Together with our partners, we help innovators test their prototypes in realistic environments – from living labs to festivals – to increase their chances of success. Through these collaborations, we are working towards a better society across the Netherlands.
On this page, you will find an overview of ongoing and recently completed projects.
Samenwerkingsverband Noord-Nederland
Testing at/on: including Eurosonic Noorderslag, Bevrijdingsfestival Utrecht, and TT Festival.
Duration: ongoing.
Short project description: Together with the Samenwerkingsverband Noord-Nederland (SNN), we support innovators who want to test their ideas at festivals.
Which innovators do we help: innovators with innovative ideas focused on sustainability, social impact, and/or technological advancement.
Partners involved in the project: Samenwerkingsverband Noord-Nederland (SNN).
Goeie Grutten
Testing at: festivals across the Netherlands.
Project duration: continuously.
Short project description: Together with the Goeie Grutten Impact Fund we guide innovators that help the energy transition. We guide the innovators with setting up and executing a practical test at a festival affiliated with us.
Which innovators do we assist: innovative start- and scale-ups that contribute to the energy transition.
Partners affiliated with the project: Goeie Grutten Impact Fund.
ValidationLab North-Netherlands
Testing at: festivals in the North of the Netherlands, such as ITGWO and TT Festival.
Project duration: continuously.
Short project description: To strengthen the innovative capacity of the North of the Netherlands and to increase employment, we help innovators with testing their prototypes at festivals. These innovators are from three different provinces in the North.
Which innovators do we assist: innovators that live in the provinces Groningen, Friesland or Drenthe, are registered at the Chamber of Commerce (KvK) in the North of the Netherlands or have their physical office there.
Partners affiliated with the project: Province of Friesland, Province of Groningen, Province of Drenthe, Municipality of Leeuwarden, Municipality of Groningen, Municipality of Assen, Ik ben Drents Ondernemer, Founded in Friesland, Founded in Groningen.
Taskforce for Applied Research SIA
Testing at: among others, WTTV, TT Festival Assen, ITGWO, ESNS and Zwarte Cross.
Project duration: November 16, 2022 – end of 2025
Short project description: Together with Taskforce for Applied Research SIA, we offer students and researchers from universities of applied sciences the opportunity to test their innovations or conduct an experiment at a festival or living lab. With this, Taskforce for Applied Research SIA aims to stimulate research and innovation at universities of applied sciences, and we highlight the results of practice-oriented research.
Which innovators do we assist: Students, staff, or lecturers affiliated with one of the Universities of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.
Partners affiliated with the project: Taskforce for Applied Research SIA, Universities of Applied Sciences.
ValidationLab Utrecht
Testing at: o.a. Le Guess Who? and Bevrijdingsfestival Utrecht.
Project duration: 2021-2026
Short project description: With ValidationLab Utrecht, we guide innovators in setting up and conducting a practical test in a living lab or at a festival in the Utrecht region.
How many innovators do we assist: 30.
Which innovators do we assist: Sustainable and social innovators from the Utrecht region.
Partners affiliated with the project: ROM Utrecht, Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, Startup Utrecht, Stadstuin, Energie van Utrecht, Impact030, NMU, Groundbreakers, De Maaltuin, Metaal Kathedraal, RAUM, EQUANS, IWELL.
Curious how the tests went in 2023/2024? Read the final document here.
ValidationLab Metropolitan Region Amsterdam
Testing at: DGTL, SAIL Amsterdam, Op de Ring.
Project duration: 2024-2025
Short project description: With ValidationLab Metropolitan Region Amsterdam, we guide innovators in setting up and conducting a practical test in a living lab or at a festival in the Amsterdam region.
How many innovators doe we assist: 18.
Which innovators do we assist: Sustainable and social innovators from the Amsterdam region.
Partners affiliated with the project: Municipality of Amsterdam.
Taskforce for Applied Research SIA x Sportinnovator
Testing at: sport events.
Project duration: 2024-2025
Short project description: Teams of Universities of Applied Sciences and SME’s with an innovation in the field of sport and sport events get the chance to test at a sport event or festival. The focus is on innovative solutions that promote movement in outdoor spaces.
How many teams do we assist: 20.
Who do we assist: University of Applied Sciences teams and SME’s with a sport innovation.
