The Northern Dutch Biotech Sector

Many of the successful Biotechnology companies within the Northern Netherlands are small in scale, and have come about due to research undertaken within one of the institutes of higher education- and so the Northern Netherlands is very well-equipped for SME’s in this field. Within Groningen, the Biotech Centre at Campus Groningen is one of several locations with dedicated facilities for companies to use, including labs and office space. In a similar vein, the INNOLab, also located on the Zernike Campus in Groningen, offers both flexible research and business space, as well as programmes aimed at facilitating knowledge sharing and resource pooling, to allow smaller companies to access world-class facilities. Current areas of interest include food production, and sustainability within the chemical making process: both of which welcome new innovations from the Biotech sector. A final, related, resource for Bio-based and Biotech companies is the ZAP innovation cluster, which is an initiative by the Energy Transition Centre EnTranCe, on the Zernike Campus in Groningen.  

All of this has built up to an enviable eco-system for businesses in the Biotech sector, with (depending on the work of a specific enterprise) a network of cluster organisations dedicated to assisting the latest breakthrough. One such example is the Bio Cooperative - an initiative of Campus Groningen. The co-operative has the usual features of a cluster, such as inter-company networking, pooling of resources into equipment, and so on, but it also supports members in the areas of funding, law, regulation; lobbying, marketing, and branding. This then leaves the member companies to focus on their work.  

Naturally, if a Biotech company find an opportunity to work with another innovative company in the North that is outside of its field, efforts can be made to facilitate meeting and collaboration. Due to its easy connections with Germany, and through to the rest of Europe, as well as a large supply of inexpensive business land and its links to the various Northern Dutch knowledge institutions, the southern region of Drenthe, around the city of Emmen has also recently become a hotbed of Biotechnology companies.  

With such well-regarded research and educational institutions as the University of Groningen, Hanzehogeschool Groningen, and NHL Stenden University, it is perhaps no surprise that the Northern Netherlands has become a hotbed for Biotech companies and developments in the last decade or so.

It is best to begin with the world-leading research that has underpinned the Biotech business sector. The Groningen Biomolecular Science and Biotechnology Institute (GBB) has been outputting high quality research since 1992, and has functioned as a centre for PhD’s since 1993. Students and researchers come from the various other well-regarded courses at the University, including those run by the Nobel prize-winning Biochemist Ben Feringa. In Leeuwarden (Friesland), NHL Stenden Hogeschool has started the first Biotechnology Bachelor’s Degree in the Netherlands- providing yet another stream of highly educated researchers and developers within the Northern Dutch labour market.