Welcome to Business Development Friesland.

A Dutch region with great economic, international and social capacity is only in an hour’s drive from Amsterdam. We are talking about Friesland, the region where the BDF team works every day to connect and support companies, schools and knowledge.

BDF for business

Do you have a great idea for a new business or trying to expand to other markets? We’ve got you covered!

BDF for education

Young people are the future, and it is up to us to provide them with best education as possible. BDF is taking on many projects that try to do just that. Interested?

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BDF for government

Partnering up with governments in order to develop, optimise and execute policy measures is one of the abilities we pride ourselves for. Take a look on how we do it!

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BDF

It was the year 2002 when Lennard Drogendijk, director of Business Development Friesland, started the first activities. Today BDF is an international project management agency with a team of 6 employees. We work with people and organizations in the region and help them grow. Whether you are a company, a school or a government, we can support you in realizing economic, international or social ambitions.

In 2010, we set up the incubator in Leeuwarden (Inqubator Leeuwarden) with support from the Province of Fryslân, municipality of Leeuwarden, two colleges and two vocational schools. The Inqubator is a place for (student) startups to develop their own business, but also a hotspot in Friesland for MBO and HBO/WO students, startups and professionals to learn entrepreneurial skills in the broadest sense of the word.

We are involved in the most important education and business programs in the region and have carefully set up our network to become what we are today: specialist in education and business support in the province of Friesland and beyond.

Location full of potential

Leeuwarden is the capital of the Dutch province of Friesland. It is a compact city with 108,000 inhabitants, surrounded by beautiful varied scenery and the starting and finishing line for the world famous “Eleven cities” ice-skating tour. Leeuwarden was also the European Capital of Culture in 2018.

The Frisian capital has a historic center, numerous national monuments, a range of delicious and surprising shops and inviting terraces. The city is one of the modern paradoxes: a city that respects its past and at the same time looks to the future by investing in research, development and IT. A city in the countryside, where students, families and elderly residents feel at home and where companies find the space they need to grow and develop.

A highlight of the projects we do

UnicornQuest Government

In 2021, Europe witnessed the birth of 85 "Unicorns", new technology companies worth $1 billion or more. Unfortunately,

LEADER Scale-Up Education

After the success of LEADER several years ago, it became clear that there are many more possibilities

Growth game Education

How much do you believe that intelligence is fixed? Growth Game aims to make young people believe in the Growth Mindset

DIGITOUR Business

The destinations of traditional tourism countries are hives of SMEs which produce tourism services ranging from

ITs4Women Business

Did you know women are only for 20% represented as it comes to founding companies? And only 15,6% of the (Dutch) people

Plastic Value Business

In PlasticValue we want to prepare current and future professionals, in particular those in innovation, production or

Entrust Business

ENTRUST is a training & development programme where people aged 50+ will be supported

YoPeVa Entrepeneur Business

Increasing the number of young people that takes on entrepreneurship

Intercultural Hotel Business

This project will assess the intercultural competences of the hospitality managers and employees