WHY WE BACK NADI
The Netherlands is one of the best countries in the world at doing research. It is not one of the best countries in the world at turning that research into real products, real companies, or real impact.
Breakthrough ideas get stuck in the gap between university and market. Too risky for banks. Too early for most investors. Too unconventional for government programs built around consensus and safety. This gap has a name: the valley of death. A lot of good ideas die there.
The Dutch innovation system rewards incremental steps. It is designed to fund what is already almost working. The people with the most radical ideas, the ones that could actually change things, often get the least support.
That is the problem. It is not new. And it has been going on long enough.
WHAT NADI WOULD CHANGE
A national agency modeled after the American DARPA. The agency behind the internet, GPS, and mRNA vaccines. Not a subsidy desk. An agency with a mandate to fund things that probably won't work but absolutely should be tried.
Program leaders with real autonomy. People who can make fast decisions, commit serious resources, and back founders without needing approval from twelve committees.
Fast decisions. Kill what doesn't work. Double down on what does. The same operating logic that makes good venture capital work, applied at national scale.
The government as a launching customer. Not just funding research, but actually buying innovative solutions. Giving founders a first real contract instead of another grant application.
WHY WE SUPPORT THIS
We exist because this problem is real.
Every day we see it: brilliant ideas from brilliant people, stuck in committees, buried in subsidy applications, waiting for permission that never comes.
0.1 runs proof cycles. We build, test, decide. Kill or double. No consensus required.
NADI would do the same thing, but at national scale, with the resources to actually move the needle.
WE DON'T JUST SUPPORT NADI
WE THINK IT'S OVERDUE
Read the official government design proposal, or add your name to the open letter at nadi.nl.