As most of you already know, we started out with a small pilot project a few years ago: a flexible workspace at the ground floor of our Embassy building. The aim was to bring to Greece the existing Dutch know-how in the area of entrepreneurship, in order to help entrepreneurs set up their innovative businesses here. In a time that was marked by a deep economic crisis, we wanted to help people stay in Greece and reverse the brain drain that was taking place. I would say that the underlying reason for doing this, is that the Dutch government strongly believes that the EU can also thrive if we have strong member states; this is why we put a great effort not only in innovation at home, but also abroad. If our partner countries are strong, the Netherlands and Dutch entrepreneurs can profit from this as well. 

Over the years, Orange Grove has grown into a full-fledged incubator. It has become an independent legal entity, but remains very closely related to the Netherlands Embassy. I see Orange Grove as an important brand of the Embassy, and I am very proud of that. 

The development and growth of Orange Grove has stimulated us to think about its future; this is innovation too. Our thinking has been further accelerated by the covid-pandemic. The pandemic, in some ways, has been a blessing in disguise for Orange Grove; it has offered us the time to invest our energy into our next steps, without distractions. 

Let me mention some of the steps we have decided to take:

Firstly in the area of digitalisation: Orange Grove has gone fully digital since this summer. All the content that had been created over the previous years, in collaboration with our partners, mentors and trainers, has been structured and digitized, and is now being offered through our new e-learning platform. Worthwhile to mention: it is powered by Learnworlds, an OG alumni, which supports premium online schools in over 70 countries. This platform offers incubation for all sectors. In the last cohort, which we selected in October, we admitted a lot of high tech-startups, but also people in the agri-food sector, who have a product and want to further develop their company. Of course we received many applications in the tourism sector, but also for example fashion, sustainability and wellness. 

New tools are also being developed for the Agricultural sector. In my opinion this is a very important sector for the Greek economy and Greece has a lot of talented, young people with good ideas. And even more importantly: Greece has a lot of wonderful and tasty products to offer! We are currently working with Wageningen University on a deeper cooperation in the field of agrifood and agro-technology, areas where innovative technology can really play a huge role. 

I would like to take this opportunity to also go a bit deeper into our Dutch partnerships. At Orange Grove we have always cooperated closely with a number of Dutch Universities. They have been fueling us with their knowledge, training programs and networks. I already mentioned Wageningen University, but also the Technological University of Delft and the University of Amsterdam have been by our side from the start. These Universities have also invested a lot of time on issues of innovation and entrepreneurship in the last decennium. 

It is clear that the role of universities in today’s society is changing rapidly. Not only is there an expectation to conduct and publish quality research, there is also an expectation to connect this research and curriculum to local and global challenges, offering practical solutions. As a result, students, researchers and science teachers increasingly engage in entrepreneurial activities, like science-based spinouts and startups. 

The Netherlands has built a strong reputation over the years as being a hotbed for entrepreneurship and innovation. Amsterdam was ranked the #12 Global Startup Ecosystem in the 2020 Startup Genome report. Startups are the #1 job growth engine in the Netherlands and universities play an important role fueling that growth. 

In order to use this experience and share it with Greek universities, I am very happy to announce here, that we are starting a new program of masterclasses, with the title ‘the Entrepreneurial University’, which will take place in the next few months. We will be doing this together with the Amsterdam Centre for Entrepreneurship (ACE), which was set up by the University of Amsterdam and the VU University of Amsterdam, together with the city of Amsterdam and other partners. ACE has a lot of experience which they are very willing to share with their Greek counterparts. 

During this series of masterclasses, the participating Greek universities will be looking into ways to create a mindset of entrepreneurship and how to develop and activate educational programs, so as to encourage students and researchers to connect their knowledge to the ‘outside’ world. They will also look into all aspects of the functioning of technology transfer offices and incubators inside universities. Last but not least, they will be introduced to ways in which the Entrepreneurial University can be connected to the wider entrepreneurial ecosystem, which is an essential step we also took in the Netherlands, in order to create a sustainable environment for growth. At the same time we want to help create higher level, better paid jobs, for highly skilled talents, whom this way would be motivated to stay in Greece. 

I believe there is a lot both the Dutch and the Greek side can learn from this cooperation. Naturally, I am also hopeful that more partnerships will be born out of this project. 

Of course I should add here that every country or region is unique, so through this program we want to present the Dutch Entrepreneurship Ecosystem as an inspiration, an example of how we have organized ourselves and also of the mistakes we have made in the past and you could avoid. In the end, it is of course up to each country to develop its own character and its own kind of entrepreneurial ecosystem. 

To sum up, we have taken a lot of interesting new steps with Orange Grove, so keep following us on our social media and here, for our latest developments! 

By Stella Ronner-Grubačić, Ambassador of the Netherlands to the Hellenic Republic