For sure! On top of the fine weather, the Dutch Cabinet decided for the years to come to invest in a mission oriented innovation policy via four societal challenges: “Energy & Sustainability”, “Agriculture, Water & Food”, “Security” and, last but not least, “Health and Care”. Here the Ministry of Health was asked to provide this challenge with a clear mission, to be produced no later than coming winter and to be ratified subsequently by the Cabinet.

A quest that this Ministry will pick up, in joint coalition with the Top Sector Life Sciences & Health. To be honest: that’s a privilege, for all of us in the Top Sector for sure. But in the same time it is a heavy duty, with quite a bit of responsibilities to take into account when bearing in mind the demands of society – 17.250.243 citizens, according to the CBS-site at noon the 27^th – and the obligation of the sector to further potentiate our economy. A responsibility that urges an ‘all hands on deck’-strategy, both with respect to strategy building as well as its execution thereafter.

As like our three companion-societal challenges focussing on argumentative or, for the public at large, even ‘no-brainer’ transition-themes as ‘food for all’, ‘climate control’ and ‘safety’, the challenge of health and care likewise really demands for transition of the healthcare system in order to safeguard its affordability, quality and accessibility for the decades to come: all of this despite the increase of life expectancy and the rise of the number of people with chronic diseases. No sinecure at all, taken in to account the many stakeholders and partners of the sector and the many – approximately 17.251.273 million – opinions of Dutch citizens that make use of it.

But be aware, we as a sector did a fine job the former decades. We built up a system that was and still is internationally recognised as ‘one of the best’. Our researchers possess outstanding positions in all kind of indexes and serve the public with open access as much as possible. Our solidarity and public-private cooperation is recognised as recommendable worldwide. Consequently, based on our history and current position, I feel that we are up to this mission, in close companionship with all our fellow citizens – 17.253.119 by the 28^ht of September. I consider this trajectory coming months as an obligation and I hope you will all join us spending all your intelligent generosity hereto.