Lifeport is the innovation network around Arnhem and Nijmegen comprising entrepreneurs, training providers and public authorities, specialising in Health, High Tech, Food and Energy. Although most of the parties involved are aware that many companies in the Arnhem region are active in the energy sector, the region is not yet on the national map in this regard.
Is the branding not up to scratch? Are we not collaborating enough? Is there too little focus? Do we have enough people available? Do the training programmes actually meet the needs? A group of nine specialists addressed these pressing questions at the Round Table, which had the theme: ‘Energy transition: the region is buzzing with energy’.
The discussion partners
Jeroen Herremans is director of Connectr – Energy Innovation and is accelerating the energy transition in collaboration with stakeholders in the region.
Jochem Garthoff is programme manager for the energy transition at the kiEMT Foundation, which has a network of 150 partners in the triple helix and works to accelerate innovation.
Kevin Rijke is director of Industriepark Kleefse Waard, the place where innovation and the circular economy come together.
Jan Geurts van Kessel is Programme Manager at SEECE and focuses on connectivity, innovation, work and learning.
Jan van Dellen is Managing Director at The Economic Board for the Arnhem-Nijmegen region, which has a cluster focusing on Energy, High-tech – Health and Food, and comprises representatives from the triple helix (government, business and education).
Ruud Rooijakkers is Commercial Manager for Energy at CLAFIS Ingenieus, specialists with expertise in high-voltage systems and underground infrastructure.
Rutger Hermans is the Arnhem branch manager at Hoppenbrouwers Techniek, a technical services provider that makes a significant contribution to sustainability ambitions.
Antoine Driessen is Chairman of the Board at Rabobank Gelderland Zuid, responsible for the bank’s overall services and for the food, housing and energy transitions.
Jan Putman is the director and owner of Solar Energy Booster, the innovative company that equips solar panels with a thermal module.
Human Capital: opening the gate
One of the biggest challenges for the region is recruiting and retaining sufficient staff. This is no different for the regional energy sector, where there is a particular need for technical staff. Hoppenbrouwers Techniek addresses this, amongst other things, by training staff in-house.
“Nationwide, we employ 1,800 people and have around 500 vacancies,” explains Rutger Hermans. “In this energy transition, that is a huge challenge. We fill the majority of these vacancies by training young apprentices and career changers ourselves. We will soon be opening the Hoppenbrouwers vocational school in Arnhem and, next year, a Hoppenbrouwers Experience Centre, where we will train people at senior secondary vocational (MBO) and higher professional education (HBO) levels.” For Hoppenbrouwers, this seems a sound solution, but perhaps the installation company could also join forces with Connectr.
Jan Putman outlines his solution in this context. “I’ve devised an innovation that requires far less working time and training,” he says. “This modular construction of PVC systems can be completed in two-thirds of the time.”
“There’s no time to train people for the energy transition, which needs to happen now,” says Jeroen Herremans. “Many companies, including HAN as a training provider, are signing up to Connectr because it’s attractive and we can retain people on the training programme. If they see that there’s an environment where future employers are based, they’ll stay in the region for longer.”
The trick is perhaps to bring together all the separate initiatives in internal education and training. “The students we receive from schools still lack sufficient knowledge and skills in the field of the energy transition to put them into practice straight away,” explains Rutger Hermans. “You then run the risk of falling behind technological developments and the energy transition going off the rails.”
The Economic Board plays a key coordinating role in this matter. “We have spent a year and a half working to conclude a human capital agreement with businesses, the government and educational institutions in this region. We now have more than 50 partners,” explains Jan van Dellen. “We also have an energy working group, which is now producing a number of concrete projects, such as the train-the-trainer concept.” He would like to see companies involved in this discussion also get on board. It has been proven to work. You invest by assigning a recruiter to this concept; you’ll then see that talent pool double.”
Jochem Garthoff believes it’s not just about recruiting staff: “This issue isn’t just about new recruits but also about how to retain employees. Staff exchange programmes between companies in the region can help with this.”
Rutger Hermans thinks it’s difficult to exchange staff. “As installers, we’re focused on the here and now, and we need people for that, not just for the future. We’d like to get involved in the collaboration, but we also find it a bit daunting.”
Jan van Dellen adds: “There are good reports showing that if you open the door, it makes a difference. Why not give it a go?”
"There is no time to educate people for the energy transition, which needs to happen now," he says.
