TopDutch challenge-based innovation takes the world stage at EXPO 2025

The NOM and TopDutch Innovation Event was a celebratory conclusion to the TopDutch Innovation Challenge. Participants in the TopDutch Innovation Challenge and the Chemport Sustainable Industry Challenge presented the results of their year-long experiment with challenge-based innovation in front of an audience of CEOs and senior executives from ten Japanese companies with a location in the TopDutch region, representatives of the Dutch national government, and experts in R&D and sustainability.

TopDutch Innovation Challenge

As part of the Netherlands’ preparations for EXPO 2025, the NOM and TopDutch initiated the TopDutch Innovation Challenge over a year ago.

The World Expo, this year in Osaka, Japan, brings together countries, companies and innovators to showcase cutting-edge ideas, technologies and solutions for shaping a better future. Over 200,000 people a day visit the Expo to learn more about the innovations other countries are bringing to the world.

The theme of the Netherlands pavilion this year was ‘Common Ground, solving global challenges together’. It seemed like the perfect place, therefore, to showcase how challenge-based innovation projects in the TopDutch region are bringing Japanese excellence together with worldwide innovation, by applying the Dutch culture of collaboration. Here, we’re working together on common ground to find solutions to sustainability challenges.

The NOM’s model of challenge-based innovation involves taking a large company with a vision for an innovation that would make their processes more sustainable, and matching them with a party who has the expertise to realize it. The match is found through a competition-style process, with companies from around the world pitching their unique perspectives and ideas.

Once a match is made, the two parties agree to bring their heads together and collaborate for an extended period on a solution to this sustainability challenge. The NOM adds its expertise in order to scout for potential solution providers, provide access to its network, and offer the support of its business developers and project managers.

Fleur Mulder, Strategist at the NOM, says that this model of innovation works particularly well in the TopDutch region. “Our culture is based on equality and openness. People like to work together. Large companies and small companies see each other as true partners; they really are willing to work from each other. And that makes it a very good start for challenge-based innovation.

“We have strong and well-connected networks, within our region, with the other organizations that are in our ecosystem, but also on a national scale. And internationally. So we can even scout directly in the countries where we are looking for a specific innovation.

“That international outlook really helps us. International companies actually make up 18% of our country’s GDP. So, we’re very happy to keep them here, and to help them innovate and grow even further”.

Roasting coffee with hydrogen

Japanese coffee producer UCC was one of the participants in the TopDutch Innovation Challenge. Their largest plant in Europe, located in Bolsward in Friesland, was looking for new ways to make their coffee production more sustainable. “We were actively exploring greener options, preparing for a future without natural gas,” explained Jeroen de Jager, Site Director at UCC Benelux.

The city of Bolsward has a strong development project to support the new hydrogen economy, so they were already located in a good spot to use hydrogen as a more sustainable energy source for their coffee roasters. But the challenge is that the costs of hydrogen is not yet commercially sustainable. What if they could retrofit their largest roaster – which produces 18 million kilograms of coffee annually – to be able to roast on hydrogen and natural gas?

Jeroen de Jager explains “Having a roaster that can run on both gases means that we can actually transition and not, in one go, move to hydrogen. And gain new experience in hydrogen while maintaining operational flexibility. So we learn from what it does, instead of a big bang and moving straight to hydrogen roasted coffee”.

Using the challenge-based innovation model, UCC were able to ask that question to the world. NOM supported them to formulate the challenge question, scout their international network, and make a selection of the most interesting respondents. The advantage of challenge-based innovation is that one question can have many different answers, so you are able to reflect on ideas from a wide array of potential solution-providers and maybe even get an answer totally out-of-the-box.

The energy transition is so big! If you can create a collaboration like this, and then also make it successful, isn’t that amazing

Robbert van der Pluijm, Founder of Summit Engineering

For UCC, it turned out that the right solution happened to be quite close to home. DNV and Summit, both with locations in Groningen, also in the TopDutch region, teamed up and were one of the applicants. “When the challenge came out, we felt immediately that it was a perfect fit for us”, said Johan Knijp, Business Development Lead at DNV. “We signed up right away”.

“We joined together with Summit Engineering because UCC were not only looking for technical validation but also a practical implementation. And that is where Summit is really strong”.

Robbert van der Pluijm, Founder of Summit Engineering explained how the three parties worked so well together. “We mainly listened to the question from UCC, looked at the local conditions and then explored what everyone does best”.

What follows in the NOM’s model of challenge-based innovation is a long process of cooperation, testing and validation. “The process doesn’t stop at the match, like ‘oh good luck! You found each other, that’s great, and from here on your own’,” says Fleur Mulder, Strategist at the NOM. “We like to stay with both parties, help them develop, help them set up a project plan and at the end we celebrate at a demo day”.

