The cabinet wants to invest over 340 million euros in space. The investment should ensure that Dutch companies and knowledge institutions can continue to innovate and grow.
This reports outgoing Economy Minister Vincent Karremans in a letter to the Lower House. Space technology and satellite data increasingly play an indispensable role for security, defence, logistics, infrastructure, science, agriculture and sustainability. This is a vast sector, providing more than 10,000 jobs in the Netherlands. In addition, space technology and satellite data reduce dependencies of the Netherlands on foreign countries, and the sector provides innovations in technology.
'Contributes to economy, innovation, security and infrastructure'
Minister Karremans: "Space technology is a proven contributor to our economy, innovation, safety and infrastructure. Investing in it fits within our National Technology Strategy and the Long-Term Space Agenda. At the same time, funding opportunities are limited, which means we cannot make additional incidental investments in European programmes this time. Because the sector is important, we still managed to maintain the basic contribution."
The money is intended as a Dutch contribution to European Space Agency (ESA) programmes. Every year at the space agency's Ministerial Conference, the 23 ESA member states discuss how much they jointly invest in space. The Ministerial Conference 2025 will take place on 26 and 27 November 2025 in Bremen, Germany.
344.3 million euros
In the 2020-2022 period, the Netherlands contributed a total of 283.5 million euros to ESA programmes. In 2023-2025, it was €319.8 million, with an incidental increase of €53.6 million. For the 2026-2028 period, the Dutch commitment totals €344.3 million.
The cabinet made an additional EUR 22.2 million available at the end of 2023 to strengthen the business climate of the NL Space Campus in Noordwijk. On this campus, startups, researchers, students and SME suppliers work together. This investment is intended to modernise ESTEC, ESA's technology headquarters.
