Chapter 4
Business Support
Success Stories of the
Dutch LSH sector
Dutch LSH sector
Zorginnovatie.nl
Connecting and accelerating healthcare innovations
ZorgInnovatie.nl is the national platform where Dutch innovators, healthcare professionals and investors can connect, share best practices and start partnerships. In this way, innovations in care and welfare are linked and accelerated.
Over 900 innovations are presented on the platform, varying from robotics to e-Health, but also self-care management, virtual reality, information exchange, and much more. Each innovation’s status is indicated to show whether a project is in the concept phase or already in the scaling-up phase.
900+
innovations are presented on Zorginnovatie.nl
Partners
In the near future, innovators will receive even more support in the further development of their innovation. The expertise of Health~Holland and its partners will be used to help the innovators with funding, networking and starting new collaborations.
In 2020, Zorginnovatie.nl started a new partnership with Menzis, a collaboration we are very proud of. As a health insurer, Menzis is always working on improving and innovating healthcare. This collaboration with Menzis will offer innovators new opportunities to accelerate the development of their innovations in healthcare.
In addition, Zorginnovatie.nl has a partnership with Boonstoppel Subsidie Advies, a company that supports innovators by providing valuable, no-obligation project screening and subsidy advice.
National Healthcare Innovation Prize
The National Healthcare Innovation Prize is an award for the most innovative company in the scale-up phase. Companies that have already developed, tested and launched their innovation can often use a little help to make their business a real success. That is why Zorginnovatie.nl, in collaboration with its partners, is awarding €15,000 euros to the best feasible and scalable Dutch innovations.
In 2020, TrueSim won the jury prize of €10,000. TrueSim offers healthcare professionals the opportunity to perform interactive and realistic simulation training using Augmented Reality (AR). The audience award of € 5,000 was won by Wolk Heupairbag, the airbag that ensures a soft landing when you fall and sends the location to a contact person.
In 2021, the sixth edition of the National Healthcare Innovation Prize was awarded during the online Health Valley Event on 11 March. Moovd won the jury prize of €10,000. Moovd develops and provides digital therapies in various segments of healthcare. The audience award of € 5,000 was won by Post-IC, a digital diary which promises a faster recovery after admission to the Intensive Care Unit.
*Zorginnovatie.nl is part of the Top Sector Life Sciences & Health (Health~Holland).
The Venture Challenge
2020 was a turbulent year for everyone, and for LifeSciences@Work this was no exception. It was the first year that the Venture Challenge was organised by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), and it started with the Venture Challenge Spring 2020 edition being postponed by three months due to the lockdown. Therefore, it became the first ever Venture Challenge “Summer” edition. Five startups were coached during workshops at Pivot Park and eventually the Venture Challenge finals could be held in person with 30 investors present during the Dutch Life Sciences Conference.
In the two successful Venture Challenge editions, nine promising startups were coached in building a strong business case for their venture. PacingCure and SLAM Orthopedic were announced as the proud winners of the Summer and Fall editions, respectively.
Two Venture Challenge editions are planned for 2021. The selection of candidates for the Spring edition is currently underway. Applications for the Venture Challenge Fall edition will open in early spring with the deadline in May.
Although no Expert Classes were organised in 2020, a new series of online expert classes is planned for the coming year. This will have a slightly adjusted set-up to better suit the online format, i.e., more frequent sessions but shorter in duration. A series of monthly sessions will be organised that alternate between educational and inspirational workshops.
In the Value Centre, the MedtechPartner foundation has been organising virtual MedtechPartner meetings and has started a new initiative called DigitalHealthPartner meetings. Besides the partnering meetings, the Value Voucher offers innovative entrepreneurs a discount on external advice concerning their development.
The MedtechPartner foundation has also been appointed as an “innovation broker”. In this role, they help entrepreneurs with innovation issues by using their specific knowledge, experience, and strong network in the LSH sector.
Two editions in 2021: Spring and Fall
Health Impact Accelerator
A new edition of the Health Impact Accelerator (HIA) is coming up! HIA is a programme that prepares participants to become social entrepreneurs. Over a ten-week period, the participating teams will work on their innovative ideas with our coaches’ help. They are introduced to the added value – and the challenges – of social entrepreneurship. During the events organised, they will meet other social entrepreneurs and learn from their experiences. Lastly, they will translate their idea into a solid business case and present this to investors during the closing event.
Previous winners
The winners of the 2019 and 2020 editions were Rehab Academy and LifeSight.me, respectively. Last year’s winner Natacha Villedieu-Silvestre, Finance Manager from LifeSight.me highly recommends taking part: ‘I was particularly satisfied with the progressive attitude, flexibility and pragmatism, together with a lot of knowledge and experience from our brilliant coaches’.
Apply now!
Do you have an innovative idea in the field of health and care? And do you want to turn this into a solid business case? Then sign up for the Health Impact Accelerator 2021! You can apply until 9 April 2021. Click here for more information.
Subsidy innovation brokers
for innovative SME
for innovative SME
Health~Holland supports entrepreneurs with a scheme that reimburses 50% of the costs of innovation brokers up to a maximum of €10,000. Innovation brokers address various activities that help entrepreneurs take the next step in their idea to innovate healthcare. They make their time available to advise SMEs about and coach them in different aspects, such as the development of a product, process or service and the realisation of a business case.
Furthermore, the entrepreneur gets support in obtaining funding for the medical technology’s development and certification. And last but not least, the innovation broker contributes to the connectivity of the network and links the right partners (for collaboration, such as healthcare, knowledge institutes, other companies and the government). In the past five years, over 500 SMEs with large and small questions have been supported through this scheme.
Expansion network organisations
In 2019, the goal was also to give regional innovation networks focused on the LSH sector a chance to use this arrangement. As a result of this, the arrangement has extended to five network organisations (Health Innovation Park, Health Valley, Healthy Ageing Network Northern Netherlands, LIME (Limburg Meet) and Slimmer Leven 2020). With this, innovators throughout the Netherlands can be supported with relevant knowledge and contacts.
500+
SMEs with large and small questions have been supported by the subsidy innovation brokers
Success story IMove
Health Innovation Park has helped IMove with their acceleration via the innovation brokers subsidy. IMove based in Vorden is for lifestyle professionals who mentor people in accomplishing their lifestyle goals. It helps these professionals to maximise the benefit of their mentoring by sharing their knowledge on behavioural change.
Victor Boldewijn started IMove a few years ago. ‘Lifestyle professionals are important health influencers. Often, these lifestyle professionals work closely with people who want to improve their health. Furthermore, they are up to date on the most important insights when it comes to nutrition and physical exercise. IMove adds knowledge about behavioural change to that.’
IMove provides educational programmes for lifestyle professionals who want to learn more about behavioural change. ‘We combine our knowledge on behavioural change and interview techniques with a broad experience in training groups of professionals. With our passion for sports and the conviction that a healthy lifestyle is essential to live your life vitally, we have all the ingredients to make people enthusiastic and to get the most out of guiding our clients’, says Boldewijn. IMove recently became a member of the Health Innovation Park (HIP).
