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Hi. I'm Clémence Ross and I'm the ambassador for the action program:
New chances for the Life Sciences and Health Top Sector.
This is an action program that is a result...
of the working together from all the stakeholders in the field of Life Sciences and Health...
to be able to make Life Sciences and Health stronger in the Netherlands...
to make ourselves seen better in the world...
and of course to be in the Champions League of Life Sciences and Health...
because that's what we want.
A couple of years ago, we became very much aware of the fact...
that we have beautiful clusters in Amsterdam, Leiden...
in twelve and more places in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands is very small, you know. In the world, it's like a post stamp.
It's like one city of 17 million people.
But we have a lot of clusters that really have good profiles.
But we did not seem to have a Dutch profile of Life Sciences and Health.
So we became very much aware of the fact that we needed that...
to show in the world what the Netherlands is really about.
And how we work. Not only what we do, but we do it in a specific way.
We have tried to pronounce our national proposition with the whole field of stakeholders...
in an ecosystem dialogue. From academia to farmer, everybody was engaged. Hospitals.
And the ministries, of course. Economic Affairs and Climate...
and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports.
So we all worked together and we also defined actions...
that could make our Life Sciences and Health system stronger.
So now we are at the tipping point of some of these actions...
to carry them out and to say: We're going to do that and we need each other.
It was a very nice process.
And of course, for academia these actions are very important.
Because it means that we are going to try to find out how we can bring research to the patient...
or to the market.
Of course, that's why we're doing it. We all are doing this work for the patient.
Well, for example, it's very important to see how we can best connect...
with the European Medicines Agency.
And we, of course, in the Netherlands have our own system...
which works very well. We can trust our medicines and therapies.
But we are part of Europe.
So it's so important that we have a very good connection with EMA.
So as an ambassador myself, I had some encounters with Emer Cooke.
And there's a couple of people whom I work with very closely, from academia...
and from institutions like the CBG...
to see how we can make this connection work better.
For example in the field of rare diseases, ATMPs, real world data.
And how we can connect our incubator status in the Netherlands of beautiful things that we do...
to the needs of Europe and the demands of all the patients in Europe and outside Europe.
So that's very, very interesting.
I'm sure everybody will hear from that within the next coming years.
Fundamental research is the basis of everything.
Without fundamental research, without curiosity...
without trying to find out something or just trying and not even knowing what's coming of it...
that's what it really is about.
The most important inventions I can think of sometimes just suddenly popped up.
It was not a financer that said: We want you to invent this or that...
and work at that and then it comes. No, it does not work that way.
When you want to be in the Champions League...
you really have to provide enough money for fundamental research.
But then, when you start to do that, it might be that you find out something...
and you think: Wow, this is great, this is really something for the patient, or whatever.
We are going to do this.
But it happens quite often that the researcher thinks:
Wow. Now what?
Because I have to develop this. I need money. Where to go to?
I think it's so important that we also integrate in academia...
knowledge of how you can bring your research into the next steps.
And how you work together with this field of stakeholders.
Everybody wants this, so I think this is going to happen.
So I would advise: Be engaged. Say that you need it, that you want it.
We can also do this online. Covid has taught us that it is not necessary...
to always go places all the time.
So I think this is important.
And also that we try to think of the type of business...
that new inventions, therapies, medicine needs.
Because it's not always Big Pharma that is going to produce...
what you find out for this patient. What you discover.
So we must think about this.
And I think this is the work of the whole ecosystem, Big Pharma included.
And that we must keep the beautiful things, also in the Netherlands...
so that we can have start-ups, scale-ups in business...
where you also, as academia, stay involved with...
and not just discover something just for the sale.
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