Life Sciences and Healthcare is a priority sector under bilateral collaboration between India and the Netherlands. The Healthcare sector in India is growing at a fast pace because of increase in insurance penetration, growth in services and increasing expenditure by public as well as private players. Growing market opportunities in India, combined with the Netherlands’ strengths in areas such as Therapeutics & Vaccines, Diagnostics, Medtech and E-Health create excellent opportunities for partnerships that address shared societal challenges with smart solutions. Making India, a valuable partner for the Dutch Life Sciences & Healthcare Sector.
The affordability and accessibility of healthacre remains at the core of of partnerships between Indian and the Dutch stakeholders. In 2016, The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)/The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research & Development (ZonMW) and Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India launch a joint call for proposals on the theme ‘Technology for a Sustainable Healthcare: Minimally invasive techniques’. The joint call has resulted in funding of three Indo-Dutch projects that are dedicated to developing sustainable healthcare systems. Two of these projects are from consortium partners in Bangalore, who are also involved in another initiative between the Government of Karnataka, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) & Taskforce for Applied Research (SIA) called Living Lab.
RVO, SIA and Govt. of Karnataka signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) during the visit of Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade, Sigrid Kaag and Dutch Minister for Medical Care, Bruno Bruins to Bangalore in May 2018 to set up Living Lab in Bangalore with the objective to ‘improve access to affordable healthcare via means of eHealth & medical devices’. Living Lab is a growing ecosystem that connects government, industry and academia to co-create innovative solutions for shared societal challenges.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Gert Heijkoop, Consul-General of the kingdom of the Netherlands in Bangalore said “The state of Karnataka is a valuable partner for the Netherlands, especially in innovation ecosystems. After the MoU was signed between The Hague and the state of Karnataka in 2016, the two sides have worked diligently over the last few years in building partnerships for societal impact. Living Lab is one such example, which we believe will result in creating affordable solutions for sustainable healthcare in both India as well as the Netherlands”.
