On 23 February 2017, the Life Sciences & Health Hub was officially launched. The hub is a Living Lab and offers the opportunity to entrepreneurs, scientists and healthcare institutions to find each other, to develop new life sciences & health (LS&H) innovations together and to experience and test these with patients and clients.
The hub is an initiative of Erasmus MC, the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship (ECE), LIFE Rotterdam Consortium and the Municipality of Rotterdam.
In Rotterdam more than 100 life sciences and health companies are located according to recent research*. Not surprising, with knowledge institutions as Erasmus MC and Erasmus University Rotterdam. It makes Rotterdam one of the biggest LS&H networks in the Netherlands.
“As municipality we are very happy with the launch of the hub; the Life Sciences & Health sector is a big employer in the city and also one of the most important economic sectors for Rotterdam. The hub contributes to the innovation and development in the Rotterdam healthcare and medical science. I think it’s great that entrepreneurs, scientists and the people from Rotterdam can now come together in a physical location to develop and experience innovations,” says Maarten Struijvenberg, alderman of Employment and Economics of the Municipality of Rotterdam.
“With the Technology Transfer Office of the Erasmus MC we support mainly scientists, but also employees in the medical sector (e.g. a nurse), with an innovative idea. Ideas range from a new medicine to a ‘car-wash’ for hospital beds. We help protect the knowledge, look for cooperation partners and the right funding to launch a product to the market or bring it to patients’ homes. One of those ways is by starting a new venture; these startups are facilitated in the incubator and now also in the new Life Sciences & Health Hub,” says Thijs Spigt, director of Erasmus MC TTO.
“The Life Sciences & Health Hub comes to live with programmes, such as our Get Started programme in which early-stage entrepreneurs with ideas in the LS&H area are supported to turn their ideas into an actual business and scale it. Not only startups but also established SME companies are involved with programmes in the Life Sciences & Health Hub; for example with the Health Innovation Challenge societal challenges in Rotterdam are taken on,” says Martin Luxemburg, director of the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship.
During the masterclasses after the plenary part of the programme the more than 450 visitors could get to know the already more than 30 connected organisations in the LS&H Hub network, check their health during the Health Event and test medical innovations in the ‘Living Room of the Future’.
The Life Sciences & Health Hub is located in the Rotterdam Science Tower on the 9th floor at the ECE Campus. More information about the Life Sciences & Health Hub can be found at www.lsh-hub.org
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Maaike van Zuilen, maaike@philogirl.nl / M: 06 456 32 117