Research & Development

AWTI’s advice letter on Top Sector approach

The Advisory Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (AWTI) advises the Dutch government and parliament on policy in the areas of scientific research, technological development andinnovation. In 2014 AWTI wrote a report on the Balance of the Top Sectors and submitted it to the Dutch Parliament. The AWTI will publish a new report in 2016. However, in an advice letter to the government ministries it has already suggested some improvements.

‘Stay focused on the continuous development of the Top Sector approach’

First of all, AWTI starts its letter with an expression of appreciation for the increased MIT budget, greater involvement of the regions and universities of applied sciences, and the growing number of enterprises involved. The Top Sector approach addresses the economic growth and the societal challenges the Netherlands has to deal with. Attention for societal challenges like the aging population and climate change is growing each year.


Second, in addition to these societal challenges, AWTI emphasises the increasing attention for cross-sectoral themes. In response to AWTI's advice letter, Minister Kamp and State Secretary Dekker stated that Top Sector LSH's commitment provides good examples of cross-sectoral collaboration. For instance in close contact with Top Sector Creative Industry, Top Sector LSH addresses E-health for people with dementia.

Another example is the crossover with Top Sector High Tech Systems & Materials aimed at medical technology R&D. However, financing these and several other cross-sectoral themes seems to be difficult. The council therefore advises allocating such funding for the Top Sectors in larger portions to address a carefully chosen social issue. The Top Sectors will therefore need to choose their issues wisely. An example is the connection between Top Sector LSH and the Ministry of Health Welfare and Sport via the new Health Deals instrument launched by Minister Schippers on 16 November 2015.

 

Third, AWTI states that the TKI Allowance is not attractive for companies. AWTI therefore suggests simplifying the deployment of the TKI Allowance or increasing the TKI investment percentages from this instrument so that the TKI instrument, as well as its rules and regulations, are more attractive.

 

Over the next few years Top Sector LSH will work on these and several other focus points together with the AWTI.


Read the Letter of AWTI

Read the response of Minister Kamp and State Secretary Dekker

24 September, The Hague 


The exiting developments within the Life Sciences and Health sector appeal to a large audience. Emerging technologies and products are therefore attracting attention through various media and social media channels. The coverage stretches from the highly praising to doom scenarios. During this Biotech Thursday, we will discuss the power of publicity and how to deal with the media if you are active in the life sciences sector. Speakers include Wim Leereveld (funder and CEO of the Access to Medicine Index) and Hidde Boersma (freelance science journalist and ecomodernist). Biotech Thursday is an initiative of HollandBIO, the Dutch biotechnology industry organisation.

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Interested in attending? This Biotech Thursday event will take place at the Humanity House in The Hague on 24 September at 15:00 hours. HollandBIO members can attend the event for free. The fee for non-members is 35 euros (taxes excluded). Contact HollandBIO for more information or register directly. 

The ZonMw Medische Inspirator will be awarded to the project idea that has the most inspiring collaboration between patient and researcher aimed at improving the life of a patient. The topic for this years’ prize is Regenerative Medicine and Gene Therapy. The winning team gets € 50.000,-. The general public is now invited to vote!

The top three projects each have a three minute video on-line at Facebook ‘Patient zoekt onderzoeker’.  It is easy to vote! Just go to the Facebook page and cast your vote by liking one of the videos there. Voting is possible until noon on the 1st of December 2015. These votes determine the prize outcome for 50%, the other 50% is determined by jury votes that will be revealed during the prize ceremony on the 10th December 2015 in Nijmegen as part of the Date-2-Innovate.

The Date-2-Innovate is a networking event for patients, industry and research that is organized by the VSOP in collaboration with ZonMw. The aim of the event is to involve patients (end-users) at an early stage in the development of medical products. For more details about this matchmaking event, including the program, visit the website.

On 29 November the official Dutch Science Agenda will be launched. This festive announcement is part of the EUREKA! festival at the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam.

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In the spring of this year everyone in the Netherlands had the opportunity to send their research question to a committee. That resulted in 11.700 questions. During the summer the questions were clustered and an action plan was written. The final list will be officially announced at the end of November during the EUREKA! Festival. The festival will bring the research questions to life by means of exciting experiments, tests, seminars and movies. Go to the EUREKA! website for the programme and tickets.


Visit the Dutch Science Agenda website for the latest updates.