In the case of the TopDutch Innovation Challenge, that demo day was celebrated at the event at the Expo in Osaka. And, around a year after the challenge-process was initiated, there was a lot to celebrate. A few weeks earlier, the team had successfully roasted coffee beans using various blends of hydrogen and natural gas, including blends fully roasted on hydrogen - demonstrating the potential of cleaner coffee production.

“The energy transition is so big!” Robbert van der Pluijm reflected. “So if you can create a collaboration like this, and then also make it successful, isn’t that amazing”.

Creating circular conveyor belts

Conveyor belts. Of course, a closed loop by shape. But their material usage is, in general, much less of a closed loop. Most conveyor belts that are used in mining end up being dumped somewhere in the mine site when they are no longer usable. Teijin Aramid, a TopDutch-based subsidiary of the Japanese giant Teijin wanted to be able to recover their aramid fibers from end-of-life conveyor belts.

To do that, they also looked towards challenge-based innovation, and signed-up for the Chemport Sustainable Industry Challenge, also jointly organized by the NOM. During the event in Osaka, they presented their experience with this form of problem solving together with their winning solution provider, New Born Rubber.

“I went to Delfzijl, to the Teijin [Aramid] factory, and we had a contest there with other challenge particpants” Remco van Leeuwen, Project Manager  at New Born Rubber, told the audience. “There, we spoke with four people, it was a nice afternoon, and after the afternoon I went home with a good feeling about it. The next evening, the winners were announced and we were the winner. So a few weeks later, we signed an NDA, had a few meetings and we have a collaboration between Teijin Aramid and New Born Rubber”.

New Born Rubber is a TopDutch-based start-up that span-out of the University of Groningen. Their winning pitch to Teijin Aramid involved a plan for Teijin Aramid to collect end-of-life conveyor belts from their customers, and after that for New Born Rubber to separate the aramid and the rubber from each other. They next make the aramid as clean as possible, deliver the fibers to Teijin and process the waste rubber and send it back to the rubber company. “And after that, scale-up and close the circular chain for recycling conveyor belts,” continued van Leeuwen. “And the market is huge! Especially if you know that 10-15% of a transport belt is aramid and the rest is rubber”.

We would definitely participate in a challenge like this again. The best innovations happen together

Gerwin Elderman, R&D Application Engineer Technical Fibers at Teijin Aramid

According to Gerwin Elderman, R&D Application Engineer Technical Fibers at Teijin Aramid, their participation in the Chemport Sustainable Industry Challenge was a great success. “The collaboration with New Born Rubber showed us that the reclaiming of Twaron from conveyor belts is possible. We are able to use the first reclaimed Twaron fibers, in good comparison with virgin Twaron fibers. We also have the full commitment of some main customers of Teijin Aramid for the conveyor belt recycling.

“This fulfils our ambitions to be the best aramid producer for the world. We would definitely participate in a challenge like this again. The best innovations happen together”.

For New Born Rubber, they see great opportunities to grow the collaboration that formed during the Challenge. “At this moment we are engineering a pilot installation, and we aim to make the first test rounds before summer 2026,” says Remco van Leeuwen. “The growth potential is enormous, and may eventually ensure that we will open factories in other continents together with Teijin Aramid. For us, it was a positive experience, and if we were asked again, we would join immediately."

Strengthening ties between Japan and the TopDutch region

The event at the World Expo was also a chance to deepen the relationships between the TopDutch region and Japan. Dina Boonstra, Managing Director of the NOM, joined a Leaders’ Luncheon at the Netherlands Pavilion together with CEOs and senior executives from 10 Japanese companies with a location in the Northern Netherlands, as well as Esther Pijs, Director General of Green Growth Realisation from the Dutch Ministry of Climate and Green Growth, and the outgoing- and incoming- Consul Generals of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Osaka, Marc Kuipers and Sandra Pellegrom, respectively.

She saw first-hand the positive reactions of these Japanese leaders. According to her, one emphasized how valuable the meeting was. Not only because of the initiative itself, but also because it allowed him to connect with fellow CEOs from other multinationals, which he found to be a unique opportunity.

Dr Takuya Sato, General Manager of Kikkoman Europe R&D Laboratory also made a presentation about innovating in the TopDutch region. He told the EXPO about two research projects they are working on, and how they are supported by local talent and government.

Fleur Mulders thinks the event was a great success. “In the TopDutch region, we’re proud that we host some very innovative, sustainability-focused multinationals. We wanted to remind these busy leaders of the chances that their location in the Northern Netherlands can offer them, and to show them how we’re willing to find exciting new ways to work together to achieve growth both for them and the region. We hope they’ve come out feeling inspired, and maybe even wanting to start their own innovation challenge with us”.