1,6 miljard voor kennis van Juncker?
Uit het pakket van het kabinet voor de Brusselse investeringshefboom – dat gisteren ingediend werd, bijna twee weken te laat – zijn de volgende prioriteiten voor kennis, onderwijs en onderzoek opvallend. Minister Dijsselbloem wil wel waken voor al te veel ambitie, zo lijkt het.
“De lijst moet nadrukkelijk niet gezien worden als een aanvraag voor Europese financiering. Wel zijn de meeste projecten geselecteerd op basis van de gewenste medefinanciering door particuliere financiers, conform de insteek bij de hierboven genoemde financieringsinstrumenten. De projecten bevinden zich in verschillende stadia van voorbereiding, waarbij sommigen al verwerkt zijn in investeringsplannen (een enkele zelfs ingediend bij de EIB) en anderen zich nog in een conceptuele fase bevinden. Het op de lijst voorkomen van projecten zegt op zich niets over de beschikbaarheid van een nationale bijdrage. Hiervoor bestaan de reguliere nationale budgettaire kaders en besluitvorming.”
Meest interessante onderdleen voor kennis en onderwijs zijn de volgende:
90 miljoen De impact van de Hannover Messe en de accentuering op ‘Industrie 4.0’ komt direct naar voren. ‘As part of an Action Plan Smart Industry 10 fieldlabs will be started. Goal is to invest in de digitalisation of the Dutch Industry. We aim to cooperate with several countries, like Germany, Belgium, France, UK and Denmark.’
Inhoudelijke aspecten daarvan zijn: ‘International standardization of industrial supply chains. Cybersecurity and privacy. Business models in respect of big data. Fieldlabs will be the main part of the solution. International cooperation is essential. Financing the international standardization only by private investments is difficult, so initial public financing is needed to kick-start these investments.’
400 miljoen De inzet op de quantum-innovaties, die vanuit het baanbrekend werk van Leo Kouwenhoven met zijn ‘majoranajagers’ en FOM opbloeien, krijgt een opvallend forse impuls toegerekend onder de titel ‘Next wave of innovation: Quantum Technologies Research & Venture’. Opvallend, nu men FOM wil opheffen en in een grote NWO-koepel wil laten opgaan.
‘Initiatives: A novel partnering approach to boost innovation in Europe through excellence in quantum science and engineering to ensure safe and secure communication and to boost ICT industry and employment in Europe. This way EU can regain leadership compared to US and Asian ICT industries.
Barriers: lack of high –risk investments from existing industries (more risk averse than US counterparts) and the absence of early-stage angel -investors and venture funds. Additionally national research initiatives are fragmented.
Solution: In Quantum Technology, Europe has a lead scientific position. If the EU can synergize existing national programs by adding a joint core research programme directly coupled to strong venture capital / angel investment stimulating measures, the EU can stay ahead in innovation as well. This will create growing private capital investments in EU and leverage the birth of a new industry.
500 miljoen Grote R&D-infrastructuren kunnen nu versneld en op het hoogste niveau worden ingezet en aangeschaft met de EU-hefboom. ‘Investments in science: Large scale research Infrastructure and e-infrastructure. Despite EU support forfeasibility studies contributing to the maturity projects, and existing EIB -facilities, national MS investments have been too low to implement ambitions.’
‘Despite EU support for feasibility studies contributing to the maturity projects, and existing EIB -facilities, national MS investments have been too low to implement ambitions. Additional European investments will leverage the national considerations and especially private sector contributions to implement the ESFRI roadmap.’
‘The same holds for e-infrastructures. Using public funds (from the existing available resources) to catalyse private sector financing could be considered. To enable increased private participation reviewing state aid regulations could also be considered.’
10 miljoen Technologie-transfer vanuit excellente R&D centra kan een extra impels krijgen en zo groei aanwakkeren. ‘Pool excellent science and professionals and dedicated technology transfer from several universities and knowledge institutes together along the lines of a theme, such as cardiovascular research or oncology model is proven by the VIB (Vlaams Institute for Biotechnology).’
‘Now a scaling up of a pilot insome sectors would result in much more translation of science into innovation. These are modest initiatives with high EU wide public and private spin off. Current EU eligibility criteria for EU level R&D resources (e.g. requirement to involve other MS) present a barrier for further.’
100 miljoen Het Toekomstfonds kan niet direct ‘geld opleverende’ kennisfaciliteiten een impuls geven. Daarom zou ook dit voor de EU-hefboom een zinnige prioriteit zijn. ‘Part of the investments in facilities will however not be profitable, without risking to outprice the use of the facilities towards third parties on an international playing field. Fully privately funded facilities are hard to realized. The Strategic Research Facilities Plan will therefore have to take into account new and modern ways of financing.’
‘Revolving fund for research infrastructure and public private partnerships, Investments in R&D require public participation to attract interest of private parties. Non revolving investments should be covered by additional public budgets. The total investment package of € 100 does not cover the investmentneeds in research.
30 miljoen Is nodig voor toegepast onderzoek in eScience en infra. ‘Phase Transition Lab, DATA science center, Geocentrifuge, Testingfacilities, ICT big data & sensor lab, high energy systems integration lab, smart cities fieldlab. Applied Research Institutes are developing a Strategic Research plan.
8 miljoen Dit wil het kabinet kunnen inzetten voor een nano-fotonica innovatiecentrum in Eindhoven. ‘This partnership from TNO and IMEC is a world class innovation centre on micro/nano technology and fotonica. Holst is established in the High Tech Campus inEindhoven and is supported by 40 industrial companies. Holst has 180 employees with 28 nationalities. Holst is a good example of the situation at several public/private R&D centres.’
‘Benefits to society and industry exceed the benefits to individual public and private research partners. Public financing is needed to kick -start private investments and balance investment costs and benefits of the partners. This problem occurs in many other public –private R&D partnerships. Holst should therefore be seen as an example out of many.’
PM-bedragen Voor twee prioriteiten kan het cabinet nog geen concrete bedrag opvoeren, omdat zij nog kersvers zijn. Het zijn uitvloeisels van de Wetenschapsvisie en het LLL-advies van Rinnooy Kan.
–‘Programme to increase the number of phd’s in the private sector to increase the use of knowledge by the government. The aim is several hundreds of phd’s. More effective links are needed between higher education, research and business, including effective knowledge transfer activities and business -academia staff exchanges. EU funding could contribute to planned agreements with the Dutch private sector, resulting in considerable private investments in phd’s.’
–‘Life Long Learning fund. The fund provides public cofinancing for employers who invest substantially in their employees’ education and training. Aim is to generate human capital and skills required for job transition. This will also enable close cooperation between employers and Higher Education institutions and VET providers.
Investments in education during working life are lagging behind and are decreasing in the Netherlands, while job mobility is expected to become more important. Availability of public coinvestments from EU level could catalyze private investments.’
