Life Sciences in the Netherlands: Weakness in a Strong National Policy

Abstract

The Netherlands is an example of a European country in which the commercialization of knowledge is hampered by a somewhat risk-averse culture at universities and a shortage of venture capital for early growth of start-up firms. This article addresses the policy programme in the Netherlands to improve the situation for the life sciences since the early 2000s. The target number of newly established firms could easily be achieved and the programme was able to improve the business climate for new firm establishment. However, the programme could not improve conditions for growth of new firms because it could not achieve a comprehensive turn in the business climate, due to the short cycle-time of the programme (4–5 years). In addition, the programme did not take advantage of existing critical mass in the largest cluster or from any other competitive strength of particular clusters. These circumstances were influencing a relatively large number of small and vulnerable firms. The article concludes with a set of insights from which lessons can be drawn.

Acknowledgement

This study benefits from support from the Delft Centre of Sustainable Urban Areas (Delft University of Technology).

Notes

Dedicated life-science firms are newly established, entrepreneurial companies with a focus on the life sciences, excluding diversified firms, foreign subsidiaries, consultancy companies and medical devices companies.

For example, the organization of master classes, the initiation of professor chairs at universities in biotechnology business, and the appointment of several scouts to track and trace promising research. In addition, several practice-oriented books have been produced on key themes in entrepreneurship, like on finance, intellectual property rights, and human resource management.