How big is the cake
Trust is needed not only in the areas of human capital and the exchange or training of staff, but also for the development and scaling up of innovations. “I used to work as an innovator at an installation company. All the inventions and innovations I came up with had to be kept secret,” says Jan Putman. “That made collaboration difficult, as we were afraid our innovations would be stolen.” He suggests that effective collaboration might have been better. “It saves time and money.”
According to Ruud Rooijakkers, that situation has changed. “We focus more on long-term partnerships and relationship management. We therefore prefer to call our customers partners. I’m not worried about competition, because the demand is simply too great for that,” he states, adding that, for the hydrogen network alone, for example, no less than 9 billion euros in subsidies is available.
“The economic tide is turning. For companies involved in the energy transition, there is no economic uncertainty,” confirms Jeroen Herremans. “But the trust needed to share or collaborate isn’t there yet. Yet if you don’t work together, you won’t make it. All stakeholders in the energy sector meet here regularly. We’re not competing with one another, but working together to make the pie bigger. We still need to get to know one another and find solutions together, but we’ll get there. It’s all about trust.”
According to Antoine Driessen, Rabobank is looking at how it can build coalitions with parties that have a stake in the energy transition. “We’re creating financing products and investment funds to channel new capital into the energy transition,” he explains. “It starts with the entrepreneurs who can drive the process forward. When I look at the companies in our region working on hydrogen, I see truly passionate businesses that want to commit not only to their own success but also to the region’s. And yet many promising projects fail to get off the ground. If all stakeholders – including customers – were sitting around the table, it would already be sorted.”
Jochem Garthoff points out that the shareholders have been working for some time to help their customers create that demand: “What is stopping you, as Rabobank, from getting involved?” The bank would like all parties involved to become shareholders. “We want to get involved, but nothing is coming from the market. We want shareholders, not just stakeholders,” Antoine Driessen emphasises.
Co-fund
There are innovations in the region that are funded from abroad, but Kevin Rijke believes these funders are less engaged. “Sometimes these investors do have good ideas, or they come here to acquire the technology, only to produce it cheaply elsewhere,” he says. “But we must ensure that it stays here: innovating, scaling up and manufacturing. We must become a manufacturing nation once again.”
The government could help fund these projects, but according to Jan van Dellen, it is wary of giving companies a competitive advantage using taxpayers’ money. “I hear about initiatives where we, as the Economic Board, would also like to play a part – for example, by investing a million – but I want that to be aimed at solving societal issues, such as contributing to a reduction in CO₂ emissions. We are not primarily a financier, but we can bring the network together.”
Antoine Driessen is keen on that idea: “If all eighteen local authorities in the region are willing to contribute a sum of money, without expecting a high return, then you have a shareholder at the table who is doing the right thing for the region and who, in doing so, challenges the business community to do more.”
However, as Jan van Dellen points out, not all regional authorities affiliated with the Economic Board have the financial scope to co-fund such initiatives.
Jochem Garthoff points out that Arnhem City Council is very active indeed. “The council has already joined us on a few occasions to use an innovation tool we’ve developed, to embed those regional innovations into spatial development plans,” he explains.
Jan van Dellen draws a comparison with the successful Brainport in Eindhoven. “Major companies such as ASML have put ten million on the table, and then the council gets on board too. I’m also in contact with other local authorities in the region who are keen to get involved,” says Jan van Dellen. In other words, if companies in the region dig deep to fund innovative projects, a number of local authorities will follow suit and Rabobank is prepared to get involved.
Trust and connection
Yet a great deal is already happening at the Kleefse Waard Industrial Park, certainly compared to two years ago. “Back then, we were still talking too much,” reflects Kevin Rijke. “That was the warm-up before the competition began. We kicked off that race with the launch of Connectr. When you start forming coalitions with one another, that leads to business. Solutions that could be implemented as early as next year. If you come back here in a year’s time, there’ll be a large innovation lab covering 15,000 square metres, where we’ll share knowledge, provide training and bring innovations to fruition together.”
