Summary
Knowledge and Innovation Agenda 2011-2020
Rejoining the global top 5: a necessary ambition for 2020
The Netherlands should rejoin the global top 5 of knowledge intensive and innovative countries. This ambition of the Dutch parliament is strongly backed by a broad coalition of the Dutch employers’ organizations, trade unions and all main actors in the fields of education, research and innovation. Together they have launched a Knowledge and Innovation Agenda (KIA) for the 2011-2020 period, which prolongs the 2006 Knowledge Investments Agenda of the Dutch Innovation Platform, and which is closely connected to the 2020 strategy of the European Commission. Education, research and innovative entrepreneurship are prerequisites for creating economic prosperity and vital societies in the Netherlands and Europe. Dutch education, research and innovative companies and institutions should be able to match the best in the world.
What is needed to realize this ambition?
The KIA coalition has set sixty specific targets for 2020 in the fields of education, research and innovation. By doing so it makes the ambition to rejoin the five best performing knowledge and innovation countries measurable. The Agenda not only states its ambition, but it also formulates the steps to be taken until 2020 by both the KIA members themselves and by the government. Further investments are needed, as a top performance can impossibly be attained with mediocre funding. In 2020 public expenditure on knowledge and innovation has to grow by 4.5 to 6 billion euro (apart from the growth already anticipated, 2010 price level). In this period it will then be possible to make private investments increase by 2.5 to 4.5 billion euro. Also current funds should be spent more wisely. The coalition indicates the opportunities for economizing. Many of those economies result from quality improvements which presuppose investments. In 2020 those efficiency gains may amount to approximately 1 billion euro. On balance this leaves for the government in 2020 a 5 billion extra investment in education, research and innovation. This investment is very profitable for both government and society, as it results in higher productivity levels, more economic growth and less spending on social security, (health)care and safety. The costs of these investments in knowledge and innovation are easily recovered. They are also balanced by a great number of positive consequences on well-being.
An elaborate agenda for 2015
Leading in further completing the Knowledge and Innovation Agenda 2015 are the five priorities that the KIA coalition has set: ‘an excellent teacher for every participant in education’; ‘more customization in education’; ‘reinforcing the eagerness to learn’; ‘stronger peaks in the research and innovation landscape’; ‘more innovative firms’. The coalition members take up these challenges themselves and present the results for which they can be held accountable by 2015. Thus the PO-raad, the organization representing all primary schools, wants to reduce by half the number of pupils enrolling in secondary education with insufficient maths and reading skills; the research universities aim to double the percentage of students that take part in honours programmes; and the universities of applied sciences and TNO Company want to reach more SME’s. The actors in the fields of knowledge and innovation also need an entrepreneurial and innovative government which can provide them with a sense of direction and security. The KIA coalition draws in more detail the investment agenda for 2015. In doing so they indicate which investments should be prioritized. Those are proposals which contribute directly to the five priorities and which are underpinned by elaborate plans ready for implementation. From the KIA coalition this required making sharp choices. Not all of the good investment schemes provided by the KIA partners could be included in this common investment agenda 2015.
Starting point for further collaboration
The KIA coalition publishes this Knowledge and Innovation Agenda while hoping
and expecting that it will point the way for the next 10 years. Years that
will show whether the Netherlands manages to regain its position as a leading
country with regard to knowledge and innovation. Ifthe Netherlands fails in
this it risks losing connection with the international top.
The ambition to regain the top five of best innovation and knowledge countries
can only be realized by working closely together . Therefore we propose to
explore a knowledge pact that enables the Netherlands to reconquer its position
as a prominent knowledge country. For this the Knowledge and Innovation Agenda
offers a good starting point.
