With the Innovation Grant 2026/2027, the Education Region Hollands Noorden wants to give schools the space to develop new solutions for issues that are prevalent throughout education: staff shortages, workload, and the organisation of good education. Michelle McDonnell states that the Education Region has developed a selection framework for this purpose that does not require extensive policy documents, but an approach from practice. ‘We truly try to think from the schools’ perspective. The cognitive load is already high enough. Therefore, we are keeping applications and accountability as simple as possible and aligned with the daily reality of schools.’
Practice-oriented research from within the schools themselves
The subsidy is intended for practice-oriented research, pilots and experiments that schools carry out themselves. This concerns initiatives that help to organise education more smartly, cooperate better or deal with scarcity. ‘We are looking for projects that really come from practice,’ says McDonnell. ‘So, no theoretical exercises, but questions that schools face daily. How do you organise education differently? How do you maintain quality with fewer people? How do you cooperate more smartly?’ To stimulate cross-governance cooperation, coalitions had to consist of a minimum of two and a maximum of three governing bodies. Funds have been made available per participating governing body.
Three projects selected
For the first subsidy round, five projects were submitted from eight boards. Ultimately, three projects were selected. ‘There was enough budget for ten boards,’ says Michelle. ‘But we had one strict requirement: it had to stimulate inter-board cooperation. Two projects were individual applications from a single board and therefore did not meet the submission requirements.’ The remaining budget remains available for the next round. ‘Because this was the first time, we also wanted to allow room for learning. That's why we provided substantive feedback to the initiators of rejected projects. In fact, we are trying to connect the initiators with other boards, because the research is promising and can be resubmitted in a next round.’
External selection committee
The assessment was carried out by an external selection committee consisting of Helma Oolbekkink-Marchand, Lecturer in Teacher Professionalism at Arnhem and Nijmegen University of Applied Sciences, Noor Hulskamp, project and programme manager at Onderwijsregio Midden Nederland Leert, and Jeroen van Waveren of JvW educational consultancy. ‘We deliberately chose education experts who are not involved in our own education region,’ explains McDonnell. ‘Helma because of her lectureship on teacher professionalisation, Noor because she has extensive experience with education regions and provides an outside perspective, and Jeroen because he has a lot of research experience, coaches teachers, and knows the schools well.’ A clear selection framework was used for the assessment. This included looking at innovation, managing scarcity, practice-based research, support, knowledge sharing, and boundary crossing: bridging boundaries between schools, teams, and organisations.
Featured Projects
Working together in Alkmaar
One of the selected projects focuses on collaboration between PCC, Jan Arentsz, and SOVON in Alkmaar. The three governing bodies are investigating how they can maintain a rich and future-proof educational offering for pupils in the region through more intensive cooperation. According to the selection committee, the strength lay primarily in the cross-governing-body collaboration and the retention of a broad VMBO (pre-vocational secondary education) offering. At the same time, the committee noted that the plans could be elaborated upon in more concrete terms, particularly concerning measurable outcomes and phasing.
AI as a support colleague
This project comes from SVOK, Talland College, and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and focuses on AI in education. The central question is whether AI can support teachers with lesson preparation, differentiation, and feedback, thereby reducing workload while keeping learning outcomes at least the same or improving them. The selection committee called the project highly innovative and particularly appreciated the concrete research design and collaboration between educational institutions and knowledge institutions. ‘What was strong about this was that AI wasn't seen as a standalone tool, but truly as part of how you organise education,’ says McDonnell. ‘At the same time, you also see how ambitious schools are. They want to design, implement, and research simultaneously.’
Anders organiseert in Schagen en Purmerend
The third selected project comes from Purmerends Scholen Groep and Pontis Onderwijsgroep. It investigates how education can be organised differently through a thematic two-year bridge class and a so-called 7+2 model. According to the selection committee, the strength lies primarily in the search for solutions to scarcity and the smarter organisation of education.
Learning together
All selected projects will run throughout the 2026/2027 academic year. In addition, participants will attend knowledge events within the education region, including the conference on 25 January. A new funding round will begin in June 2027, in which current participants will once again play a role. ‘We will start a kick-off for the next round, which begins in June 2027, as early as December of this year,’ says McDonnell. ‘Those currently involved will complete their programme in July 2027. They will provide inspiration for the start of group 2 with their acquired experience.’
According to McDonnell, this is precisely the strength of the innovation subsidy. ‘This subsidy is from our region and for our region. The school districts and schools participating in this round are not only learning within their own consortium, but also collaboratively within our professional learning community. This makes them true pioneers for our region. We also want the school districts and schools that have not yet submitted an application to indirectly benefit from the insights and experiences gained from this first round. This is new within our region and simultaneously demonstrates our strength: learning together, sharing knowledge, and mutually reinforcing each other, from and for each other.’