From 1 January 2026, Dutch innovation policy is going to be overhauled. The top sectors policy is coming to an end. The focus remains on addressing the major societal challenges and on boosting the economy's earning power, but innovation policy will be even more closely aligned with industrial policy. The government's intention with this is to strengthen global value chains and ecosystems.
"The Top Sector name will disappear and the governance model will change, but that does not mean that innovation policy will stop", according to Grotenhuis. "The Top Consortium for Knowledge and Innovation (TKI) ICT will continue to exist, and we will move forward under the name Digital Holland. In addition, the Knowledge and Innovation Digitalisation Agenda — abbreviated as the KIA Digitalisation — will continue to set the course. The areas we focus on and the way we do this through the three strands – Innovate IN digital information technologies, Innovate WITH digital information technologies and, finally, Reflect ON digital information technologies – remain unchanged.
Consortiums will also continue to be able to submit project proposals for various grant calls relating to key digital technologies, enabling the Dutch knowledge sector and business community to make a positive impact and to distinguish themselves internationally. "Those resources will remain available for the next few years," Grotenhuis explains.
A strong collaborative structure will remain in place
What is also not changing is the so‑called triple‑helix approach, which keeps lines of communication short between business, knowledge institutions and the government. "This approach, dating from the time of the key areas approach (2004), and later the top-sector policy (2011), is a superb vehicle for targeted innovation," explains Grotenhuis. "We want to retain that strong collaborative structure and, where possible, further strengthen it."
There is intensive engagement with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and also with other sectors and markets, as well as with other former top sectors and other stakeholders. "We are getting more and more requests from other sectors to work together to move knowledge and innovation in the field of digitalisation forward," says Grotenhuis. He is also in discussions with various departments to enable more frequent pooling of their resources.
The importance of promoting knowledge and innovation is considerable, but the same applies to market creation and valorisation, to capitalising on international opportunities and to ensuring a sufficiently well-qualified workforce, through the Human Capital agenda. The activities of these three flanking areas within the TKIs will continue in 2026 as well.
Strengthening our competitive position
With the help of the KIA Digitalisation, the efforts of various parties are aligned and public–private cooperation promoted. This leads to better solutions to important economic and social challenges. The KIA Digitisation also helps strengthen the Netherlands' international competitive position.
The government remains committed to the National Technology Strategy (NTS), including the ten priority key technologies. Digital Holland remains responsible for coordinating two of the ten Action Agendas that ensue from them: the Cybersecurity Technologies Action Agenda and the AI/Data Action Agenda, which will be forwarded to the House of Commons in the near term.
Focus on niches
In addition, the Government is maintaining its focus on growth markets and sectoral programmes. Minister Karremans recently said, on Digitalisation Day, that the Netherlands cannot match the Americans or the Chinese in numerical terms. "That means we can no longer let all the flowers bloom. We'll have to make choices and focus on niches."
In October, outgoing minister Vincent Karremans sent the new industrial policy to the House of Representatives. The Netherlands will soon focus on six strategic growth markets:
- Semiconductors
- Biotechnology
- Defence-related technologies (including 6G).
- Digital services (AI in particular)
- Mechanical engineering
- Innovative chemistry
The current top sectors policy will be wound up by 1 January 2026, and policy will shift to this new approach. But by no means does this spell the end of the mission-driven innovation policy. It will involve a reprofiling, in which societal missions and industrial and growth-market priorities will be more closely integrated.
Peter Wennink, formerly of ASML, has been appointed as an adviser to draw up an investment agenda. "I sometimes jokingly call him the Draghi of the Netherlands," said Karremans on Digitalisation Day.
Greater autonomy
In pursuit of our economic security and open strategic autonomy, the government is also committed to protecting advanced technologies, knowledge and vital infrastructure, and is tackling the risks of strategic dependencies, for example in digital and energy value chains. The Investment, Mergers and Acquisitions Security Screening Act ('Wet Vifo') provides for a security screening of investments, mergers and acquisitions that could pose risks to the Netherlands’ national security. This is part of the Netherlands' efforts to prevent vital enterprises and companies active in highly sensitive technologies from falling into the hands of parties that could undermine security.
It emerged from the Budget Memorandum that the government is ploughing almost half a billion euros more into the Dutch tech industry, of which €230 million is allocated to the semiconductor industry and a further €200 million for participation in the European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI), which is intended to promote the growth of tech start-ups. It had previously been announced that Minister Karremans had steered a nine-point plan to improve the Dutch innovation climate through the Council of Ministers. A concrete target is for 3% of GDP to be spent on research and development (R&D) by 2030. This can be done using both public and private funding.
New opportunities
Grotenhuis expects that the reform of innovation policy will lead to new opportunities, particularly for Digital Holland: "We already often looked at issues from a cross-sector perspective. Digitalisation is all-encompassing; it doesn't affect just one sector or domain, but influences almost all social and economic processes. I expect that more structural contact with representatives from other sectors will lead to even more excellent opportunities."