Brabant Innovation Day 2026: Advancing collaboration, accelerating outcomes
Brabant Innovation Day 2026 has wrapped up in Tokyo, bringing together stakeholders from across the Japanese and Dutch high‑tech ecosystems for a day of focused exchange and collaboration. Built around this year’s theme, ‘From promise to practice: how Japan and the Netherlands power the future of compute’, the event explored how work in semiconductors and photonics is moving toward real‑world application.
What participants shared most consistently was the quality of the day itself: an open atmosphere, a strong turnout and real energy across the conversations. Now in its sixth edition, Brabant Innovation Day has grown into a key moment in JP-NL deep‑tech collaboration – and that growth was clearly felt this year, not only in the strong representation from companies, research organisations and public partners on both sides, but in the quality of the connections and the mix of returning and first‑time attendees.
Opening the event, Martijn van Gruijthuijsen, vice governor for the Dutch province of North Brabant, noted that this edition drew the most registrations yet:
“That isn’t a goal for us, but I see it as a sign of growing friendship, inspiration and collaboration.”
Participants pointed to the openness of the discussions and the presence of senior decision‑makers, which let conversations move quickly into substantive territory.
From promise to practice
The theme focused on how innovation can be translated into real-world application, and how Japan and the Netherlands can make that happen together. That focus ran through the programme, with discussions moving from technology potential to scaling, integration, manufacturing and collaboration across the value chain. Shared priorities emerged around supply chains, advanced packaging, integrated systems and applications in AI and data‑driven sectors.
Brigit van Dijk‑van de Reijt, CEO of the Brabant Development Agency (BOM), set this in a broader context, pointing to the long‑standing relationship between the Netherlands and Japan and the role of an open ecosystem in enabling faster knowledge exchange and decision‑making.
The shift from promise to practice was visible in concrete contributions from DNP, Dexerials and Hitachi High‑Tech, and from SEAJ during the panel discussion, grounding the theme in real examples of how collaboration with the Brabant ecosystem works.
As Van Gruijthuijsen emphasised in his address:
“Innovation is about people working together and sharing knowledge. That’s what makes this recurring event so valuable.”
Collaboration in practice
Collaboration emerged as a practical driver of progress. Edwin Zonder, Senior Project Manager International Business for Japan and South Korea at BOM, said:
“The collaboration between Japan and Brabant benefits innovation in deep tech.” He added that “the willingness to collaborate is constantly growing” and that “the energy… was palpable all day long.”
That spirit extended beyond the formal programme, as participants exchanged experiences and explored shared challenges and opportunities for collaboration. In that sense, ‘From promise to practice’ applied not only to technology but to the work of connecting the two ecosystems themselves.
Part of a wider agenda
Brabant Innovation Day is firmly embedded in a year‑round agenda of missions in both directions. Following the national mission to the World Expo in Osaka, it connects forward to Precision Week and the PIC Europe Summit in the Netherlands, and to Semicon Japan later this year, acting as an annual anchor point where the ecosystems reconnect and opportunities are developed.
Recent developments show how this plays out: Dexerials has begun joint photonics research with the Photonic Integration Technology Centre (PITC), and DNP has established its first overseas R&D office in Eindhoven.
In reflecting on this year’s event, Brabant Innovation Day organiser Miguel van Raamsdonk said:
“It’s great to see how the event has grown – as part of a wider strategic agenda, and through strong Japan-Netherlands collaboration both in the ecosystem and in how the event itself comes together.”
From momentum to meaningful collaboration
Brabant Innovation Day 2026 reinforced its place in the JP-NL deep‑tech calendar, marked by strong engagement, open exchange and a shared willingness to keep building. ‘From promise to practice’ captures both the ambition of the collaboration and the way it is evolving: more practical, and increasingly focused on implementation.