Pieter Paul van Oerle
Founder nlmtd
Pieter Paul van Oerle is the founder of nlmtd and an expert in ecosystemic innovation. With his background in business economics and over twenty years of experience, he helps organizations become future-proof by developing innovation programs within the (tech) ecosystem. Pieter Paul focuses on value creation that contributes to the customer, society, and the planet.
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With his “3% R&D action plan,” Minister Vincent Karremans of Economic Affairs aims to ensure the Netherlands invests sufficiently in innovation. He outlines a list of nine actions to address faltering innovation. TNO also recently launched an advisory report to work on High-Tech Megaclusters.
Let's take real action now and join forces in Europe to accelerate our strategic independence. The conditions for creating sustainable, innovative clusters and accelerating existing ones are there, but that won't happen automatically.
BNR invited me to discuss how a strong cluster can be realized more quickly. It was a stimulating conversation with John van Schagen and Patrick van der Pijl – focusing on the different types of ecosystems and clusters that exist, the power of public spending as a driver of innovation, and concrete examples of clusters that are already strong, such as Brainport and Wageningen, and clusters that can develop further, such as those around Lelystad Airport (Sustainable Aviation and Energy Transition) or around Noordwijk (Space).
We will discuss the value of developing with a “dual-use” mindset, where government and defense can place orders in the market that can create value in other industries as well as value for defense.
I believe that in the Netherlands we have the knowledge and skills to accelerate the development of more Sustainable Megaclusters. The urgency is great. We can prove that a sustainable and innovative economy will safeguard our independence from other geographies. political players can reduce and form the basis for an economic transformation that can develop without exceeding the Earth’s carrying capacity. Taking into account planetary, ecological boundaries.
Six steps to accelerate the development of strong clusters
Europe must strengthen its position with targeted measures. Looking at the lessons learned from Ukraine, we see six concrete actions that will enable us to develop a strong, innovative, and future-proof mega-cluster within a few months.
- Making clear choices – Europe must choose which core areas it wants to focus on. It’s neither feasible nor necessary for each individual country to excel in all areas. By making clear choices and developing targeted clusters, progress can be accelerated.
- Defining key challenges with large organizations – Governments, ministries, defense organizations, and leading companies must jointly identify the key challenges. Which problem areas offer the greatest opportunity for progress? Consider cybersecurity, defense technology, space, autonomous systems, smart materials, energy independence, and advanced manufacturing processes.
- Accelerating innovative ecosystems – Clusters thrive when businesses, knowledge institutions, and governments collaborate intensively. By launching innovation hubs with direct access to funding and regulations that encourage experimentation, innovations can get off the ground much faster.
- Scaling up through public-private partnerships – Governments must ensure initial investments in the right facilities and initial experiments, while businesses facilitate scaling up. The government and defense as “launching customers” for innovation represent a major opportunity that we must seize.
In Ukraine, we see how private companies, in collaboration with the government, have established an ultramodern defense industry in record time. Europe can learn from this. - Accelerated validation of new products and services – By quickly and iteratively testing new services and products in collaboration with partners and clients, we can quickly validate which solutions are most effective. This accelerates the innovation cycle and prevents lengthy development processes without market validation.
- Intensifying cooperation within Europe – Finally, a strong European partnership is needed to deploy these technologies widely and scale them up. This will create a resilient and self-sufficient technological base in Europe.
Conclusion
The geopolitical situation creates an urgent need to rapidly develop strong, innovative clusters. This requires strategic choices, intensive collaboration, and decisive action.
Clear choices must be made about which clusters will receive additional attention in each country. Then, just like in Ukraine, we can make a quantum leap forward within a few years, strengthening both our security and our economic development.
The opportunity is now before us. If Europe seizes this opportunity, it can become a powerful, autonomous player in the future global order. Therefore, I conclude with an appeal:
