How to… create an entrepreneurial city

The Dutch city of Delft is proving that collaboration between the local council, universities and businesses can help small cities keep one step ahead, as Jennifer Tankard explains.

Delft has a population of just under 100,000 and lies in the shadow of the Netherlands administrative centre, The Hague, and Rotterdam, one of the largest ports in the world. The city could easily become a dormitory town, relying on its history, its famous blue pottery, its links to Vermeer and its scenic canals to generate jobs in tourism while skilled workers commute out for employment.

Instead, it has decided to build on other local strengths to remain economically sustainable and competitive. Its skills – in particular its extensive experience of developing and maintaining flood defences – has led it to set out an ambitious strategy of making Delft a centre of excellence for knowledge and innovation.

As part of this strategy an incubator – Yes!Delft – has  been created with support from the Delft University of Technology, the local council, and companies such as Ernst and Young. It offers entrepreneurs office space, technical facilities, access to international networks, knowledge sharing and training to support promising start-ups to continue to grow. Around 100 companies have got off the ground through the help of the incubator and its partners are now investing a further €20m in new facilities for those companies that have outgrown Yes!Delft.

Students on the YesDelft! campus

Those helped by Yes!Delft range from clean tech organisations such as AELS, which recycles aircrafts, and solar power specialist Sunuru, to cutting edge design companies like Flux Furniture. A number of companies specialising in water management – in which Delft has developed a particular expertise – got off the ground at YesDelft! including Elemental Water Makers. UNESCO’s Institute for Water Education is also based in Delft.

CREATING A VISION
Ten years ago, Delft realised that global economic change could threaten its prosperity. The city council, led by Mayor Bas Verkerk, launched an extensive consultation with local people and businesses on what type of future they wanted for the city. The resulting document, ‘A Vision for Delft in 2030’, is the route map for a sustainable economic future. It sets out three key objectives to securing its future as an economically successful city: Delft as a city of innovation, a knowledge centre of world importance; Delft as a sustainable city; and Delft as a welcoming and inclusive city.

Critical to the development and delivery of the ‘vision’ is the coming together of the local council with local universities and businesses to support entrepreneurship in the city. It recognised the importance of Delft University of Technology as a driver for the knowledge economy and economic growth and the city has since become a European leader in championing the case for better links between city councils, universities and local businesses. It is the lead partner of the European Union’s Urbact EUinvercities project which tackles the issue of how to frame co-operation between city and university, and arrive at smart forms of city-university collaboration.

Business support for the vision is also crucial to its success. Joris Kleinveld is an ICT entrepreneur and founder of Auxilium, a leader in tailor-made software development. He believes that much of Delft’s development as a knowledge economy might have happened without the ‘vision’, but having a clear plan in place backed by the council, the university and endorsed by local entrepreneurs has helped to attract funding and raise the city’s profile as a knowledge economy.

‘It’s better to position yourself like a pearl in the region’, he says. ‘We have certain qualities that others don’t have, like the technological spin out of Delft University or creative industries that you won’t find in Rotterdam or The Hague but do add value to their economies.’

Local businesses are so keen to ensure the plan doesn’t fall victim to political change that they recently met to endorse an ‘adhesion’ agreement. Kleinveld says ‘this statement says there is support for the plan and it is signed by businesses and institutions to show there is commitment beyond the council’.

Mayor Verkerk agrees that this consensus behind the ‘vision’ is essential to the long-term success of Delft’s position as a knowledge economy. Also, ‘the level of investment, for example by the university, into new laboratories and buildings, makes it difficult to change course’.

Delft’s success is dependent on European and global forces, and the Netherlands economy as a whole has been impacted by problems in the Eurozone. But the mayor believes city government can still play a crucial role. ‘We aim to make Delft attractive and create a quality of life to attract skilled young people to study and work’, he says. ‘We can do this by providing affordable, good quality housing, a good cultural programme and good sporting facilities. These are all matters that we can influence as a city and we do this in a very explicit way, to keep and attract the skills we need, to maintain our position as a knowledge economy.’

The mayor also highlights the need for the city to maintain its profile and reputation at a national and European level to attract funding and recognition for its contribution to the Netherlands’ economy.  ‘Maastricht and Eindhoven have strong lobbies and Delft has to work hard to keep up but it has to do so,’ he says. Other cities that are developing their own knowledge economies and are identified as competitors in the future include Helsinki, Copenhagen and Malmo.

Delft may be a small city but Kleinveld’s description of it as a pearl is apt.  It has combined a historic legacy of innovation – Dutch inventions include the yacht, the microscope, the submarine and the traffic enforcement camera – with ongoing investment in skills and infrastructure. But it has also turned potential threats, such as the risk of flooding and proximity to much larger cities, into advantages by developing expertise in water management and acting as a hub of innovation to complement the economies of The Hague and Rotterdam.

As Mayor Verkerk comments, ‘Universities can play a very strong role in fostering economic development. It is the skill of the city and its strategy to enhance the relationship between the university and other players and to encourage dialogue and that will form the basis of a successful city knowledge economy.’