Warm welcome for
Prof. Dr. Nico van Meeteren
At the 1st of February, Nico van Meeteren will start his position as the Executive Director and Secretary General of the Dutch Topsector Life Sciences and Health. We look forward to welcoming him to the team!
“To me Health and Healthcare both can be considered as one of the success-stories of the modern western world. Frontrunner in this respect has been and still is the Dutch healthcare setting, as we Dutch made steps to replace “I” into “We”, thereby gradually turning the individual Illness-approach to a community Wellness-approach. In order to continue and even extend this success, the Topsector Life Sciences and Health - in partnership with many - will preferably foster innovative and mostly integrated products and services, initiated via co-creation by regional coalitions. Thereupon the Topsector will help these coalition-partnerships to maximize their return of investment by, on the one hand, facilitation of nationwide implementation and, on the other hand, providing means for their profitable export abroad.”
Life Sciences and Health in essence is about people; about peoples’ functioning in today’s dynamic society. And health, their health is the most important prerequisite for their functioning. With our Dutch mentality we are able to combine efforts and interests of people, business, politics and knowledge institutes and still keep patients and their needs as a starting point. As a former physiotherapist and neuroscientist in the long term care facility (Driemaasstede) and the acute care setting (UMC Utrecht), as well as up until recently as a Director of Innovation within TNO, that is what still drives me: to fuel people and their functioning and protect them from (the consequences of) diseases. Complex innovations as the perioperative “Better in, Better out”-concept and systems approaches in Livings labs like “Economie071” and “Vitaal Vechtdal” may be a few of the examples of the work I was involved in.
At the Topsector LSH, I hope to contribute to the expansion of such partnerships and programs. With the various efforts that have been made the past couple of years, I strongly believe in the added value of the topsector. I look forward to work together with existing partners, such as the Health Foundations, the Dutch LSH alliance and TNO. Furthermore, I hope to establish new contacts and lay foundations for new partnerships. Financial means might be limited, but the power of partnering is not.
Wishing all of you and all of us success, I look forward to meeting many of you the coming time.
Kind regards,
Nico van Meeteren
Topsector LSH as Health Holland
As part of the internationalisation strategy, the Topsector LSH developed an (inter)national branding aligned with the Holland Branding. We are happy to present to you ‘Health Holland’, not only to promote the Dutch life Sciences sector as one strong brand, but also a toolkit that can be used by all who represent the sector. The branding is developed together with many important stakeholders from the sector and in close cooperation with the Ministries of Economic Affairs, Welfare and Sports and Foreign Affairs and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. In 2015 we will further develop materials for this toolkit.
Find the toolkit at: lifescienceshealth.com
What brings 2015?
With much energy and enthusiasm we will set further steps to ensure the Dutch LSH sector to be a global frontrunner. The topteam and ‘regiegroep’ of the topsector will continue building on partnerships and we proceed with our international efforts.
Under guidance of Len de Jong from the topteam, the Dutch LSH alliance drafted a plan with priority countries. With the Health Holland branding we will continue our communication efforts. We will update the Innovation Contract, focusing on the 5 priorities of the topsector. Furthermore, with for instance a second Impulse call and the simplification of the TKI-allowance, we will provide as much financing as we can.
We look forward to a bright and collaborative future!