23,000 Dutch companies benefit from innovation schemes

Source: VNO-NCW Nearly 23,000 Dutch companies, 97 percent of which are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), benefit from innovation schemes from the Ministry of Economic Affairs (EZ). In total, they achieved a benefit of 985 million euros. This is evident from the annual report 'FOCUS on research and development work 2015' that Minister Kamp (EZ) recently published. Kamp calls the benefit of almost 1 billion a significant support for bringing innovations to the market through research and development as a product. Reduce costs The companies took advantage of the innovation schemes to promote their research and development. Of the innovation plans they submitted in 2015, 6.3 billion euros were approved. This concerns 3.9 billion euros in wage costs in the context of the Promotion of Research & Development Work Act (WBSO) and 2.4 billion euros in non-wage costs from the so-called Research & Development Deduction (RDA). Nearly three-quarters of the companies (16,510) also used the RDA in addition to the WBSO. Smart glasses One of the companies that successfully used the innovation scheme was information and communication technology company Arox in Hoogezand, Groningen. It develops smart glasses for the logistics sector. With these, employees in warehouses can work up to 25 percent faster and fewer mistakes are made than before. The glasses show the order information in their field of vision and scan the items in the warehouse, so that employees have both hands free. 3D culture plate Another example is the Leiden company Mimetas. She developed a new technology: 'organs-on-a-chip'. This is an advanced culture plate with which small 3D pieces of human tissue or organs are grown. By delivering drugs to these tissues, the effects of drugs on humans can be better predicted. This makes the use of laboratory animals unnecessary and saves costs. Budget increased The WBSO and RDA have been merged this year to make the scheme more effective and the application procedure simpler. The budget for this scheme has been increased by 100 million euros this year and will be increased by 115 million euros from next year. It is expected that even more SMEs and innovative companies will benefit from the schemes. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency implements the WBSO. Read the full one here annual report and more information about the WBSO.