Introduction
Fhealinc is an initiative to support and stimulate business and educational institutes to initiate new ideas, services and products in the area of Food & Health. Fhealinc began because 4 neighbor institutions ( the universities of applied sciences AVANS and HAS Den Bosch, the Southern Agriculture- and Horticulture organisation ZLTO).
ZLTO and the Jeroen Bosch Hospital) discovered that they have more in common than apparently meets the eye at a first glance. Medical specialists, food and nutrition experts, advisors to the agricultural sector and businesspeople came together and discovered that they could share ideas, combine them and develop new projects and products that can be handed over to new business initiatives.
One already realizes that Food & Health are top priorities: we see more obesity, more health problems due to food allergies, a clear relation between food and other health problems (cholesterol, cancer, etc.). The educational institutes and the hospital together with the support institute for the agricultural sector decided to combine their efforts in the area of research, knowledge sharing and facility sharing to see if these combined efforts could mean new business for the region in and around ‘s-Hertogenbosch.
Unique cooperation: five partners
The Jeroen Bosch Hospital: one of the largest teaching hospitals in the Netherlands with 3900 employees, 240 medical specialists. Among the top specialties are: oncology, cardiovascular medicine, urology and IVF. The hospital has state of the art laboratory facilities, where more than 200 lab specialists work. The hospital stimulates applied scientific research: in 2007 the anesthesiologists received a prestigious Dutch innovation award for the APAD technique (pinpointing a spinal anesthetic by ultrasound).
HAS Den Bosch is the largest university of applied sciences dedicated to agricultural and food business, and numbers 1600 students with 350 graduates yearly. They procure 200 research contracts yearly for different private corporations. HAS Knowledge Transfer directs itself to combining applied knowledge to requests from the business community. Together with the University of Wageningen, Unilever, VION Food Group, Cargill and Biox Biosciences, HAS has founded the Anton Jurgens Institute, combinig Food, Health and Business creation.
The Southern Agriculture- and Horticulture organisation (ZLTO) has more than 18.000 members, all in the agricultural sector. The organization stimulates initiatives for innovation in food production to achieve durability for agriculture in our society. The ZLTO combines representation, business services and participation in order to support the goal of durable agriculture.
AVANS university of applied sciences is one of the fastest growing institutions, with venues in Breda, Tilburg and ‘s-Hertogenbosch. The college has an enrollment of 20.000 students and has 1900 faculty members. In ‘s-Hertogenbosch there are 7.000 students. AVANS has an Academy of Technology of Health and Environment and a specialty concerning Analytical techniques for Life Sciences.
The policy of the City of ‘s-Hertogenbosch is directed to stimulate successful economic growth by strengthening the already present economical activity within the city’s boundaries. The economics of the quality of life are important to city council, therefore they direct their policy to high quality health care, food, leisure and culture. They actively participate in the development of the business park in Willemspoort, in the vicinity off the other four partners.
Goals
Fhealinc (Food & Health Innovation Challenge) initiates idea’s on the crossroads of food & health, combining applied sciences with education and business prospects. Specialists working for the four partners combine their knowledge and research capabilities to find solutions for practical problems. At the same time they offer small business the facilities they have in order to get a good start in research and development.
Fhealinc’s goal is to initiate 15 concrete projects within the next 3 years. These projects subsequently must generate new economic impulses for the city and the region. At his moment, there are already five initiatives concerning: diabetes, obesity, allergies, MRSA bacteria and oncology.
Unique location
Four of the five partners in Fhealinc are literally neighbors. Together with the prospective of a new business park in the vicinity of the four partners, the Westertoren Innovation Center and the Anton Jurgens institute, there is ample room for new business initiatives. In the region around ‘s-Hertogenbosch and in the city itself, there are a large number of medical, pharmaceutical and biotechnical industries as well as industries for the production of food and foodstuffs.
Contact
Are you interested in the Fhealinc initiative or do you have any questions concerning this concept, please feel free to contact Ruud Hoosemans, Programmanager Fhealinc via e-mail Ruud Hoosemans.