On Thursday, April 24, 2025, the ministries of Defense and Economic Affairs, the province of South Holland, InnovationQuarter, and the Economic Board South Holland signed a declaration of intent to formalize a new, structural cooperation. The aim of this cooperation is to connect South Holland companies and innovations more quickly to current challenges related to security and defense.
MINDbases in South Holland
The regional cooperation takes shape through the MINDbases of Defense. The first in South Holland is located at the RDM Campus in the Port of Rotterdam. A second has now been added at YES!Delft on the TU Delft Campus. The MINDbases are meeting places for startups and SMEs with innovative solutions that may also be valuable to Defense. South Holland innovations are linked to concrete questions from Defense, allowing products to be tested, improved, and deployed quickly. MIND stands for Military Innovation by Doing.
Knowledge and Innovation
To ensure the safety and autonomy of the Netherlands and Europe, it is important that the Ministry of Defense has access to the best knowledge and technology that the Netherlands has to offer. The intensive knowledge economy of South Holland has numerous innovative SMEs, startups, scale-ups, multinationals, and knowledge institutions. However, not all companies and institutions with relevant solutions know how to find their way to Defense. This is the challenge that the South Holland cooperation is addressing.
Cooperation Partners
The province of South Holland is working to strengthen regional innovation clusters. Campuses and test beds are being supported, for example, with the arrival of new testing facilities. At the MINDbases in South Holland, Defense works closely with InnovationQuarter, the regional development agency for South Holland. They invest in startups and scale-ups, support matchmaking, and develop innovation projects. InnovationQuarter also helps companies take the step into foreign markets. The Economic Board South Holland supports the cooperation with its extensive administrative network of South Holland companies, educational institutions, and governments.
Strong Sectors
South Holland is a logical region for the Ministry of Defense to engage in cooperation. A quarter of the traditional defense industry is located in South Holland. Furthermore, South Holland has the largest concentration of innovative companies and knowledge institutions. This is evident around the largest port in Europe in Rotterdam, the European Space Agency ESA in Noordwijk, and leading new developments from universities and colleges. The cooperation focuses particularly on five technological areas that are also relevant to Defense: the maritime industry, space technology, cyber & quantum technology, sensors & radar systems, and unmanned systems & artificial intelligence.
Meindert Stolk, Deputy Economy & Innovation of the province of South Holland: “In South Holland, we have so much to offer Defense. Therefore, we will work together within the five focus areas to better position our companies and knowledge institutions and strengthen our innovation clusters. We are convinced that we can leverage the additional investments in our region not only to further develop technologies and bring innovations to market faster but also to contribute to the safety and autonomy of the Netherlands and Europe.”
Dual-use Innovations
The possibilities of some innovations extend beyond the applications for which they were originally designed. Dual-use is the term used for products and services that are interesting for both civil (everyday) applications and Defense. For example, think of technologies for safe global communication, inspecting underwater power cables, or quickly mapping dangerous terrain. The South Holland cooperation helps companies discover this potential and make the translation together with Defense. A concrete example is the Delft company Lobster Robotics, specialized in autonomous (self-driving) underwater drones for inspections and monitoring. Their technology is applied for nature conservation and the construction of offshore wind farms. However, the technology also proves to be of great value for gathering information about threats to critical underwater infrastructure, such as pipelines and internet and power cables.
Innovative companies in South Holland that want to explore what their technology can mean for defense challenges can contact the MINDbases in Rotterdam and Delft. Similar MINDbases are also active in Eindhoven, Groningen, Enschede, and Geleen.