Innovation Policy

Competitive strength starts with innovation.

Rising, shining, and sinking are part of the economic dynamics of countries, regions, sectors, ecosystems, and, of course, organisations. At all these levels, timely innovations are crucial to remain competitive as an economy, to stay relevant, and to contribute to solving the societal challenges we face. Innovation (and broader long-term adaptability) requires a good balance between exploration – finding entirely new solution directions – and exploitation – turning knowledge and skills into business activities, functional applications, and, not to forget, their upscaling.

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With our research, we contribute to the innovation capacity of the Netherlands.

With our research, we aim to address two misconceptions about innovation. Firstly, innovation is often predominantly associated with technological innovation, ideally stemming from the genius of individuals or individual organisations. However, in practice, innovation also requires organisational innovation (including innovations by public organisations) and thrives in open and semi-open innovation environments where various parties engage in productive collaboration focused on innovation. Therefore, governmental policies aimed at innovation (and broader research, innovation, and entrepreneurship) not only target individual researchers, entrepreneurs, or organisations, but increasingly focus on fostering the necessary collaborations to enhance innovation and adaptability.

A second misconception is that innovation is primarily the domain of enterprises. This is not the case. Innovation itself, its application, and impact across various societal domains also require an innovative government that can help shape the conditions for, implementation of, and application of innovation. Public-private environments need to be created for knowledge exchange and innovation to thrive.

Since its establishment, Dialogic has been contributing to the innovation capacity of the Netherlands through various studies and advice. Some examples include:

  • Evaluations in innovation policy
    The Dutch government has an extensive innovation toolkit. Dialogic has a comprehensive track record of evaluating individual innovation schemes such as WBSO, PPS premium scheme, and Invest-NL, as well as complex policy programmes like Top Sector Policy, space policy, and the Smart Industry Programme. Evaluating such policy packages requires a different approach. With SEO, Dialogic developed a new evaluation standard ("Dare to learn, continue measuring").
  • Exploratory studies
    Dialogic also assists numerous clients with future-oriented analyses in diverse domains. For example, we supported the Ministry of I&W with system analyses for aviation sustainability, collaborated with KplusV on strategy development for Brainport Development, and aided the municipality of Almere in establishing its unique higher education infrastructure focused on sustainability and circularity.
  • Policy support and advice
    Building on its track record, Dialogic is well-positioned to directly support policymakers with innovation challenges. We assisted the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science with an analysis of research and innovation ecosystems for the Growth Strategy, supported the (conditionally awarded) Growth Fund application for self-thinking molecular systems, analysed the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on R&D investments for TNO's Board of Directors, and developed a policy framework for investment in field labs on behalf of the Province of South Holland, Innovation Quarter, and MRDH.

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Pim den Hertog, partner

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