The initiative for the letter was taken by employers’ federation VNO-NCW and Universities of the Netherlands (UNL). ‘The future of our country is at stake: how will we make money down the line? And how do we make sure that we can keep society up and running with fewer people in the future? Investments in research and innovation are the driving force behind this,’ says VNO-NCW president Ingrid Thijssen in a statement on the UNL website.

At the moment, the letter has been signed by 24 companies and 15 start- and scale-ups. This number is expected to increase in the time ahead.

Eindhoven

The signatories include several companies from Eindhoven, such as lighting company Signify (formerly Philips Lighting), semiconductor manufacturer NXP, and industrial production company VDL. “By investing in the earning capacity of tomorrow, we can maintain and grow employment in the region,” says Miel Timmers, spokesperson for VDL. “That is why we say you shouldn’t cut back on innovation because then your competitive position will rapidly deteriorate and that goes hand in hand with loss of employment, so you keep spiraling downward.

Of the start-ups and scale-ups that signed the letter, the vast majority have their headquarters in Eindhoven, namely 11 out of 15. Some of these are TU/e ​​spin-offs, several of which are located on the TU/e ​​campus. Antennex is one of these companies. “The value of our company is based on innovation and new developments, so of course we’re in favor of investing in education, to train the employees of the future,” says Anouk Hubrechsen, CEO of Antennex, who co-signed the letter against the cutbacks.

Growth Fund

In addition to the cutbacks in education, the government also announced that it will scrap the last two rounds of the National Growth Fund. This fund was set up to invest in projects that contribute to the 'durable earning capacity' of the Netherlands, according to the website of the Dutch government. By scrapping the last two rounds (rounds four and five), almost 7 billion will be saved. ‘The scrapping of the National Growth Fund also means that our country will miss out on large-scale investments in public-private innovations,’ the signatories write in the open letter. ‘Cutbacks in knowledge and innovation are in fact cutbacks in the future earning capacity of the Netherlands.’