Partners affiliated with the project: SportInnovator and Taskforce for Applied Sciences SIA.
CLICKNL
Deadline applications: continuously.
Testing at: ESNS, Stortemelk, ImpactFest.
Project duration: 2022 – end of 2025
Short project description: With the contribution of CLICKNL, Innofest helps creative innovators with a testcase at a festival or living lab. For this purpose, we use innovation brokers. These are our innovation- and test experts that provide guidance at design and implementation of the testcase.
How many innovators do we assist: 5.
Which innovators do we assist: Sustainable innovators, with a link to the creative industry.
Partners affiliated with the project: CLICKNL.
ValidationLab MDT
Testing at: o.a. Kwaku Festival.
Project duration: 2025-2028
Short project description: With ValidationLab MDT we guide students from Amsterdam knowledge institutions that want to make impact by working on solutions for local social challenges. In teams, they learn how to validate their innovative idea and how to develop and test a prototype.
How many teams do we assist: 8.
Who do we assist: students from the Amsterdam knowledge institutions that want to make an impact by developing innovations for local societal challenges.
Partners affiliated with the project: Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, MDT, Kwaku Festival.
ValidationLab Food
Testing at: TBA
Project duration: 2025
Short project description: With ValidationLab Food we guide innovators from Zeeland in testing their food innovation at a festival.
How many innovators do we assist: 3.
Which innovators do we assist: Innovators that develop innovations for a healthier food production and a more sustainable future.
Partners affiliated with the project: Province of Zeeland, FoodDelta Zeeland, HZ University of Applied Sciences.
Want to know more about the possibilities to collaborate? Download our flyers below.
Do you have any questions or want to get in touch? You can email David or Tom. Maybe we will collaborate in the future!
ValidationLab Young & Diverse
Testing at: festivals.
Project duration: 2024-2025
Short project description: With ValidationLab Young & Diverse we want to stimulate entrepreneurship among young people, women and people with a bi-cultural background.
How many innovators do we assist: 8.
Who do we assist: young people between 18-30 years, with a special focus on women and people with a bi-cultural background.
Partners affiliated with the project: Fonds 21.
Festival Sustainability Lab
Testing at: European festivals
Project duration: 2022-2023
Short project description: Festival Sustainability Lab stimulates sustainable innovation at festivals. Innofest helps innovators that have developed an innovation that contributes to the sustainability transition.
How many innovators do we assist: 2.
Which innovators do we assist: Innovators that develop sustainable innovations that can be deployed during festivals.
Partners affiliated with the project: EU, LiveGreen, One Resilient Earth, Green Events
Green & Inclusive
Deadline applications: December 11, 2023
Testing at: DGTL & Oerol
Duration of the project: 2023-2024
Short project description: Guiding of testcases for innovations and art projects that make the festival- and creative sector more sustainable, inclusive and diverse.
How many innovators do we assist: 7.
Which innovators do we assist: Innovators, social projects and students from all over the Netherlands.
Partners affiliated with the project: Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, CLICKNL, DGTL, the Revolution Foundation and Oerol.
Testing in Amsterdam Metropolitan Region
To strengthen sustainable and social innovation in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Region, we helped 4 sustainable and social innovators with setting up a testcase at a test location that resembled the reality as close as possible, such as Mysteryland.
Partners affiliated with the project: StartupAmsterdam, Municipality of Amsterdam, Urban Innovationteam of the Municipality of Amsterdam.
One Single Hub
With the granted One Single Hub subsidy, we were able to expand the Innofest-methodology. We worked together with the Erasmus Centre of Entrepreneurship and Yes!Delft. By linking these partners to the Innofest testprogram, we were able to improve our guidance for 4 innovators.
Partners affiliated with the project: Erasmus Centre of Entrepreneurship and Yes!Delft.
Zomerparkfeest
Together with the Zomerparkfeest we helped three social and sustainable innovators from the Limburg region to set up a testcase at the Zomerparkfeest in Venlo.
Partners affiliated with the project: Rabobank, Brightlands, LIOF, Ondernemend Venlo, Fontys, Bluehub, Circular Design Group and the Zomerparkfeest.
