Study: without successor Growth Fund, a gap in innovation policy
Without a permanent successor to the National Growth Fund, a gap will emerge in Dutch innovation policy.
Published on October 13, 2026
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The National Growth Fund provides long-term support for large-scale collaboration between companies and research institutions. TNO concludes in a study commissioned by NXTGEN Hightech that the lack of a successor to the fund could now create a major gap in Dutch innovation policy. Hundreds of companies and research institutions will soon lose crucial support for bringing promising new technologies and prototypes to market.
The Growth Fund was established in 2020 with €20 billion, but has been phased out since 2024. The government at the time scrapped all new funding rounds as part of budget cuts. Only projects already underway—such as NXTGEN Hightech, PhotonDelta, and POLARIS—were allowed to continue. There will be one additional round of €375 million, largely drawn from funds released within the current NGF.
Innovation takes ten to fifteen years
TNO Vector therefore investigated how best to bridge this gap. To this end, the researchers examined three ongoing Growth Fund programs. Among them was NXTGEN Hightech, which has been working with 330 companies and research institutions since 2023 on the machines and production technology of the future. In addition, they studied three international programs for public-private innovation partnerships in Australia, Norway, and the United Kingdom.
A key conclusion of the report is that these types of programs demonstrably lead to increased investment in research, faster innovation, and better collaboration. However, this is contingent on them being well-structured and running for a sufficiently long period. Participants cite a duration of ten to fifteen years as desirable, especially in deep tech. Those who have to start over every few years cannot build anything lasting, say participants in the programs studied. According to TNO, it is precisely this long-term perspective that will be lost if the Growth Fund does not have a successor.
On Prinsjesdag, the cabinet allocated 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). NADI funds the breakthrough, while the NII funds the scaling up. The current Growth Fund strengthens innovation ecosystems and enables the accelerated development of new economic activity in strategic priority areas.
No structural successor has yet been identified for this role following the latest funding round. The study therefore makes recommendations for a new, coherent, and long-term innovation instrument that complements the other instruments and maintains greater independence from politics. Continuity is essential in this regard and instills confidence in stakeholders to invest. In this respect, the study aligns with earlier recommendations from former ASML CEO Peter Wennink and the Advisory Council for Science, Technology, and Innovation (AWTI) from 2025.
Companies contribute half the funding
The example of NXTGEN Hightech demonstrates how such a program works in practice. This program has a budget of €970 million. The Growth Fund contributes roughly half, while the participating companies contribute the other half themselves. Funds are not distributed arbitrarily. In 2025 and 2027, all projects must undergo an evaluation. At that time, their impact on the market position of Dutch companies, on knowledge in the Netherlands, and on collaboration will be assessed.
Projects that fail to deliver will be adjusted or terminated. In doing so, NXTGEN provides a practical answer to questions currently being raised by the House of Representatives regarding the new Growth Fund round: Do companies contribute financially themselves, and does public funding lead to production and jobs in the Netherlands?
The Netherlands needs to bring more innovation from the lab to the market, but now risks losing a key driver for this very effort. NXTGEN Hightech uses public funds to stimulate innovation and private investment. But this requires a long-term commitment. According to TNO, the Netherlands can break through the innovation paradox with a permanent successor to the Growth Fund: the country excels in knowledge but does not translate that knowledge sufficiently into new products and companies. Without that successor, the paradox will persist.