Launch of new innovation label Briskr strengthens the wide Nijmegen region
Since the 12th of October the Nijmegen region is enriched with Briskr, Health and High Tech Generator. This strong collaboration of Triple Helix parties improves the Life Sciences, Health & High Tech ecosystem. Briskr streamlines the variety of support programs for startups and SME’s. Even more, Briskr puts the wide Nijmegen region and its unique climate on the map. Briskr picks up on the strong developments and natural strengths of the regional Health & High Tech Sectors.
Fortify and streamline
“The direct reason for this collaboration is the diverse landscape of innovation-stimulating initiatives”, says Rikus Wolbers, program manager of Briskr. “By bundling these activities, we offer the ecosystem better support activities and we can strengthen the Health & High Tech industry.” Briskr is the result of a period of mutual preparation; the launch on October 12th is a milestone for all the involved parties. Besides the alignment of support activities, Briskr also invests in profiling the region, especially the high regarded competences of the combined innovative companies, knowledge institutions and research facilities.
Briskr Academy
John Schalken is manager Business Support. He is, among other things, responsible for the Briskr Academy. “The Briskr Academy offers a coherent package of workshops, coaching and consultations hours and other business development related activities. Entrepreneurs can enroll and improve their skills in fields like financial management, subsidies, intellectual property or product creation. It’s possible to sign up once, or to follow a complete series of activities.”
Shared use of facilities
One of the big advantages of the Briskr consortium is the possibility to use the available know-how and facilities. All the network partners grant access to their specific knowledge, equipment and other facilities. According to Rikus Wolbers this is very important because businesses often are not aware of the possibilities the knowledge institutions and research facilities can offer. “Bridging the gap between science and business is one of our main fields of attention and stimulation. There are beautiful opportunities to enroll research project on the campuses of Radboud University, Radboud University Medical Centre and HAN University of Applied Sciences. We are going to highlight these possibilities and connect the parties proactively.”
Impact on Health & High Tech
John Schalken emphasizes the goal of Briskr. “To have an significant impact on Health & High Tech. The Nijmegen area has a strong foundation in the semiconductor industry with multinationals like Ampleon, Nexperia and NXP. Moreover innovative healthcare is embedded in a strong environment because of Radboud University Medical Centre and the diversity of startups emerging from this academic environment. The only way to increase the impact is to help these sectors grow even more. This means we want to attract new companies, and to let the current ones grow even faster than they are doing now. Retaining the knowledge-intensive employees is essential to ensure growth now and in the future.”
About the Briskr consortium
Parties active in the so-called Triple Helix founded Briskr. The main partners are the Municipality of Nijmegen, Health Valley Netherlands, Kadans Science Partner, Novio Tech Campus, East Netherlands Development Agency (OostNL), the Province of Gelderland, Radboud University, Radboud University Medical Centre (Radboudumc) and SMB Life Sciences. Associate partners like Business Cluster Semiconductors, Rabobank Rijk van Nijmegen and The Economic Board enrich these parties. On October 12th Briskr has been launched during an event revolving around ‘Impact on Health & High Tech’ with the former mayor of Eindhoven, Rob van Gijzel.
Source: Novio Tech Campus
