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In the period January through August 2025, Dialogic conducted an evaluation of the Innovations in Coastal Care Program (IKZ) on behalf of Rijkswaterstaat (hereinafter referred to as RWS), focusing on the use of the Innovation Partnership (IPS) within this program.
Introduction
The IKZ program was designed to make the maintenance of the Dutch coastline sustainable through sand nourishment using sustainable and cost-effective innovations. IKZ contributes to RWS and IenW's ambition to be climate-neutral and work in a circular manner by 2030. In order to achieve sustainable and cost-effective innovations, the innovation partnership was chosen as the procurement procedure. The aim is for innovations successfully introduced through the innovation partnership to be implemented at least once within RWS's regular coastal care program. The IKZ program ran from 2018 to 2024 and was the first program in which RWS applied IPS. The evaluation utilised a combination of research methods, including desk study, portfolio analysis, interviews, and two validation workshops.
Conclusion
Overall, RWS aimed to reshape its relationship with the market through IPS IKZ, moving away from a traditional client-contractor relationship. Despite having experience with various procurement methods with differing levels of room for innovation, RWS had no experience with the relatively new innovation partnership in 2018. IPS IKZ aimed to create space for collaborating with the market to develop innovative solutions for large-scale sand nourishment for coastal care (and major shipping channels) in a more sustainable way in the Netherlands. Despite initial limited use (and jurisprudence) of IPS as a procurement form at the start of IPS IKZ, RWS made a serious and courageous attempt and investment (in terms of finances, manpower, and attention) to test IPS as a procurement procedure for the first time (for RWS). It proved to be a lengthy and complex learning process with valuable insights on how RWS can handle IPS in the future.
Lessons for a successful IPS
Based on conversations with key individuals involved in IPS IKZ and other authorities with IPS experience, we have formulated seven prerequisites that enhance the likelihood of a successful IPS. These prerequisites can be seen as a kind of 'checklist' that should be completed before commencing an IPS:
1. Ensure a coherent (policy) objective and vision that is consistent across policy and execution organisations, to which the IPS objective can be linked.
2. Connect to political-administrative ambition.
3. Allocate sufficient budget early on for the commercial phase and consider that innovation requires (temporary) additional funding.
4. Reduce the number of innovations in the R&D phase to a manageable level as quickly as possible.
5. Ensure that the IPS is carried out within the existing organisation (or the existing organisation is at least involved) and there is sufficient willingness to change.
6. Do not underestimate the position, interests, and business models of the market.
