The Netherlands provides a rich combination of advanced research centers, supportive government policies, and a culture that fulfills the aspirations of advanced knowledge workers. With programs like the National Genomics Initiative (strengthening and concentrating the life sciences R&D infrastructure in the Netherlands around centers of excellence, www.genomics.nl), Technopartner (helping start-ups, www.technopartner.nl) and recently started public-private partnership research programs on tissue engineering, biomaterials (www.biomedicalmaterialsprogram.nl), food & flowers, stem cells, translational molecular medicine (www.ctmm.nl) and pharma (www.tipharma.nl), the Netherlands is on the cutting edge of research and development (R&D) efforts in the life sciences sector. Dutch R&D activities in the natural and engineering sciences rank among the most productive and influential in the world as well. Over 60,000 researchers work in Dutch companies, universities and research institutes.
The Dutch government takes an active approach in encouraging technological innovation with a wide range of subsidies open to both Dutch and foreign-owned companies in the Netherlands, see www.senternovem.nl/english/Products_Services/Encouraging_Innovation/index.asp. To encourage pre-competitive industrial research, the government has set up several Top Technology Institutes, comprised of a network of specialists across disciplines from universities and industry.
The Dutch government supports R&D-activities in various ways. Foreign-owned or affiliated companies participate in the same incentives as Dutch-owned companies and can apply for various types of tax credits and subsidies for joint research between universities and the private sector. Legislation and partial funding for industrial research is coordinated through the Ministry of Economic Affairs and/or the Ministry whose field of competence pertains to the project (e.g. the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Nature Management). Partly supported by the government, research institutes can also apply for a variety of grants from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research or they can form contracts with the business community.
The HollandBioDelta is the perfect location for life sciences companies with global aspirations. The Netherlands has an extraordinary portfolio of biotech assets: Holland is home to over 400 life sciences companies, eighteen colleges and universities with extensive expertise in biotechnology, nanotechnology, medical and agricultural sciences and a host of long-established government and public/private research institutions. With such a convergence of high tech "Centers of Excellence," it is not surprising that the HollandBioDelta has been home to major research advances. For more facts & figures see www.hollandbiotechnology.nl
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Come and Meet the Dutch at the HollandBioDelta Pavilion