“Hands off the National Growth Fund”

Photondelta and Quantum Delta NL have launched a petition to keep the National Growth Fund intact. Both organizations have been awarded hundreds of millions of euros to accelerate the development and commercialization of integrated photonics and quantum technology. Just as government investments in the past have helped make ASML “one of the world’s leading companies,” the Growth Fund’s continued long-term investments would “secure the future prosperity” of the Netherlands, the petition’s authors write.

The Dutch House of Representatives will debate innovation policies on Wednesday. Some parties want to use the Growth Fund to support measures that have nothing to do with R&D, such as freezing the taxes on fuel. Others want to abolish the fund altogether.

ASML CEO Peter Wennink Tuesday repeated his plea to leave the Growth Fund be in Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf (link in Dutch. The former chairman and current vice chairman of the fund previously said in Eindhovens Dagblad that he’ll step down if the fund were to become “a kind of political grab bag” (link in Dutch). He lamented the opportunism in Dutch politics and the lack of long-term vision.