Dutch Government Funds Interdisciplinary Projects for Mission-Driven Innovation Acceleration

Dutch Government Funds Interdisciplinary Projects for Mission-Driven Innovation Acceleration

(IN BRIEF) The Dutch government has allocated funding to three interdisciplinary projects under the KIC Mission call ‘Realisation, acceleration and upscaling of mission-driven innovation’. These projects, part of the KIA Societal Earning Capacity, aim to address major societal challenges such as climate change, cybersecurity, and an ageing population through innovative approaches. The projects focus on developing methods, models, work practices, and tools to accelerate and scale up mission-driven innovation while considering coordination structures and system conditions. Examples include responsible scaling of data-driven approaches for mental health care, scripting criminal processes for combating organised crime, and improving freshwater management in delta areas. These initiatives reflect a concerted effort to foster collaboration between knowledge institutions, private entities, and the government to realize economic opportunities and societal benefits.

(PRESS RELEASE) THE HAGUE, 16-Mar-2024 — /EuropaWire/ — Funding has been awarded to three projects under the KIC Mission call ‘Realisation, acceleration and upscaling of mission-driven innovation’. Interdisciplinary consortia of knowledge institutions, private and public partners, will research the usability and applicability of methods, models, ways of working and/or tools for accelerating and scaling up mission-driven innovation, in conjunction with facilitating coordination structures and system conditions.

Climate change, cybersecurity, an ageing population: the Dutch government’s Mission-driven Top Sector and Innovation Policy addresses major societal challenges. However, the selection and application of appropriate methods, models, work practices or tools to make MTIB successful is complex and context-dependent. For example, it is often unclear which methods, models, work practices or tools are actually effective or scalable in a given context. At the same time, there is a lack of knowledge about the system conditions and factors that facilitate mission-driven innovation.

For example, how can conditions such as funding, support, legislation and/or regulation be designed to support mission-driven innovation and the realisation of societal earning capacity? With this systems approach, the assigned projects in the KIA Societal Earning Capacity aim to contribute to the realisation, acceleration and scaling up of innovations for societal challenges within the KIAs Agriculture, water and food; Security; and Health and care.

These are the allocated projects, in alphabetical order of project title:
Responsible scaling of data-driven approaches for enhancing mental health care
Main applicant: dr. W.P.C. Boon (Utrecht University)

There are many pressing challenges in healthcare, such as the need for improved accessibility and personalised diagnosis. Digital innovation is crucial, but scaling up is challenging due to different organisational contexts and societal concerns. The proposal aims to address this by developing responsible scale-up methods through participatory research, ensuring alignment with regulations, user practices and societal values. Focusing on two mental health cases, the project will produce a toolkit and training materials for broad societal and economic impact in scaling up digital innovation in mental health and wider healthcare.

SCRIPT: Scripting criminal processes: Review and implementation of practical tools
Main applicant: dr. T. van Ruitenburg (Avans University of Applied Sciences)

Organised crime causes serious harm to society. To combat this, it is necessary to monitor the modus operandi of criminals and for public and private organisations to constantly innovate. The SCRIPT research programme stimulates this process by implementing, accelerating and scaling up the crime scripting method. SCRIPT will enable society to strengthen the fight against organised crime by providing more insight into illegal activities and criminal money flows through new and better data. In this way, the research programme contributes to more effective interventions against organised crime.

STURDI-Water: Storage, upgrade, reuse and distribution of water in regional collaborative networks
Main applicant: dr. ir. H.J. Cappon (HZ University of Applied Sciences)

More extreme weather conditions and salinisation are putting pressure on freshwater availability in delta areas. A robust freshwater system is needed for agriculture, industry, nature and tourism to ensure a liveable delta. Technical solutions have been successfully tested at pilot scale, but several challenges remain for implementation, including the lack of appropriate policy instruments, legal frameworks, financial and economic incentives, and an administrative partnership to manage freshwater supply and demand. STURDI-Water aims to achieve integrated freshwater management through a central, regional water bank to match supply and demand, storage and water treatment.

NWO-KIC: innovation programmes in the Knowledge and Innovation Covenant
NWO develops innovation programmes that focus on the societal challenges facing the Netherlands, with the aim of achieving an impact on the economy, people and society. These programmes emphasise collaboration between knowledge institutions, private parties and the government. The results thus help to realise economic opportunities. It is therefore essential that private parties invest in each research project.

Media Contacts:

Dr. Marije Behet (KIC)
Programme and policy officer
kia-mv@nwo.nl
NWO Domain
Applied and Engineering Sciences (AES)

Merel van der Kuip (KIC)
Programme- policy officer
+31 70 344 0681
kic-energierenovaties@nwo.nl
NWO Domain
Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH)

Source: NWO