a strong
17 logistical network to an influential knowledge base built around several renowned knowledge institutions. The sectorial approach of the top sector policy has been to the benefit of the Randstad region which has a strong position in all of the aforementioned top sectors. Therefore, the need to build an additional regional strategic framework in the context of smart specialization was perceived as less pressing. Nevertheless, the triple helix partners were consulted in the run-up to the 2014-2020 ESIF programming period and on the basis of their input, a strategy was drafted which is conceived as a complement to the national top sector policy. The RIS of the western-Netherlands recognizes the strong position in all sectors based on a SWOT analysis for each sector, but also identifies a need for a cross-sectorial approach in addition to the sectorial teams which have been set up in the context of the national policy. Cross-overs between sectors are explicitly recognized as drivers for innovation. The regional policy initiatives on innovation will therefore focus on facilitating and stimulating these cross-overs. This focus on cross-overs is also the main building block for the investments in innovation under the 2014-2020 ERDF operational programme for western Netherlands. Unfortunately, an English version of the RIS strategy is not available. http://www.kansenvoorwest.nl/images/kansenvoorwest/KvWII/bijlage%20iii%20ris3%20 west%20nederland%20inclusief%20bijlagen.pdf
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