At the recently held Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) from 29^th Nov to 1^st Dec, the Netherlands has partnered with the Govt. of Karnataka as a ‘Technology Partner’ bringing in Dutch experts from the field of Healthcare.

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) & Taskforce for Applied Research (SIA) and Govt. of Karnataka had 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 Bengaluru in May 2018 to set up Living Lab in Bengaluru 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.

After the LoI was signed in May 2018, three pilot projects have been jointly selected for co-funding opportunities, where the Karnataka government would be pitching Rs 40-60 lakhs and the Netherlands would be providing a seed funding in the range of €25000-75,000.

The following three projects will be pitched to stakeholders from academic institutes, hospitals, IT, med-tech companies, start-ups etc. for partnership in the Netherlands’ Health-tech session organized during BTS on 30^th Nov:

1. Development of Generic tool box to create Health Literacy application for the use in India and the Netherlands (Current partners: Manipal University in collaboration with Maastricht University Medical Centre, MUMC)
2. Point of Care tool for fast diagnosis of e.g. Urinary Tract Infection (Current partners: MUMC in collaboration with Brightlands, Manipal University, TCS & EHE Innovations)
3. A framework for identification of biomarkers for mass screening of population at risk of development of neurodegenerative disorders (Current partners:  M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology in collaboration with MUMC and potential partners include TU Delft & Bosch)

In the coming months, the two sides will also explore opportunities for student exchange under the three joint projects to begin research work. Centre for Human Genetics (CHG), which is the anchor institute for Living Lab in Bengaluru will assist the process, together with Nuffic Netherlands Education Support Office (NESO) in Bengaluru and Taskforce for Applied Research (SIA) in the Netherlands. “In India and the Netherlands alike there is a need for more research and innovation to serve society in a more direct manner. The Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences do that by involving education and regional partners from the very beginning. Our students and regional partners can benefit greatly from working with Indian eHealth and ICT solutions. It is exciting to see the Living Lab provide a platform for knowledge exchange between students, researchers and regional partners from India and the Netherlands,” said Eras Draaijers, Programme Manager, Taskforce for Applied Research (SIA).