According to Jeroen Herremans, a lot is already happening, and he cites some concrete, recent figures. “HyET Group has raised 29 million in investment and is going to build a factory here; Nedstack has secured 21 million in grants and is investing in a factory; Elestor has raised 30 million in investment from a consortium and is also going to build a factory here; Rift has secured an investment of millions from the Bill Gates Foundation for a new round of testing; Allego went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2022 with a valuation of 3 billion; UMS is coming to Arnhem with its zero-emission mobility solutions. “Just add it all up – in short, things are really buzzing here,” he says, not without pride. “We’re strong in electricity grids, energy storage and charging infrastructure. But the energy transition will only become a real innovation if we can put it into practice in our region. For that, we need the government and entrepreneurs who are willing to invest and say ‘I’m just going to do this’, with Kleefse Waard leading the way.”
With Tennet, NUON and Aliander, Arnhem has long been the energy capital of the Netherlands. Given the current grid congestion, it’s a challenge to supply new neighbourhoods and businesses with energy. “Young companies here are strong in decentralised energy storage, energy hubs and hydrogen solutions,” Jan van Dellen summarises. “This region has become truly innovative in the energy sector, but my view is that this is not yet enough. The collaboration between all parties could be much better.”
According to Jeroen Herremans, there are many networkers and connectors around the table: Connectr, Industriepark Kleefse Waard, Kiemt, the Economic Board, SEECE and Rabobank. “But building trust is a human endeavour,” he states. Nevertheless, that connection and mutual trust are of great importance.
“Why? Because it’s better for the labour market, to accelerate the transitions, and because training is becoming more important,” observes Jan van Dellen.
Jan Geurts van Kessel agrees with the latter point and states: “Often, companies themselves don’t know what they need or what expertise they have in-house. We need to take a much more strategic look at what we need from one another, because then we can make smarter choices than we do at present.”
"Students these days choose a study that allows them to make an impact," says Mr. K.
Better branding of the region
Whether it’s about building trust in collaboration, the human capital challenge and retaining talent for the region, or funding innovative initiatives, it all comes down to visibility and focus. How can the region become more attractive?
“Brainport’s appeal is enormous for the Eindhoven region,” says Jan Geurts van Kessel. “We need to do more in terms of branding and work together to think about training, because our region is losing its talent.”
Kevin Rijke believes that the Arnhem and Nijmegen University of Applied Sciences (HAN) also has a responsibility in this regard and asks: “Why doesn’t HAN position itself in relation to the problems currently facing society?”
According to Jan Geurts van Kessel, such profiling is already taking place. “I would like to make an appeal here. Let’s train our people within companies as much as possible.”
According to Jan van Dellen, adapting a course curriculum can easily take two years. “We want to structure a course so that someone can enter the workplace within six months, for example through a modular approach,” he says.
Kevin Rijke disagrees with him. “If we don’t tackle that course now, in two years’ time we’ll be thinking, ‘If only we’d sorted it out back then’. So, in the short term, we should offer shortened modules and, in the long term, start turning the ship around.”
Jan Geurts van Kessel indicates that work is already underway within HAN University of Applied Sciences. Ruud Rooijakkers believes that the innovation lab at Kleefse Waard Industrial Park could act as the driving force. “Back in the early 2000s, Eindhoven City Council turned a problem into an opportunity when Philips began scaling back its operations. A few kilometres away, ASML was establishing itself as a world leader in the semiconductor industry, with a constant need to expand its workforce. If we can forge a link between all the initiatives mentioned today and connect them to the university of applied sciences, we’ll attract attention and generate appeal both at home and abroad.” He notes, for example, that sixty per cent of international students remain in Eindhoven after completing their studies. “In our region, that figure is twenty to thirty per cent,” says Jan Geurts van Kessel, “and that’s why we need to extend hydrogen technology at HAN to vocational education (MBO), for example, because that’s what students are interested in.”
According to Jan Putman, hydrogen is ‘sexy’, and we need to come up with something for the other priority areas to make them more appealing. “These days, students choose a course that allows them to make an impact.” How do we put Lifeport on the map in The Hague and Brussels? Another article in the Financieel Dagblad? “Brainport is the shirt sponsor for PSV,” says Ruud Rooijakkers.
“And in Groningen, Energy Valley has been on the shirts for 20 years,” adds Kevin Rijke. Perhaps we could also promote our region’s brand by putting Lifeport on the shirts of Vitesse and NEC.
According to Jeroen Herremans, we could certainly be a bit more vocal. “We can prove that we’re a major player in energy solutions,” he asserts. “Let’s break out of that mediocrity and make it clear what’s really going well here.”
This article appeared in *Ondernemersbelang*.
