18 September 2023
Brave New Food partner NIZO Food Research is a private food innovation organization in the heart of the Dutch Food Valley. Founded in 1948 by the Dutch Dairy Cooperations, and an independent company since 2009, NIZO has 75 years of research and innovation experience. Their scale-up and test facilities are open to third party food companies that want to run small production and tests to tackle their production challenges. Their next step: to become the number 1 food scale-up center in the Netherlands and beyond for startups!
Ronald Visschers is Strategy Advisor at NIZO and an expert in public-private partnerships: “In the Netherlands there are a lot of different local and regional initiatives and subsidies aimed at helping the protein transition. To stay competitive, we want to pool these resources and become the most modern and cost-efficient pilot facility for scale-ups on the international level.”
Valley of Death
Ronald explains how every innovation sooner or later will have to go through the very time-and-money-consuming scale-up phase. “This phase is often called the ‘Valley of Death’. It’s a long, expensive, and dangerous road for a small company. But with some help from public partners, it can be done much easier!” Ronald is talking to governmental partners like the Ministry of Economic Affairs, but also to local and regional stakeholders in the protein and energy transition. “It’s logical that they are also interested in facilitating the scale-up phases of successful innovations. You cannot just expect the private sector to take on this responsibility.”
Innovation Vouchers
The key to success is creating new types of partnerships and financing structures. Ronald: “For example, our partner Foodvalley NL is experimenting with Agrifood Innovation Vouchers. Companies can apply for a voucher which will enable them to get 50% of their costs of the scale-up phase covered by a public subsidy. This kind of structure works because it really helps entrepreneurs and I expect to see more of that in the near future.”
Open for business
Asked about when scale-ups will get the opportunity to start testing in the NIZO facilities, Ronald starts to laugh. “That’s already possible! We already are the largest food-grade pilot facility in Europe and are open for national and international companies to do piloting, but it’s my mission to make it easier for them. By the start of next year, I expect to have a broad coalition of public and private partners, ready to support scale-ups in whatever they need to get through the Valley of Death. Together with the entrepreneurs and all the stakeholders we will accelerate the protein transition and support next generation food solutions for a sustainable and healthy food system.”
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