TNO Vector Symposium: Drivers for long-term earning capacity

Getting started with innovation adoption and boosting labour productivity

This session focuses on the question of how the Netherlands should proceed in practical terms with a robust, coherent approach to promoting innovation adoption, human-centric innovation, R&D and labour productivity growth in the Netherlands, building on the 3% R&D Action Plan, the National Productivity Agenda and the launch of the Productivity Council.

Working in co-creation with the participants, we will develop concrete courses of action and interventions, and consider who, at which level (generic national policy, supply chains, ecosystems, companies, workers), can take steps forward and logically ‘take the lead’.

Space is scarce and determines our our earning capacity

At the TNO Vector symposium, we will explore how decisions regarding space influence economic development, innovation and the resilience of our society. This is not just about the question of who gets what space, but also about how the right location and the right conditions can together create opportunities. Consider the interplay between space, people, money, nature and collaboration. We invite you to join us in exploring how spatial choices can contribute to a strong and future-proof economy.

Flexibility in the energy system: from emergency measure to competitive advantage

The Netherlands is grappling with structural shortages in its energy system. Flexibility is increasingly being used to alleviate grid congestion and enable economic activity. However, the way in which we organise flexibility now will determine who can benefit from cheap, sustainable energy from solar and wind in the long term – and thus the future earning potential of the Netherlands. In this interactive session, we explore flexibility not as a temporary stopgap, but as a strategic direction for solutions.

We will delve into the question: ‘How do we make choices about the deployment of flexibility – by and within companies – in such a way that this not only reduces grid congestion today, but also determines who will actually be able to benefit from cheap, sustainable energy tomorrow, thereby strengthening the Netherlands’ earning capacity?’

This session will be led by TNO experts specialising in energy transition and energy systems.

From idea to market share by organising capital for upscaling

In this session, we aim to gain insight into methodologies that identify available public-private capital and help to organise it more effectively, such as funding panels or accelerators. Share your tried-and-tested methodologies for financing an innovative, high-risk but better future.

We will focus on the methodologies for making innovation bankable and scalable more quickly, and what this requires from parties such as knowledge institutions, investors, government and industry. The session offers shared insights into effective approaches, opportunities and bottlenecks, and provides concrete starting points for next steps.

Steering towards strategic sectors

Growing geopolitical and economic tensions highlight the importance of considering the economic structures of the future now, and of responding to them proactively and responsively. Constraints in areas such as space, energy and labour force us to make choices. This session focuses on the question of how to arrive at well-founded and widely supported choices: which analytical frameworks and approaches help to gain a systematic understanding of promising sectors, structure relevant evaluation criteria, and make decision-making transparent and accountable?

Digital sovereignty as a key to future earning capacity

Against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions, growing dependence on a handful of non-European technology providers and a robust European regulatory framework, digital sovereignty is high on the agenda in the Netherlands and Europe. The aim of this session is to clarify which parts of the digital stack and digital value chains we must retain control of ourselves in order to continue creating economic value, and where conscious, manageable dependencies are acceptable.

The central question is: how can the Netherlands organise sufficient control over data and critical digital infrastructure to create, retain and scale up economic value?