Growth fund to be phased out
The Growth Fund was established in 2020 with €20 billion, but has been phased out since 2024. Only ongoing programmes, such as NXTGEN Hightech, PhotonDelta and POLARIS, were allowed to continue. There will be one further round of €375 million. On Prinsjesdag, however, the government did allocate funds for two new instruments: €500 million for a National Agency for Disruptive Innovation (NADI) and over €3 billion for a National Investment Institution (NII). There is as yet no permanent successor to the Growth Fund’s role of strengthening innovation ecosystems.
Innovation takes ten to fifteen years
TNO Vector examined three ongoing Growth Fund programmes, including NXTGEN Hightech, and three international programmes in Australia, Norway and the United Kingdom. Programmes of this kind demonstrably lead to increased investment in research, faster innovation and better collaboration, provided they are well-structured and run for a sufficiently long period. Participants suggest a duration of ten to fifteen years is desirable, particularly in deep tech.
TNO therefore recommends a new, long-term innovation instrument that complements NADI and NII and is more independent of political influence. This brings the study into line with earlier recommendations made by Peter Wennink and the AWTI in 2025.
Companies contribute half the cost
NXTGEN Hightech demonstrates how such a programme works: with a total budget of €970 million, the Growth Fund contributes roughly half, whilst the participating companies contribute the other half. Projects are assessed at fixed intervals and either adjusted or terminated if they fail to deliver. According to TNO, the Netherlands can break the innovation paradox with a permanent successor scheme: the country excels in knowledge, but does not translate this sufficiently into new products and businesses.
The full report, “Building Innovative Capacity”, can be downloaded as PDF from TNO.
