Scaling Innovative Ideas with Ideas from Europe: An Interview about Collaboration and Impact with our Executive Board
Innovation and entrepreneurship are key drivers of economic growth and societal impact. However, bringing innovative solutions to the market can be challenging, especially when it comes to finding the necessary resources, networks, and support. That’s where Ideas from Europe (IFE) comes in. Initiated by the Sustainable Scale-Up Foundation, IFE is a knowledge platform and broker that helps accelerate the adoption of innovative solutions.
Join us in the interview with Sonja van Meerbeek and Martin Spitholt from the Ideas From Europe Executive Board, where we dive into the story of IFE, and why their approach to innovation is so essential for tackling our sustainability challenges of today.
Sonja van Meerbeek started Ideas From Europe (IFE) as a broker to bring together entrepreneurs, governments, corporations, scientists, NGOs, and investors who together can bring innovative solutions better and faster to market. It all began with a TEDx license that enabled her to organise the TEDx Binnehof events each year in the Knights Hall in the Netherlands.
"At those events, there was an establishment of people with money and power. And on the stage were the people with the ideas, the innovators. The idea was that if they would connect and align, then those ideas would become a reality," said Sonja. In parallel with this, she aimed to create a vision for entrepreneurs and their potential influence on politics through their innovative ideas.
In 2016, when the Netherlands held the chair of the European Union, there was a desire to share innovative ideas beyond the country's borders, at a European level. Sonja discussed this with European Commission’s SME Envoy Network, André Meyer and Kasia Balucka, who showed a keen interest in expanding the concept on a wider European scale. Together with Martin Spitholt, who formed the supervisory board at that time, is how Ideas From Europe was born. Today, IFE focuses on these three key topics: energy transition, biodiversity, and smart cities, all of which contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals proposed by the UN.
Initially, the IFE project began as a collaborative effort between the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the SME Envoy Network, during the time when Sonja was working for the Dutch ministry. However, after Sonja transitioned to working for the Sustainable Scale-up Foundation, the ministry officially handed over control of the IFE project to the Sustainable Scale-up Foundation, serving as their new legal entity.
Tackling the challenges of innovation
Andro Vos and his Wildlife Forensic Academy are an excellent example of how IFE supports innovators to overcome significant challenges. At first, Andro was struggling to bring his idea to life due to the cancellation of his public funds. However, IFE supported him by providing a platform to showcase his idea. Andro impressed potential investors, and his idea has now become a reality at Buffelsfontein in Cape Province South Africa to battle wildlife crime. Sonja defines a successful collaboration between them and innovators when they overcome such significant challenges together. Nevertheless, Andro's consistency and willpower in pursuing his idea were crucial to his success.
Innovation often faces major obstacles when entering the market, especially with regard to getting into the networks of governments and large corporations. It is often difficult for innovators to find the time and resources to develop their ideas to the point where they can be sold and scaled up. However, the IFE project has developed a unique approach to these challenges. They have established a continuous program that seeks out innovators and provides ongoing support by connecting them with stakeholders and building coalitions to help scale their ideas. While events were once a central part of their strategy, they now serve as just one component of their working methods aimed at bringing stakeholders together. Martin notes, "We are not there to only organise events anymore; we want people to come again and be confronted with these innovative ideas.“
Their way of working to keep up with all the topics is to form coalitions around them, research them together, find out which innovative ideas are up and running, and present those innovative ideas in the correct market segments to ultimately help innovators get involved with the government and larger corporations. Most importantly, there must be relevant problems that need to be solved to get innovations faster into the minds of decision-makers.
IFE’s bottom-up approach
Another issue with many innovations is that within the government's ministries, they are predominantly approached top-down, which can limit opportunities for new ideas and approaches to emerge. This top-down approach tends to prioritise established parties and strategies due to their access to funding, which can result in disregarding valuable insights from the source of the problem, leading to a cycle of recurring issues. In contrast, IFE adopts a bottom-up approach to make a significant change. They seek out innovators and entrepreneurs with exceptional ideas, connect them with relevant stakeholders, and assist them in scaling up their innovations. IFE's unique approach empowers the source of the problem and ensures that ideas from the ground level are heard and implemented.
Ideas From…the World?
Sonja and Martin have an ambitious vision for the future of IFE, which includes slowly expanding the program beyond the borders of Europe. Their aim is to help entrepreneurs and innovators from all around the globe by building coalitions and networks that can create positive change in the world. While IFE needs to stay financially healthy, they intend to keep it as a non-profit organisation in the future as well. All the funds accumulated in their reserve from various sources will be used to build and scale up innovations and market segments that can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals for a better future for all.
Register for our newsletter to stay up-to-date with inspiring, innovative technologies and news on creating solutions to our sustainability challenges. Find talks from our keynote speakers at previous IFE events on our Youtube Channel. We're excited to continue our work connecting innovators and entrepreneurs with the resources they need to turn their ideas into reality!
