In 2024, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and the Top Consortium for Knowledge and Innovation Life Sciences and Health (TKI-LSH), facilitated via Health-Holland, will introduce several procedural changes to the PPP Allowance program available for research and development in Life Sciences and Health. The PPP allowance program, which is aimed at strengthening partnerships, will undergo strategic developments, in line with the new ambitions of the Knowledge and Innovation Agenda 2024-2027.
The UMCG Innovation Center takes this opportunity to recap the journey so far and give information about the expected changes from 2025 onwards.
The Health-Holland PPP allowance program was set up with the primary objective to encourage strategic collaborations between public and private stakeholders, to maximise societal impact, by supporting research with means of valuable financial resources. Part of the available national budget, which reached 78 MLN EUR in 2023, has been allocated to research organizations yearly. The UMCG has been part of the program since the initial phase and has received PPP allowance reaching over 24 MLN EUR.
The UMCG Innovation Center - which has the mandate to coordinate the program - launched an internal UMCG-wide PPP allowance Call in 2019. A specialized working group has been instrumental in overseeing research proposals and monitoring the awarded projects.
Since the start of the UMCG PPP allowance Call, circa 260 researchers have made contact for projects across various Health-Holland R&D roadmaps, primarily involving pharmacotherapy, molecular diagnostics and imaging and image-guided therapies. By facilitating the connection of UMCG researchers and private companies, through business developers, legal advisors and financial officers, the UMCG Innovation Center has supported over 90 Public-Private partnerships. Aligned with the UMCG research and innovation strategy, 60% of the research activities were conducted at fundamental level, starting at a Technology Readiness Level between 1-4.
Projects included collaborative endeavors with small to large enterprises, on national and international level. Remarkably, about 30% of the projects were performed with Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) - a notable increasing trend over the years. The size of the projects differed, with the majority having a total budget in the range of 250-500K EUR.
The UMCG PPP allowance is available for the 2023 program, for projects running until October 2028. This will be the last round under the current Health-Holland scheme. A summary of the open Call, with the eligibility criteria and requirements, is available at: The PPP Allowance Program (umcg.nl)
A new framework titled “Public-private partnership innovation subsidy” will be launched from 2025, with a transition phase in 2024. On a strategic level, the deployment of the subsidy will be encouraged as a tool for demand-driven and impactful industrial research, promoting the principles of equal involvement, in line with Government Research Missions and in crossover Calls with other Top Sectors. Focus will be given to projects in partnership with SMEs, which will be presented with larger financial opportunities. Further instructions on the new guidelines and procedures will be made available in the coming weeks via the UMCG Innovation Center.
The Innovation Center is proud of the success of the PPP allowance program so far. Through innovative collaborations, the awarded projects have contributed to advance medical research and development, in line with the broad UMCG vision. We look forward to new initiatives and impactful collaborative partnerships.
For more information, please contact: [email protected]
