25 November 2016 Regional Innovation Monitor Plus 2016 Regional Innovation Report North Brabant (Advanced materials) To the European Commission Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Directorate-General Directorate F – Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing www.technopolis-group.com Regional Innovation Monitor Plus 2016 Regional Innovation Report North Brabant (Advanced materials) technopolis |group| in cooperation with technopolis |group| Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 1 Advanced Manufacturing: Advanced Materials 4 1.1 Overview of performance and trends 4 1.2 Business sector perspective 7 1.3 Scientific research potential 9 1.4 Role of intermediary institutions 10 1.5 Developing skills for the future 13 1.6 Major investment projects 14 1.7 International cooperation 17 1.8 Policy support and delivery mechanisms 20 1.9 Good practice case 23 1.10 Leveraging the existing potential 27 2 Regional Innovation Performance Trends, Governance and Instruments 29 2.1 Recent trends in innovation performance and identified challenges 29 2.2 Institutional framework and set-up 33 2.3 Regional innovation policy mix 35 2.4 Appraisal of regional innovation policies 37 2.5 Policy good practice 39 2.6 Possible future orientations and opportunities 40 Bibliography 43 Stakeholders consulted 47 i Table of Figures Figure 1: Number and percentage of people employed in manufacturing in 2013 ................................... 4 Figure 2: Number and percentage of people employed in manufacturing in 2013 .................................. 6 Figure 3: Flexible OLED lighting panel .................................................................................................... 15 Figure 4: Map of the Top Technological Region/Eindhoven-Leuven-Achen .......................................... 18 Figure 5: Map of cross-border and international relationships in the form of strategic cooperative ventures, networks and projects ............................................................................................................... 19 Figure 6: Percentage of R&D funding provided by national governments ............................................. 22 Figure 7: Picture of flexible electronics developed by Holst Centre ....................................................... 24 Figure 8: Picture of Perovskite-based PV modules .................................................................................. 25 Figure 9: R&D spending in the Netherlands between public and private sector .................................... 26 Figure 10: Innovation and R&D performance indicators for North Brabant compared with the Dutch average ...................................................................................................................................................... 29 Figure 11: R&D spending, public and private, as a percentage of GDP ................................................... 30 Figure 12: R&D spending as a percentage of GDP from 2000 to 2013 .................................................... 31 Figure 13: Number of patents per region of the Netherlands in 2013 .................................................... 32 Figure 14: Map of agency representation in the Netherlands ................................................................. 34 Figure 15: Representation of overall economic development plan for Brabant ...................................... 35 List of Tables Table 1: Educational initiatives for enhancement of skills in HTSM ....................................................... 13 Table 2: Cross-border initiatives ............................................................................................................... 19 Table 3: Projected spending on high-tech systems and materials ........................................................... 21 Table 4 ROMs operating in the Netherlands ........................................................................................... 33 Table 5 Regional innovation support measures ...................................................................................... 36 ii PREFACE In the context of the growth and investment package set out in the Investment Plan of the European Commission, the Regional Innovation Monitor Plus (RIM Plus) provides a unique platform for sharing knowledge and know-how on major innovation and industrial policy trends in in some 200 regions across EU20 Member States. Launched in 2010, the Regional Innovation Monitor aimed at supporting sharing of intelligence on innovation policies across EU regions. Building upon the experience gained and results obtained during the period 2010-2012, the RIM Plus 2013-2014 provided practical guidance to regions on how to use the collected information, via a network of regional experts. Since 2014, the RIM Plus has introduced a thematic focus on advanced manufacturing. The RIM Plus 2015-2016 evolved from a general monitoring of innovation policies towards establishing a more thematic focus in selected areas in order to contribute to improving the competitiveness of European regions. Particularly, the RIM Plus aims through its activities and in close cooperation with the regional stakeholders and other relevant initiatives to: • ! Contribute to the development of new and open spaces of collaboration and exchange on advanced manufacturing, each with a clearly defined thematic focus. • ! Play an enabling role in providing evidence-based information on specific themes and bring in outside perspective from other regions. • ! Map out regional practices in support of advanced manufacturing and relevant pilot/demo projects and work towards involving the relevant stakeholders. • ! Provide an easy access and comparative overview of regional innovation policies and relevant actions in the field of advanced manufacturing. • ! Share the lessons learned with the European Commission services to feed into the preparation of future programmes. The main aim of 30 regional reports is to provide a description and analysis of developments in the area advanced manufacturing with a clearly defined thematic focus and regional innovation policy, taking into account the specific context of the region as well as general trends. All regional innovation reports are produced in a standardised way using a common methodological and conceptual framework, in order to allow for horizontal analysis, with a view to preparing the Final EU Regional Innovation Monitor Plus report. European Commission official responsible for the project is Alberto Licciardello ([email protected]). The present report was prepared by the Technopolis Group in Amsterdam. The contents and views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Regions, Member States or the European Commission. Copyright of the document belongs to the European Commission. Neither the European Commission, nor any person acting on its behalf, may be held responsible for the use to which information contained in this document may be put, or for any errors which, despite careful preparation and checking, may appear. Further information: https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/regional-innovation-monitor Regional Innovation Report 2016 1 Executive Summary Despite lying outside the population-rich Randstad area between Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Utrecht, North Brabant is the manufacturing hub for the Netherlands. Manufacturing in the region provides high added-value, relying heavily on innovation. Advanced and new materials remain an important source of value-added, and the importance of innovation for overall output can be seen in R&D spending. North Brabant fairs well when compared to the rest of the country, spending the most on R&D as a percentage of overall GDP—2.61%—compared to any other region in the Netherlands and well above the EU-28 average of 2.03% achieved in 2013. According to the latest available statistics from the OECD, this spending on R&D reveals itself in the number of patents being granted in the region, with more than 50 percent of all patents in the Netherlands being submitted by and approved to companies in North Brabant. While advanced materials is not, per se, a specific strategic priority in the region, the Dutch “top sectors” policy which focusses resources on nine priority sectors does include several sectors that would include advanced materials. Two of these sectors overlap provide support to advanced materials, specifically with resources directed to the chemical sector as well as high-tech systems and material. While stakeholders for each of these sectors have generated roadmaps for their field, they share particular views on where the market for advanced materials will go, namely: •! Sustainable development. Advanced materials that are lighter and more durable reduce the environmental impact. •! New functionalities in materials. Hybrids and composites as well as nano-structured metals provide extra strength and formability to metals. While the region continues to be a top performer in Europe in producing innovation and for high value-added manufacturing, it still faces a number of challenges: •! Challenge 1: Industrial strength relies on a limited number of large, potentially vulnerable players Given the overall size of the economy of North Brabant, the region performs very well in terms of growing companies into major international players. However, some of the major players that are working in the region remain vulnerable to external shocks and potential buy-out. •! Challenge 2: Attracting