The agricultural branch is represented by the company Eerste Wijk from Veenhuizen. They will take care of the greenhouse together with various target groups. Ruth Middelwijk of Hoeve Koning Willem 3 joins in with a testing ground.
“We want to discover new crops here,” Middelwijk explains, pointing to a vacant piece of land. “In the projects that run with regional products, we often also get questions about new regional products, but it is quite difficult to grow new crops. How should you grow them? How should you harvest them? We can test that on this part. We have people come together here from both the agricultural side and the ecology side.”
The living lab receives help from universities of applied sciences and universities. A first subsidy has already been awarded to a partnership consisting of Eindhoven University of Technology, 4F.STUDIO, Wageningen University, Utrecht University and Hanze University Groningen. The place has always been a great learning garden, full of experimentation and development. “We want to bring that back,” says Van den Belt.