Foreword
By Len de Jong
As no other country The Netherlands recognizes the importance and impact of trade, knowledge exchange and foreign investments for the Dutch economy and society. Internationalization is essential for realizing the ambitious missions of the mission-driven top sectors and innovation policy of the Dutch government. The Netherlands, as Europe’s connected life sciences and health metropolis, has a lot to offer to the world and possesses a favorable innovation ecosystem and business climate for foreign companies.
The past years, the Internationalization strategy of Top Sector Life Sciences & Health (LSH), also known under the name Health~Holland, focused on an in-depth approach to further support developments and create opportunities for the Dutch economy and society.
The Dutch LSH-sector received an additional boost with the relocation of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to our country in 2019. Due to the strategically significant geographical location of the Netherlands, we are also known as “the Gateway to Europe”.
the Gateway
to Europe
Innovation and collaboration
Besides, in our continuing commitment to stimulate innovation, the National Growth Fund was launched by the Rutte IV administration in 2020 to support sustainable economic growth and future prosperity. This twenty-billion-euro investment is designed to encourage public and private partners to collaborate on coordinated and targeted research. I am proud of the successful outcomes this National Growth Fund has already created in its first three rounds. Examples such as RegMedXB, Health-RI, the Biotech Booster and Oncode-PACT show how the National Growth Fund directly benefits the sector, not only in the Netherlands but in the rest of Europe and beyond.
Furthermore, strong collaborations have been built by the introduction of Memoranda of Understanding (MoU’s), in which two countries sign a testimony to a strategic main topic of life sciences, laying the basis for a bilateral partnership. A successful example is the Transatlantic Life Sciences Partnership with Massachusetts. This was even strengthened by the signature of the Program of Cooperation (a follow-up of the earlier aspirations of the MoU). Recently, the bond between Sweden and the Netherlands got also strengthened by the signature of four MoU’s, and the collaboration with Texas Medical Centre is also confirmed through the Launch of TMC Netherlands BioBridge.
The role of missions
To provide focus and direction for social, scientific, and business innovation processes the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, formulated missions under an overarching central mission for the societal theme Health & Care, one of the four themes within the nationwide mission driven innovation and transformation policy. Various missions explicitly provide opportunities in the field of international cooperation. For example, successes within the new fifth Mission (In 2035, the population will be better protected against socially disruptive health threats)
are highly dependent on solid international cooperation between countries and their public and private parties, as was also apparent during the COVID pandemic. There are also opportunities for Mission IV (By 2030, quality of life of people with dementia will have improved by 25%)
to learn in an international context from countries that find themselves in an explosive demographic situation in which double aging occurs at the maximum of the system. In recent years, much has been exchanged in this context by us with countries such as Singapore, China and Japan.
Support of the LSH-sector
Entrepreneurs who want to export their innovations can rely on a lot of support from the Top Sector, in collaboration with the private partners Task Force Health Care and HollandBIO. Think about information on various international markets, visits to foreign countries, trade fairs, etc. Besides, to promote R&D cooperation worldwide, Top Sector LSH has established the program ‘Health~Holland International (HHINT) Kickstarter for public-private partnerships, a financial instrument for early partnerships between the Netherlands and non-European countries.
In this magazine..
In this magazine you will read more about the LSH developments in an international context. This magazine covers topics including: how are we building the international ecosystem, how is internationalization being stimulated and examples of international cooperation.
Enjoy reading!
- Len de Jong,
Team member Top Sector Life Sciences & Health and CEO Enraf-Nonius BV