Popronde
Together with Popronde, we helped two social innovations. Taaly developed an app that links new Dutchies to local language buddy’s. The Taalambassadeurs improve the festival experience of low-literate people.
Partners affiliated with the project: Popronde.
One Single Hub
With the granted One Single Hub subsidy, we were able to expand the Innofest-methodology nationally. We worked together with impact-organizations such as Rockstart, Get in the Ring and Impact Hub Amsterdam. These parties have a lot of experience with developing an impactful innovation. By connecting these partners to the Innofest testprogram, we could help innovators even better with testing at, among others, Welcome to the Village, Zomerparkfeest, Impact Fest and Bevrijdingsfestival Overijssel.
Partners affiliated with the project: Rockstart, Get in the Ring, Impact Hub Amsterdam, Ondernemend Venlo, Impact City, LIOF, Rabobank, Zomerparkfeest, ZWINC, Kennispoort Regio Zwolle, Gemeente Zwolle.
ValidationLab Zwolle
In 2022 and 2023 we helped 8 sustainable and social innovators from the Zwolle region with testing their innovation. We guided them in setting up and executing a practical test to gather feedback, with which they could improve their innovation. Because of this improvement, they can contribute more to the sustainable and social transitions.
Partners affiliated with the project: ZWINC, Kennispoort Regio Zwolle and the Municipality of Zwolle.
Waddengastronomy
The Waddenfundprogram ‘Waddenfood strengthens Worldheritage-experience’ has the purpose of putting the rich supply of food from the Wadden linked to gastronomy on the map. In 2021 and 2022, we helped 16 food innovators from the Wadden area with testing their food innovations at, among others, the Waddenconferentie, Oerol and Into The Great Wide Open. This way, they collected a lot of valuable data in a short period of time, which they could use to improve their innovations.
Partners affiliated with the project: Project Waddenvoedsel, a collaboration of Stichting Waddengroep, the Waddenfonds, NHL Stenden and Visit Wadden.
Green Deal Circular Festivals
The Green Deal Circular Festivals supports green growth by stimulating sustainable innovation. The participating organizations agreed to reduce the environmental impact of European festivals in 2025 as much as they can. Innofest helped two innovators with innovations that contribute to this goals in testing at festivals.
Partners affiliated with the project: Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management.
Floriade Expo 2022
Together with Regieorgaan SIA, we gave 6 college research teams the opportunity to conduct an experiment or test a hypothesis, intermediate- or endresult of their research at the Floriade Expo 2022. The researches fitted within the themes of the Knowledge-and Innovation agenda Agriculture, Water, Food.
Partners affiliated with the project: Regieorgaan SIA, Floriade Expo 2022.
Light Challenge
The Light Challenge is a design contest that challenges new generations to think of innovative concepts for sustainable lighting. Innofest helped 10 student teams from all over the country with testing their prototypes during LUNA Nights Leeuwarden in March, 2022.
Partners affiliated with the project: Light Challenge
Municipality of Almere
We helped the Municipality of Almere with recruiting innovators that occupy themselves with circularity in the building sector and/or ICT&TECH in Almere and surroundings. This way, the Municipality of Almere has gained insight into which innovators are active concerning these themes.
Listen the whole interview here, that our director Linda Vermaat had with Omroep Flevoland concerning this project.
Partners affiliated with the project: UPALMERE! and PRICE.
Innofest is here to accelerate sustainable and social transitions. We do this by giving innovators the opportunity to test their impactful prototypes at festivals and living labs. By testing in these as-realistic-as-possible settings, innovators gather crucial information. This allows them to further improve their sustainable or social innovation and take the next step towards making an impact.
Through collaboration with more than 20 leading Dutch festivals, Innofest has guided over 350 innovative cases in recent years. Our innovative approach has garnered attention for both Innofest and the innovators and partners, with over 250 articles in media such as NRC Handelsblad, Het Financieele Dagblad, NOS Journaal, and various local and business publications.
Since the founding of Innofest in 2016, our team has gained extensive experience in testing innovative and impactful prototypes. We are happy to share that experience. Below, you can explore the different opportunities to collaborate with Innofest.
Interested in collaborating or want to know more about the possibilities? Contact us at oc.ts1750058877efonn1750058877i@ofn1750058877i1750058877.