Platform on civil engineering, underground infrastructure, energy, construction equipment & construction machinery
In 2025, Rijkswaterstaat challenged startups to quickly develop social innovations: a biobased noise barrier, a digital simulation tool for storm scenarios, and a sustainable maintenance solution for bridges and viaducts. This took place under the auspices of the Startup in Residence Intergov program. During a roundtable discussion, the three participating startups shared their experiences with project leader Loni Dida.
“As Rijkswaterstaat, we face major challenges in a rapidly changing world,” says Loni. “For example, the renovation of many of our tunnels, bridges, locks, and pumping stations coincides with developments in sustainability, smart mobility, and digitization. To tackle these challenges effectively, we’re exploring new ways to procure innovations. Startups, scale-ups, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are of particular interest here because of their speed of innovation. The great thing is that we didn’t have to come up with our own way to reach these companies; instead, we were able to join the government-wide Startup in Residence (SiR) Intergov program, which has been running for over seven years. In 2025, we launched a partnership with this program. As part of it, we defined three so-called challenges: for a biobased noise barrier, a digital training tool for high water and storms, and sustainable maintenance solutions.”
“We’re subscribed to the Starthubs newsletter,” says Anja Verdonk, an architect at Natrufied Architecture. “Rijkswaterstaat posts its challenges on this platform as part of the SiR Intergov initiative. Our firm has already created biobased designs for all kinds of buildings—from villas and public housing to daycare centers and resorts—but I had never personally considered a noise barrier. That seemed like a fun new challenge. Another important factor for us was how accessible the program was. We didn’t have to submit mountains of paperwork. We outlined our approach in just one week.”
Joël Repko, co-owner of Propus: “That low barrier to entry really makes a big difference. With large European tenders, you often have to go through an extensive checklist first. Here, we were able to dive right into the content to demonstrate our expertise. We had previously developed software for a learning platform. Now we were asked to develop a tool for the Coastal Division of the Water Management Center Netherlands (WMCN) to conduct remote training more frequently using complex storm scenarios, gain insight into what was learned, and thereby evaluate, continue training, and improve the ability to predict water levels. It was a great opportunity to expand our learning platform.”
Jurriaan Vollebregt, co-owner of Digistruct, had also participated in SiR Intergov with his company before. “We liked it so much that we were eager to try it again. From conversations with engineers, we understood that there are infrastructure assets experiencing problems because the bitumen joints between the concrete components are starting to leak. Our idea to monitor that process with sensors aligned well with the challenge to develop a sustainable maintenance solution for Rijkswaterstaat assets.”
For each challenge, Rijkswaterstaat received about fifteen submissions, each with a concise plan of action. “Based on that, we selected a top three for each challenge in the first round that best met our needs,” says Loni. “In a second round, those three were given the opportunity to refine their proposals and pitch them. We then worked with a panel of experts to select a winner based on the award criteria of innovation, practical applicability, and scalability.”
Anja is impressed by the support she has received, both from Rijkswaterstaat and the SiR Intergov program, where an entire team was put together. “We can easily call on them for help. Whether we want to learn more about the regulations surrounding making our designs available as open source or want to discuss sustainability with a province, people are happy to go out of their way for us.” Jurriaan also notices this helpful attitude: “We get quick answers to our questions. We were also immediately put in touch with a team of experts with years of experience in concrete and joints at organizations such as the IAK. That’s how we were assigned a viaduct near Apeldoorn fairly quickly to conduct tests with our sensor.”
Joël truly sees the program as a co-creation: “Together, we’re developing a product that meets Rijkswaterstaat’s needs. The challenge owner—the person from Rijkswaterstaat who identified the problem—monitors our progress and provides guidance. It’s also important that we work directly with end users: a great team of hydrologists. They help us continuously improve the software by sharing both their subject matter expertise and their user experiences during feedback sessions. It’s wonderful to see that the team has already embraced the software and enjoys working with it.”
“For us at Rijkswaterstaat, the collaboration initiatives have been very successful, both with the government-wide SiR Intergov program and with the startups,” Loni summarizes. “We’re glad that this platform gives us a way to collaborate with the startup ecosystem and other small businesses. It makes us more innovative as well, and the solutions developed help us meet our challenges. For example, Digistruct makes maintenance more cost-effective, Natrufied offers social value, and Propus helps keep people’s feet dry.”
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