Netherlands urgently needs agency to handle “disruptive innovation”: Experts

A broad coalition of all Dutch universities, investors, research institutions, and technology companies is calling on the government to quickly establish a National Agency for Disruptive Innovation (NADI). NADI would fund ambitious projects until they are mature enough to attract private money. Programs would focus on areas including agriculture, climate, healthcare, national security, and industries such as semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and robotics.

Supporters say the Netherlands is failing to move promising research from the lab to the market, causing ideas and economic benefits to end up abroad. Research would be carried out by universities, TNO, startups, and companies, while the agency itself would remain small, with only program directors and support staff.

The establishment of an agency has been discussed in The Hague for some time and was part of the coalition agreement. Backers include all Dutch universities, public investors such as the regional development agencies (ROMs) and Invest-NL, research institute TNO, major technology firms, and former ASML chief executive Peter Wennink.

Although the coalition agreement sets aside 500 million euros for NADI, supporters say that amount is too small. Peter Wennink's report estimated that a Dutch ARPA-style agency would eventually need 1.5 billion to 2 billion euros. As a starting point, the coalition proposes at least 300 million euros, plus 150 million euros a year to support six to ten programs.

The group says the Dutch innovation system has a weak spot between publicly funded research and private investment. Universities produce world-class science, but many technologies are still too early and risky for venture capital or public investors to back.

The coalition points to examples abroad, where early public funding has helped unlock much larger private investments. It argues that the Netherlands needs a similar model to create more deep-tech companies and stop breakthroughs from moving overseas.

Members of the coalition say they are ready to take part in NADI programs, while investors have pledged to fund successful technologies coming out of them. They say the agency must be independent from political control, accept failures, and have guaranteed long-term funding.