Life Sciences & Health in the Netherlands

The Netherlands is home to a vibrant, concentrated Life Sciences Health cluster with more than 2200 life science and MedTech companies and research organisations, all within a 120-mile radius.  As such it is the most geographically concentrated region in the world when it comes to creating economic and social value in Life Sciences and Health. The excellent medical research infrastructure is strongly focused on translational research in different medical fields including infection and immunology of animal and man. Worldwide, the Netherlands ranks 6th and 8th in life sciences and health citations and patents, respectively.

Within the Netherlands, 10 universities, 8 university medical centers and 3 technological universities are active in R&D of antimicrobial solutions (Figure 2). In nationwide public-private R&D programmes these research organizations cooperate in different niches such as identification and lead optimization of new antibiotics and alternative therapies (NACTAR programme), bacterial vaccine technology development (Bac Vactory programme), and point-of-care diagnostics (ZonMW antimicrobial resistance programme). In addition, active participation of many of these institutes is seen in European-funded R&D programmes. In particular, a prominent role is being played by the Netherlands in the IMI-funded program NewDrugs4BadBugs, in which amongst others a European clinical infrastructure for anti-infectives efficacy testing is being established (COMBACTE project). Also a number of H2020 programmes are running focused on antibiotic development and production (SynPeptide; Rafts4Biotech).

Universities, university medical centers, and technological universities active in R&D of antimicrobial solutions in the Netherlands. Abbreviations: Academic Medical Center Amsterdam (AMC), Erasmus Medical Center (EMC), Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), Leiden University (LU), Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), Radboud University Nijmegen (RU), Radboud University Medical Center (RUMC),Technical University Delft (TUD), Technical University Eindhoven (TU/e), University Groningen (RUG), University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), University Medical Center Maastricht (MUMC+), University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU), University Twente (UT), University of Amsterdam (UvA), Utrecht University (UU), VU University Amsterdam (VU), VU University Medical Center (VUmc), Wageningen University and Research centre (WUR), Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR).