Minister Adriaansens: A lot more money needs to be spent on innovation

2023-06-30 12:37:27

Dutch and European investments in innovation lag far behind those of the United States and countries in Asia. “If we want to defend our European values and find sustainable solutions for now and in the future, we have to invest heavily in innovation,” says Minister Micky Adriaansens of Economic Affairs.

The minister hopes to be able to agree with the cabinet that the Netherlands will from now on spend 3 percent of its national income on innovation. Last year, the cabinet already decided to spend 2 percent of national income on defense from now on.

CPB director is critical of the government’s billion-dollar funds

Adriaansens calls himself ‘a believer’ on this point. Investing in innovation is ‘the best way’ to broad prosperity and sustainable economic growth. That is why, according to her, it is necessary “to continue to invest in health care, education and to take measures against climate change. Innovation also generates more income.”

Adriaansens said this when presenting a 4 billion euro government subsidy for eighteen new innovative projects. She disagrees with Pieter Hasekamp, the director of the Central Planning Bureau, who criticizes the billion-dollar funds that the cabinet has set up for grants to projects. That is ‘money in search of a destination’, Hasekamp sneered this week.

This time, the 4 billion euro subsidy comes from the National Growth Fund, also known as the Wopke-Wiebes Fund. Between 2020 and 2025, this may pay out a total of 20 billion euros to innovative projects. In recent years, 7.8 billion euros in subsidies have already been provided.

Growth Fund provides a subsidy for the reuse of solar panels

The government is adopting the recommendations of the Growth Fund committee, chaired by Rianne Letschert, chair of the Executive Board of Maastricht University. Part of the promised 4 billion subsidy is still ‘conditional’, because the projects must be better substantiated. For example, hundreds of millions of euros go to a project to reuse solar panels and to a project to produce batteries with less critical raw materials.

Money also goes to a project to reduce the workload of teachers in the classroom. That can receive a subsidy of 160 million euros, half of which is still conditional. According to chairman Letschert, a number of projects have been rejected ‘with regret’. For example, the ‘language for the future’ project, which had a lot of potential. The consortium did not receive a subsidy because it did not involve education experts.