Cross-overs

New NWO-Top Sector research programme ‘Building Blocks of Life’

A new public-private partnership research programme called ‘Building blocks of life’ has recently been launched. Collaborations between industry, knowledge institutions and social organizations are essential to undertake the large challenges that lie ahead in the area of life sciences. The NWO programme 'Building Blocks of Life' is truly cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral and provides the unique opportunity to shape the innovative Dutch landscape. The Netherlands holds a strong position in life sciences and this programme provides a great possibility for industry and science to jointly propel innovation to maintain and reinforce Dutch (knowledge)position in this dynamic and innovative field.

Challenging innovations

Our understanding of the molecular basis of life has increased dramatically through recent technological breakthroughs in physics, chemistry, biology, computer science and systems analysis of massive data files. In the coming years, the Building Blocks of Life program will integrate this knowledge to facilitate a decisive step in the fundamental understanding of the molecular building blocks comprising cellular systems and new application perspectives. Challenging innovations can be foreseen in many key areas: health care (e.g. personalized medicine), qualitatively and quantitatively improved food supply, sustainable crop production, hybrid techno-biological systems, new materials and intelligent robots based on neural networks, and organisms working under extreme circumstances. These innovations are crucial for the Dutch economic potential  and address important social issues. Emphasis will also be placed on the social impact and ethical reflection.


The long-term urgent challenges addressed with 'Building Blocks of Life' fit very well with the Knowledge and Innovation Agenda's of the participating Topsectors, Agri & Food, Chemicals, HTSM, Life Sciences & Health and Horticulture & Propagating stock. Furthermore, the questions addressed with this programme are well embedded in the Dutch National Science Agenda.

Industry and entrepreneurs are also invited to join!

Submission of research proposals

In the first quarter of 2016, NWO will publish the first call for proposals for interdisciplinary research proposals in the area of the understanding and design of building blocks of life. NWO provides an expected budget of M€ 10 to stimulate public-private partnerships. With this call NWO anticipates to realise excellent groundbreaking research by forming durable interdisciplinary research projects in collaboration with public and private partners.

Further details of the call for proposals will be announced at a later stage on the NWO website.


DRIVE 2014 was the official start of the crossover Create Health as collaboration of Top Sector Creative Industry and Top Sector Life Sciences & Health. Nowadays, the crossover contains a directive programme directed by the driving force UCREATE, and at the end of September the first call ‘Prolonged self-dependent functioning of patients with dementia’ was officially closed.

This years DRIVE Festival took place on 21 October and focused on the usability of self-management tools. A plenary session illustrated the top 5 barriers that hinder the development and implementation of E-health solutions. Co-creation and acceptation is an important obstacle. The idea for an E-health solution mainly arises within the healthcare system. However, it is really important to involve the creative industry at an early stage. The ability to market the product demands an early collaboration with the entrepreneurs. Secondly, the financing of the development seems to be difficult. Governmental instruments barely fit. When the prototype is developed the possibilities for scaling up are very limited. Additionally, poor financing possibilities restrict the right marketing strategy. Validation processes are not well suited to the E-health market. And due to the changing market a good business model with adequate revenues seems hard to realise. Traceability and accessibility of E-health solutions are also really important aspects for successful implementation on the market. The audience added sustainability to the list of barriers, since it seems effective to team up with large software companies to realise a sustainable market for the product. In conclusion, many obstacles need to be overcome to successfully implement an E-health solution on the market.

The day was closed with a call: people with knowledge about one of the obstacles mentioned or an interest in the developments concerning the obstacles are asked to make contact via createhealth@clicknl.nl