Case Study: A Man-Made Blue Zone in the Netherlands

This case analysis shows how inter-organizational collaborations can lead to improvements in policymaking and real-world outcomes. It looks at how the Healthy Ageing Network Northern Netherlands (HANNN) was created as a 'triple-helix' network organization with partners in research institutes, government bodies, and businesses. 

How can more collaborations like this lead to sustainable innovation for societies?

A New Concept Of The UMCG

4. Establishing The Alliance For Healthy aging (Aha) With The Noaber Foundation, Vita Valley, And The Mayo Clinic

The fourth and final pillar of the new concept of the UMCG is: Establishing strong international research, innovation and educational networks, with partners from the EU, Asia, and USA, as exemplified by the Alliance for Healthy aging (AHA) with Noaber Foundation, Vita Valley, Mayo Clinic and UMCG.

The objective of the Alliance for Healthy aging is to advance the development of tools that enable older individuals to live independently by bringing together clinicians, engineers, and scientists and providing a forum for the exchange of ideas. The Alliance includes the Mayo Clinic's Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging (Rochester, Minnesota, USA), the University Medical Center Groningen (Groningen, The Netherlands), the Noaber Foundation (Ede, the Netherlands), and VitaValley (Ede, the Netherlands).

The Alliance for Healthy aging organizes annual meetings dedicated to translational research on aging, alternating between the USA and the Netherlands.

UMCG/HANNN also participate in various EU networks, including the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy aging (EIP-AHA). The European Commission has identified active and healthy aging as a major societal challenge common to all European countries, and an area which presents considerable potential for Europe to lead the world in providing innovative responses to this challenge. European Innovation Partnerships (EIPs) have been set up for this reason. These partnerships pursue a triple win strategy for Europe by:

  1. Enabling EU citizens to lead healthy, active, and independent lives while aging;
  2. Improving the sustainability and efficiency of social and healthcare systems;
  3. Boosting and improving the competitiveness of the markets for innovative products and services, responding to the aging challenge at both EU and global level, thus creating new opportunities for businesses.

This will be realized in the three areas of prevention and health promotion, care and cure, and active and independent living of elderly people. The overarching target of this partnership will be to increase the average healthy lifespan by two years by 2020. The Northern Netherlands is active in several action groups of the European Innovation Partnership.