Brainport Eindhoven region – the case of
nanomedicine
Dr Frans van der Zee, TNO
Second OECD-TIP Workshop Smart Specialisation Strategies for
Innovation-Driven Growth // Paris, 10-11 May 2012
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Brainport Eindhoven region – key figures
Industrial high-tech heart of the Netherlands, located in South-East
• Eindhoven and 21 surrounding municipalities (SRE) = NUTS 3
region South-East Brabant
• Part of European top technology region Zuidoost-Nederland (ZON)
(South-East Brabant and Limburg)
• Part of the Eindhoven-Leuven-Aachen triangle (ELAt)
Key figures
• Population: 735,000 people
• Gross Regional Product: € 27 bn
• R&D investment: € 2.2 bn (>80% private business)
• region with the highest patent density per inhabitant in Europe
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Brainport Eindhoven region – key features
• ‘Brainport’ – one of three major pillars of the Dutch economy,
together with Seaport Rotterdam and Airport Amsterdam
• As a name, label and brand dating back to the early 2000s
• Brainport is also well-coordinated and interlinked set of Triple Helix
collaborative initiatives to strengthen the region’s economic and
innovation base
• Governance model Brainport has unique features, building on culture
of entrepreneurship, co-operation & high trust, outward-looking /
international connectedness
•
2011 “smartest region in the world (Intelligent Community Forum)
•
2010 Eurocities award in the category collaboration
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Today: an open and innovative ecosystem
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But clear link and ties with the past:
path dependency!
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Brainport Eindhoven – value chains / networks
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Collaboration Eindhoven – rest of Europe
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Brainport Eindhoven: the recent past and the now
• ‘Brainport’ - active in highly dynamic global markets, characterised by:
• Volatility
• Speed
• High R&D-intensity (R&D expenditures and framework conditions)
• High knowledge intensity (skills base!)
• Embedded in and/or ‘orchestrating’ global value chains
• Stronger competition on product markets, esp. in mass markets
• Stronger competition for resources (e.g. carbon; rare earth metals)
• Stronger collaboration – vital for survival
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Brainport Eindhoven – looking for the right
answers for tomorrow
• Brainport is smart specialisation ‘avant la lettre’
• But how to prepare it for the next decade / decades?
• Where do we stand today?  indicators and qualitative judgement
based on self-assessment, independent reviews/analyses
• What will the future bring?
 Foresight and intelligence – more with less?
 Visions / ideas / leadership – not: “copy, paste”
 Strategies / roadmaps
 Putting visions / ideas into practice: entrepreneurship
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Brainport Eindhoven – looking for the right
answers for tomorrow
• Where are tomorrow’s markets and tomorrow’s niches?
• What fits? Diversification? Modernisation? Transition/transformation?
• How to extend and build new clusters?
• How to satisfy need for upscaling and avoid ‘cannibalisation’?
• Where can cross-fertilisation best occur?
• Is serendipity something you can force / create / stimulate?
• Getting the institutions right – triple helix, public-private partnerships,
cross-border collaboration
• Getting the policies right - EU, national, regional, cross-border
(multilevel) / fiscal-subsidy / capital-labour / …
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Main Brainport clusters – now and the future
12 The Power of cooperation
© Brainport Development, 2011
Disclaimer
BRAINPORT 2020 ACTION PROGRAMME
INTEGRAL APPROACH
PEOPLE
• More technicians
• Life long learning
• More international
knowledge workers
• More professionals
BUSINESS
• More starters and fast
growers
• More external companies
• Strong chains and
networks
• Test beds
TECHNOLOGY
• More private and
public R&D
•Strong international
position
BASICS
• Attractive living climate
• Accessibility
• Promotion
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Brainport Eindhoven – case study nanomedicine
Key issues
• Cluster scale – network size / proximity / insourcing
• Knowledge base (‘braindrain’ / ‘war for talent’)
• Company portfolios & strategies
1) ‘home’/domestic market, 2) economies of scale
Focus on lifetec, health and homecare cluster
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Brainport Eindhoven – case study nanomedicine
Key issues lifetec, health and homecare cluster
• Extending / broadening the cluster – ‘future resilience’
• Governance
• ELAt – Brainport (multilevel)
• cross-border aspects – EU & national opportunities
• Institutional and policy renewal
• Global value chain aspects
• In the study, where possible, we’ll seek complementarities with the
Flanders nanohealth case