Robots and cobots capable of perceiving, learning and reasoning are now a standard feature of factories and distribution centres across the Netherlands. The question is no longer whether the technology works, but how to deploy it at industrial scale. To speed up that transition, the Netherlands is developing a National Agenda for Cognitive Robotics (NACR): a shared framework bringing together government, industry, SMEs and knowledge institutions.
The initiative is led by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy (EZK) and Holland High Tech, together with a broad coalition that includes VDL Enabling Technologies Group (ETG), NXP Semiconductors, TNO, FME, Brainport Industries, NLRobotics and Brainport Development. These parties have taken the first steps toward an agenda expected to run through 2027.
The urgency is grounded in demographic and economic pressure. An ageing workforce and persistent labour shortages coincide with continued growth in demand for production capacity. An earlier report by TNO Vector concluded that, without a targeted push on robotisation, the Netherlands risks losing part of its manufacturing base within a decade.
Leo Warmerdam, managing director of Holland High Tech, endorses that assessment. A national agenda, he argues, is needed to raise labour productivity and generate new earning capacity, with the aim of establishing a Dutch “control point” in the European robotics value chain. In this view, cognitive robotics functions as an instrument for productivity, economic value and strategic autonomy alike — a framing echoed at European level. The industry association euRobotics, in its Unified Vision, describes robotisation as a precondition for keeping European production competitive at scale, a line that runs through policy frameworks such as Horizon Europe and the Chips Act 2.0.
Part of a broader industrial policy
The NACR does not stand alone. In its October 2025 industrial policy paper “Industriebeleid met focus” (“Industrial Policy with Focus”), EZK identified machine building as one of the priority areas for Dutch industrial policy. The NACR follows directly from that paper and forms one of the building blocks of the Targeted Machine Building Programme currently under development, within which robotics could become a spearhead. Its findings are being coordinated with the Taskforce for Future Prosperity and Business Climate.
Notably, the initiative is not intended to produce a new strategy from scratch. The Netherlands already holds strong positions in key enabling technologies such as semiconductors, mechatronics, imaging, data and AI, backed by a solid research base at its universities and institutes. The NACR’s task is to bring these existing building blocks together into a single agenda and connect them to European roadmaps and value chains.
Craftsmanship as a transferable asset
The rationale behind the agenda was spelled out at Holland High Tech’s NETWORKING EVENT on 17 June. Ton Peijnenburg, CTO of VDL Enabling Technologies Group and a member of Holland High Tech’s programme council, pointed to the depth of craftsmanship embedded in the Dutch high-tech industry. Automating that expertise, he argued, requires making it transferable to robots — only then does it become an economically deployable asset.
Peijnenburg identified three routes through which the Netherlands can capture value: applying robots within its own industry, supplying components and production capacity, and building complete automation systems for both domestic and international markets. These routes, he noted, are only viable when technology, application knowledge, chips, AI, sensors, data and production come together.
Robotics expert Lukas M. Ziegler, speaking at the same event, described how the classic industrial robot is giving way to a new generation of machines that learn from data, recognise patterns and adapt to changing conditions. Robots, in his account, are moving beyond simply executing tasks to interpreting the context in which they operate. Given the country’s industrial know-how and systems-integration expertise, he sees an opportunity for the Netherlands and Europe to secure a stronger position across components, production, integration and the safe deployment of robotics.
Engaging the full ecosystem
The NACR is being developed with input from education and research institutions, industry, SMEs and existing collaborative networks, both national and regional. Through strategic working sessions, expert sessions, working groups and targeted consultations, the initiative aims to determine where the Netherlands sees the greatest opportunities in the European value chain for cognitive robotics, which innovations are still required, and which bottlenecks are currently limiting scale-up and adoption.
The intended outcome is a concrete, broadly supported picture of the Dutch position and trajectory within that value chain, along with an implementation programme enabling companies, knowledge institutions and government to coordinate their efforts rather than act in isolation. Warmerdam summarises the task as building strong consortia and actively seeking out partners within the ecosystem.
