LIFE Cooperative, Hanze University of Applied Sciences and the UMCG received national recognition for the need for a constructive Human Capital approach for the life sciences sector. This Monday, 19th of February, they were informed that their submitted Groningen Human Capital for Life Sciences project had been honored by PharmaNL with €747,000 euros. This subsidy has been awarded in the context of the PharmaNL Human Capital Growth program, a subsidy program to support specific investments in education focused on the pharmaceutical value chain. This program is implemented by ZonMw.
Sven Stielstra, business developer at the LIFE Cooperative, explains the project: “We are actively working on developing a human capital strategy to ensure that our members and partners can attract and retain sufficiently skilled people now and in the future, one of the key challenges of the coming years. To address this, the LIFE Academy is being developed, encompassing various projects. We are very pleased to be taking concrete steps forward with the granted subsidy for Groningen Human Capital for Life Sciences, one of the projects under the LIFE Academy. In addition to the individual projects, we remain committed to strengthening the structural collaboration within the LIFE Academy.”
The Groningen Human Capital for Life Sciences project will support the life sciences sector in the Northern Netherlands by further developing its strongest areas: Gene Technology, Bioinformatics, and Bioanalysis. To achieve this, the project partners will develop and test ten educational modules at both university of applied sciences (HBO) and academic (WO) levels. These modules will provide students and professionals with the opportunity to continue growing in the directions that the industry needs now and in the future. This will enable companies to maintain and strengthen their position in the regional, national, and international pharmaceutical value chain. The project will span a period of three years.
Stielstra: “We’re eager to get started and develop the modules that will directly benefit (young) professionals and companies.”
Carine Joosse, Dean of the Institute of Life Sciences & Technology at Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen: “At Hanze University, we’ve been collaborating with the sector for quite some time to train and develop talent specifically for Life Sciences & Health. We’re therefore very pleased that this grant allows us to take an additional step forward.”
Jolanda Smit, Director of the Medical School at UMCG: “This project provides us with the opportunity to jointly develop practical modules in collaboration with the industry, perfectly aligned with our thriving Life Sciences and Health sector.”
The development of this project has been made possible with the support of the Municipality of Groningen and the Municipality of Assen, the Province of Groningen, Drenthe, and Fryslân.
Source picture: Tim van der Kuip
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Turning plans into results: that is the central focus of the fifth LIFE Science Conference, taking place on Tuesday, 22 September 2026 at Forum Groningen. The LIFE Cooperative will bring together professionals, entrepreneurs, researchers and policymakers from the life sciences and health sector around one key question: how do we translate vision into concrete impact? The keynote speaker will be Peter Wennink, former CEO of ASML and one of the most influential leaders in the Dutch technology sector. In 2025, he presented his advisory report ‘The Road to Future Prosperity’, in which he advocates targeted investments in innovation to strengthen the Netherlands’ long-term earning capacity.
In the North, and in Groningen in particular, there are dozens of companies working on innovations in the fields of life sciences and health. There are many hidden gems among them, says Ronald Hesse, director of the LIFE Cooperative partnership. “Millions of patients worldwide have already benefited from innovations developed here in Groningen,” he says.
