SME Call thematic track: Labor-saving Technology

To stimulate this collaboration, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) has initiated the Medtech Breakthrough Pilot. Within this pilot, VWS, Health Holland, ZonMw, NWO, Regieorgaan SIA, RVO, and Holland High Tech are working together on a coherent package of instruments to accelerate the development, validation, and implementation of labor-saving medical technology.

One of these instruments is the Labor-Saving Technology Track within the Health~Holland PPS SME Call 2027. This thematic track encourages public-private partnerships between SMEs, knowledge institutions, and healthcare organizations to further develop innovative medical technology that can demonstrably contribute to saving labor in Dutch healthcare. In this track, Health~Holland and the Ministry of VWS are jointly making €4.5 million in PPS funding available. 

Why participate in this call? 

The Labor-Saving Technology track of the SME Call offers consortia the opportunity to take the next step in the development and validation of innovative LSH products and services that address a concrete healthcare issue. The focus is on ensuring the innovation demonstrably contributes to net labor savings within the care process, focusing on one of the following three themes:

• AI and data-supported triage and diagnostics
• Smart alarming, remote monitoring, and digital care interaction
• Technological support for care processes

With the help of substantial PPS funding, Dutch companies and research organizations can jointly carry out R&D activities to accelerate the development of these promising innovations in the Netherlands.

Who is this call for? 

The SME Call is aimed at consortia consisting of at least one for-profit Dutch company and one Dutch research organization. The lead applicant must be a company based in the Netherlands.

Within this thematic track focused on labor-saving technology, healthcare organizations are strongly encouraged to participate in the public-private partnership so that development and validation are as closely aligned as possible with the needs and practices of the healthcare sector.

How much funding can the consortium apply for? 

Between €225,000 and €450,000 in PPS funding can be requested per project. Both companies and research organizations can claim this funding, subject to the applicable financial conditions. Co-financing by the consortium partners is required.

Some important conditions for participation: 

• The consortium must consist of at least one for-profit company and one research organization.
• The lead applicant must be a for-profit company based in the Netherlands. 
• Dutch SMEs wishing to use PPS funding must declare in the full application that they are not an "undertaking in difficulty."
• A mandatory consortium agreement template applies. Only minimal changes to this template are permitted. The consortium must be aware of the agreements in this document, particularly those regarding intellectual property.
• The project has a minimum duration of 1 year and a maximum duration of 2 years.
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• The project consists of industrial research and/or experimental development (TRL4-7).

• Dutch SMEs may apply for a maximum of €150,000 in PPP subsidy per project year.
• Dutch research organizations may apply for a maximum of €150,000 in total in PPP subsidy per project.
• Organizations involved in validation activities within a healthcare setting, such as hospitals or other care providers, are strongly encouraged to participate in these public-private partnership projects. The costs for the involvement of such organizations may be included in the project budget and may collectively amount to a maximum of 25% of the total project budget.

Full application deadline: November 20, 2026; 5:00 PM CET‍

All required documents can be found below.

The link to the submission portal will be published no later than October 1.

⚠️ Please note: The SME call is a popular and competitive grant scheme. Due to the high number of applications and limited resources, an assessment procedure with a pre-selection phase is used. Health~Holland intends to allow a maximum of 28 projects to proceed to the full substantive assessment phase and expects to be able to fund approximately 13 projects based on the available budget.

⚠️Declaration of non-undertaking in difficulty (UID): According to the definition within current laws and regulations, Dutch companies applying for a grant under the SME Call must not be an undertaking in difficulty. Your company must not be a UID at the time of submission. You can demonstrate this by providing a non-UID declaration and supporting documentation. This declaration can be obtained by completing the decision tree on the RVO website.

⚠️ Please note: submitting a similar proposal to the Science for Industry Call 2026 (full application deadline September 22, 2026) is not permitted.

Read the full call for proposals 
The full call for proposals with all details can be found below. For further questions, please contact tki@health-holland.com.

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