Challenge & Opportunity

The Challenge

Life sciences have a rapidly growing impact on our society, especially for the big
challenges related to health, food and energy to be addressed in the decades to come.
With the latest insight in the complexity of biology, it has become clear to academia and industry that progress in life science research and development requires ready access to high-end research infrastructures.

The need for analysis and integration of the massive data streams generated by a number of genomics-type and other technologies adds a further challenge. Data volumes coming out of the latest DNA sequencing projects become limited by their ability to treat the data. This part of the process involves disciplines such as bioinformatics and e-science, and requires a redesign of the data
storage and computation approaches and facilities available at present.

It is evident that no single research group, institute, university, or company can meet
these challenges alone, in terms of the rapidly growing need for technology expertise
and infrastructures. This situation drives the trend towards formation of large networked
research infrastructures at the national and international (incl. European) level. In this
development, hub-formation in the international life sciences field goes hand-in-hand
with well-organised, and connected research facilities.

The Opportunity

The Dutch situation is ideal for the emerging international approaches in life sciences, capitalising on existing centres of excellence in several areas of the life sciences, wellorganised collections of clinical samples (medical biobanks) and other biological specimens (e.g. NCB Naturalis), an operational world-class research data network connecting institutes (SURFnet), and with short distances between expert groups of complementary disciplines in academia and industry. Well connected in Europe, and with extensive experience in public-private partnerships (PPP), the Netherlands are prone to develop into a true international hub in life sciences. To ensure efficient and sustainable access of Dutch researchers to high-end technologies, consolidation of the accessible expertise and equipment in a limited number of existing and developing techcentres is now essential. Here, DTL provides a unique level of organisation, connection, and access to key technologies for Dutch research and development communities in health, agro,
food and biotech areas.