Dutch-American healthcare collaboration to link two top innovation regions
CITRIS and the Banatao Institute, Medical Delta and InnovationQuarter, premier international organisations in the digital health space, have signed an agreement to expand joint education, research and business development. The partners intend to develop joint efforts in the areas of disease prevention, lifestyle interventions, health care technologies (such as eHealth applications) and the application of new methodologies in the area of big data. In addition to this, strategies will be deployed to involve young companies in the Bay Area and in Medical Delta in this joint innovation ecosystem. The MoU was signed in the presence of the Dutch Minister of Education and Science, Jet Bussemaker, as part of a ceremony that took place at the UC Berkeley campus in Berkeley, California.
The American and Dutch parties enter this collaboration in the fields of Life Sciences, Health and Technologies for a period of five years. Mutually beneficial research will be initiated and collaboration will be strengthened by the exchange of academic staff as well as entrepreneurs. This collaboration is premised on the philosophy that growth of academic knowledge goes hand in hand with the development and acceleration of business. To achieve this goal, the collaborating organizations will establish interdisciplinary research and business networks regarding digital health, medical technology, hospital to home, and precision medicine. The first research exchanges are planned for this summer.
“We are pleased to begin collaborating with Medical Delta and InnovationQuarter to advance important and timely work in digital health,” stated Costas Spanos, Director of CITRIS and the Banatao Institute. “This relationship connects leading researchers and entrepreneurs in the California and the Netherlands to generate impactful solutions for society.”
“This agreement means good news on several levels,” Menno Kok PhD, Director of Medical Delta, stated. “InnovationQuarter as the regional development company for South-Holland and Medical Delta have teamed up to bring knowledge and application together. This partnership is now connected to one of the worlds epicenters of innovation in Silicon Valley. Our transatlantic link strengthens both regions and supports the Medical Delta’s goal to become the most innovative part of Europe.”
Rinke Zonneveld, Director InnovationQuarter, agrees that “aligning West Holland’s best-performing institutes and companies via hub-to-hub connections with CITRIS at UC Berkeley and Medical Delta perfectly fits our long-term ambition to strengthen the regional knowledge economy through strategic international partnerships.” The relationship builds on InnovationQuarter’s existing Canada-Netherlands Cyber and Security Technologies Soft Landing Platform for cybersecurity companies with Invest Ottawa in Canada.
It is the parties’ intention to develop long-term collaborative efforts to advance health technology research and innovation in Europe and the United States. Building on the three-party collaboration with common goals and milestones will lead to synergistic opportunities to develop game-changing health care technology solutions. The parties will seek additional resources to sustain this program and will by joint decision engage other parties to join this collaborative effort between California’s Bay Area region and the Dutch region of South-Holland.
Source: Medical Delta
