With the help of the ‘RegioDeal’, the central government and the region will jointly boost the broad prosperity in the Kop van Noord-Holland by adopting an integrated approach to strengthening human capital, stimulating innovation in the maritime sector and exploiting the opportunities offered by the hydrogen economy.
With the Region Deal Maritime cluster Kop van Noord-Holland, public and private partners are working together on an integrated approach to strengthen the living, living and working climate in the Kop van Noord-Holland. These partners include the government, the province of North Holland, the municipality of Den Helder and the DeKopWerkt! partnership. With an integrated approach, they focus on the following three pillars:
1) Human Capital, knowledge and talent
2) Maritime (application of) technologies and innovations
3) Energy transition and hydrogen economy
There is an increasing demand for the technical and maritime sector and the collaborating parties want to ensure that people choose this sector in particular. The RegioDeal does this by investing in knowledge, talent, innovative maritime technologies and stimulating the hydrogen economy. This creates new employment opportunities and also contributes to the energy transition and the energy supply in the region.
In the field of maritime innovation, the focus is on a knowledge-intensive region in which the RegioDeal facilitates the formation of the Maritime Emerging Technologies Innovation Park Noord-Holland (METIP). This is a high-quality business park for maritime technology with a strong collaboration between companies, knowledge institutions, students and startups.
The METIP project has several goals. After a start-up period of 4 years, it must consist of the following components in 2024:
1) The METIP organization
An independent organization with a governance structure has been set up, in which a structured and growing collaboration between knowledge institutions, companies, students and starters has been established.
2) The physical environment of the METIP
This consists of fixed and mobile work and development space, indoor experimental location and outdoor field labs that are used in combination with test areas. METIP is in fact a testing ground where data, knowledge and expertise, devices, infrastructure and facilities are made available to third parties. An important part concerns the space for a drone airport. A facility for flying, testing, education and training that can also be used by third parties.
3) The (further) development of (technical) maritime applicable innovations and applications.
The first innovations and applications have their origin in the technology areas of maritime drones, virtual & augmented reality (collectively called extended reality), artificial intelligence and data-driven predictable maintenance. METIP will also focus on new maritime technologies, such as smart shipping, WiFi underwater and Jan van Gent drones (drones that fly, dive, sail and swim).
