In order for the ecosystem to work, we must all put our ego aside
14 November 2024
Foto’s door Taco van der Eb
New companies aren’t built by universities but by ambitious and persistent entrepreneurs. In order to bring more innovations from scientific labs to society, we should all help facilitate their journeys. ‘It should not be about the egos of the individual parties involved, we need the ecosystem as a whole to work.
There was a remarkable unanimity among Constantijn van Oranje, Caspar van den Berg and Margot Weijnen. The Dutch knowledge and innovation landscape must and can be improved on many levels. And in order to do so, everyone must look at their own role first and foremost. On behalf of the Faculty of Impact’s founding partners Techleap, Dutch Research Counsel (NWO) and Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), they had a lively discussion on how to ensure that innovations from academia create more business and greater impact on society.
Impact reports
The debate followed the ‘impact reports’ of the Faculty’s class of ‘24: the first group to complete the two-year program. In an event hosted by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, all fellows showed in short presentations how many forms and directions the paths to success can take, and also how those roads aren’t always smooth sailing. ‘Very impressed by the progress they made’ and ‘truly amazed by all these journeys’ were some of the panel members’ responses to the presentations. ‘You blew me away with your stories’, NWO board member Margot Weijnen said.
“This program really does something different than we are used to doing in the Netherlands” Constantijn van Oranje, Techleap ambassador
Market determines success
Techleap ambassador Constantijn van Oranje stressed how this program, which started with a pilot in 2022, really does something different than we are used to doing in the Netherlands: ‘You are all customer-focused, look into the market opportunities. Nearly everyone pivoted. We don’t see that too often. Many startups keep driving their technology without having a clear idea of how to turn it into a company. If you choose to be an entrepreneur, you’re building a business, and the market determines your success. This program made that point very strongly and you all showed us how it worked out for you.’
Counting the number of non-Dutch fellows in the group, he also gave a clear warning to the government: ‘If we are going to be less friendly to international students, we will not have this program anymore.’ Margot Weijnen agreed: ‘We should keep our talent pool as deep and wide as possible.’
Knowledge and innovation landscape
The importance of all those innovations cannot be underestimated in light of the recent Draghi Report and the importance of strengthening the innovation portfolio that we so desperately need for Europe to keep its strategic autonomy. That’s what Oscar Delnooz, director of research and science policy at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, pointed out in his opening speech. However, Weijnen doubted that our knowledge and innovation landscape is the most optimal for achieving what we are aiming at. ‘We have so many different actors with different interests. We do have to look into what’s happening at the interfaces of all our organizations. How seamless are the journeys that those young entrepreneurs are making? I’m convinced that we can do a better job in serving our national interest.’
Take a step forward
Organizations shouldn’t be focusing on defending their own little piece of the pie, Constantijn said. ‘The problem is that we don’t have a learning environment, where we try to step over our egos. Let’s all go back to why we are doing this: to create impact, to make successful companies, to help patients get better healthcare, society to get better energy systems. If we all agree on that common purpose, I’m convinced we can progress fast.’
‘The results so far show that we should firmly stand behind this initiative, and make sure it will be future proof’, Weijnen said. Scaling up is important to achieve this, but that clashes with the current administration’s cuts to higher education and research. UNL chairman Caspar van den Berg agreed: ‘Rather than moving up to investing 3% of our national income in research and development, as our government committed itself to, the planned cutbacks move us back to under 2%. At the same time, our neighboring countries are intensifying their investments. On top of that, private investment in the Netherlands is lagging behind even more than public investment. Still, if we want to take the next step in all these inspiring projects, it should be the government to set the right example and take a step forward instead of a step back.’
“You blew me away with your stories” Margot Weijnen, NWO board member
Ten times the budget
The panelists did see opportunities to involve industry, NGOs and foundations in funding as well, for example through public-private partnerships. ‘We always tend to look one way, to public money, but can’t we find other ways to fund this?’, Constantijn asked. ‘I would certainly like to explore that’, Margot Weijnen responded on behalf of NWO. ‘Public-private partnerships already are a very important part of our funding instruments.’
‘I hope we will find more support and scale it up’, Constantijn concluded. ‘If you have something that works, let’s focus on that instead of continuously looking for new things. Let’s not only do ten more years, but at least ten more years with ten times the budget.’
The Faculty of Impact website will soon feature articles and video interviews with the alumni, in which they share what the program has brought them both personally and professionally, and where their innovations and start-ups are currently at.
Keep an eye on www.facultyofimpact.nl
“If we want to take the next step in all these inspiring projects, the government should take a step forward instead of a step back” Caspar van den Berg, chair at UNL