- Priorities further explained
Supporting promising new developments, ideas and techniques
The various research institutes and companies in Wageningen are full of promising ideas and new techniques to improve the world around us. To help boost these ideas into the world, we as a municipality can work together with the WUR to support these new companies. First, courses on entrepreneurship should become more accessible for anyone with an idea. Secondly, start-up companies often face difficulties at the start because of their high investments and low returns. To give companies the time to grow into a successful company, Connect Wageningen wants to eliminate tax for the first 3 years. Finally, Connect Wageningen will stimulate events that bring together research institutes and the business community.
Stimulate regional spin-offs from research institutes and companies
In Wageningen there is a lot of knowledge and incredibly many innovative ideas. Unfortunately, however it often only remains with ideas. From idea to company is often a big step and many companies in Wageningen are starting to see this now. We want to work together at an regional level to promote entrepreneurship. So that Wageningen PhDs can find support to start a spin-off in Foodvalley and international students can generate ideas and entrepreneurship by bringing their culture to Wageningen. As a municipality, we also want to take our responsibility here.
Give the enterprise office 20% google-time
Since the entrepreneurs are the first to get stuck and become demotivated by municipal bureaucracy, we want to see if we can make rules more flexible. The ideas can come from the officials who work in this field. Google-time means for these few officials that they can do what they want 20% of their time, as long as it contributes to the opportunities for entrepreneurship in Wageningen. The hope is that unnecessary rules can easily be seen and dealt with in this way.
Take action against vacant property
We think it's a shame when buildings are empty for a long time. Unfortunately, owners in Wageningen have no reason to fill their buildings quickly. We want these owners to allow temporary rent for pop-up projects such as galleries or stores. The fact that a building is for rent does not have to mean that it is empty, because there are enough creative ideas.
