Kansen voor regionale innovatieprojecten, verkenning voor de vollegrondsgroentesector in Zuidoost Nederland

The Dutch province of Limburg has asked Wageningen UR to develop an initial knowledge- and innovation agenda for the outdoor vegetable production sector, including three concrete project ideas for the POP3 framework. Besides this, Wageningen UR was asked to evaluate three innovation projects with farmers and SMEs to make recommendations to optimise the POP3 framework. Recommendations for POP3 Based on experiences in three different subsidy projects, recommendations are formulated for POP3. The main conclusion is that subsidy schemes do not match with the situation of agricultural businesses and small SMEs, although the schemes aim to support such companies with innovation. It is recommended to leave the ownership of the innovation with the companies, but without the full project management responsibility. Moreover, it is important to make the conditions more suitable for small enterprises, e.g. the minimum subsidy sum and the required contribution in cash. Second problem is the inflexibility of subsidy schemes, limiting the dynamics of innovation projects or forcing them to start procedures for acceptance of changes in the plan and budgeting. It is recommended to make schemes more flexible, e.g. asking less detailed plans and creating more room for changes in partners, activities and budgets. Third problem is the limitation for consortium partners to get their full costs paid, affecting research and advisory partners. This is often solved through very complicated constructions (outsourcing, secondary partnership), causing inequalities in the project (some partners are fully paid, others are not). Recommendation: allow projects to involve the right partners for the project, with the possibility to pay real costs and without complicated constructions. Last common problem is the artificial distinction between knowledge development and knowledge use/uptake, causing problems within projects when necessary research activities are not accepted by the subsidy scheme. Recommendation: allow projects to do all activities they believe are necessary for the innovation process.