The Innovation Platform’s mission:

The mission of the Dutch Innovation Platform was to strengthen the Netherlands’ capacity for innovation so that our country can once more become a trailblazer in the international knowledge economy. It has set itself the realistic goal of ensuring that the Netherlands becomes one of the world’s top five knowledge economies. Its aim is to make the Netherlands a place where international companies and professionals choose to do business because of its progressive clients, knowledge and connections. To achieve this, the Netherlands must be a place where the excellence, ambitions and enterprise of its people and organisations have space to grow and develop.

Structure
The Dutch Innovation Platform was a national body designed to unite companies, knowledge institutes and government to promote innovation and encourage initiative. The platform includes the participation of 17 key figures from the world of government, business, science and academia, and education. It also includes members from specific sectors, including healthcare and the water industry.
They take part in the platform in a personal capacity and enjoy support from their own specific sectors. The Dutch Innovation Platform is headed by the Dutch Prime Minister, who serves as the platform’s chairman. The platform is supported by a project office.

Approach
The Dutch Innovation Platform played a crucial role as icebreaker. Wherever there were obstacles to innovation, the Dutch Innovation Platform finds solutions to force through breakthroughs. Wherever there was a lack of an enterprising culture, the platform provides inspiration by developing ambitious plans and appealing to the imagination. The Dutch Innovation Platform did not issue grants or subsidies. There are already numerous schemes to assist people in pursuing their innovations. The platform intervenes if these schemes are inadequate, non-existent or weighed down by bureaucracy. We aimed to promote experimentation and to bring people, institutes and companies together. In doing so, we created a fertile breeding ground and space to develop.