The Netherlands and Brazil have a long history in collaborating in research and innovation activities in many areas of societal relevance. With the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2011, the Brazilian and Dutch governments have formalized their government-to-government collaboration, giving a boost to inspiring projects and collaborations. Innovation is one of the key drivers of economic growth and determines the competitive position of the Netherlands in the world. The Netherlands is a world-leader in innovation and generally features in the top-5 of various international innovation rankings. At the same time, global developments are fast and insights into the latest trends, network access, and discovering new collaborative opportunities are crucial to maintaining and strengthening the top-5 position.

By mandate of the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs, NIN advices and supports companies, knowledge institutes and other organizations with their international ambitions and so contributes to the Dutch government policies on innovation, competitiveness, economic security and resilience, as well as major societal challenges such as climate and energy. This is done by (economic) diplomacy, direct advice to stakeholders, organizing innovation missions on specific themes or helping with matchmaking.