From Health Science & Technology to Medical Delta: today we mark our 20th anniversary

Exactly twenty years ago, the Leiden-Delft-Rotterdam research institute Health Science & Technology (HST) was launched. Its founders were Erasmus MC, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Leiden University, Leiden University Medical Center and Delft University of Technology.

The ambition: to improve healthcare by optimally combining (medical) science and technology, and to create or stimulate economic opportunities in healthcare and medical technology.

“Within a radius of just twenty kilometres, the southern part of the Randstad is home to a unique combination and concentration of expertise, capacity to deliver and economic potential in healthcare and medical technology. This concentration is unique in Europe and offers opportunities to turn the region into a Medical Delta,” states Erasmus MC’s 2006 annual report (pag. 47).

Some time later, HST actually became known as Medical Delta. So today, it’s our birthday.

Medical Delta Conference 2027

Twenty years of intensive collaboration in healthcare has delivered significant scientific and societal impact. You can hear more about this at our Conference on Tuesday 6 April in Leiden (you can already register here), where we will of course also pause to celebrate this milestone anniversary.

We look forward to the future, because collaboration is never finished: it may well be that this inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration is the most important innovation of twenty years of Medical Delta.

Photo: appointment of the first group of Medical Delta professors (2014)