Dutch Bio Science Week Was a Great Succes

Leiden, July 10, 2024 – The Dutch Bio Science Week – which was organized for the first time in the last week of June under the new name and in the new form – was very successful. The various events and activities within the week, which focused on health and its future, attracted almost 5,000 visitors. In particular, the opening of the week, with the Leiden Knowledge Festival in the Hooglandse Kerk and the closing program with the Open Day of the Leiden Bio Science Park attracted many interested parties.

From 4 to 100 years The Dutch Bio Science week was dedicated to a healthier future, for everyone and offered a broad program from June 22 to 29. For a very broad target group.

“The Dutch Bio Science Week is all about a healthier future and brings many people together,” says Esther Peters, director of the Leiden Bio Science Park. “The activities organized by us and our partners focused on talent, start-ups and scale-ups, researchers and investors, but certainly also on the general public; the latter is new and a conscious choice.”

From Life Science Café XL to Knowledge Festival Activities took place for all these different target groups during the Dutch Bio Science Week, which took place at the Leiden Bio Science Park, but also in the city centre of Leiden.

“The Leiden Knowledge Festival of the Leiden Healthy Society Center was a great success in the Hooglandse Kerk, a wonderful opening event of the week”, Peters indicates. Here, residents of Leiden and the region could discover how to have a healthy, tasty and long life. But internationals and professionals met each other during the Tech Talk XL or the Life Sciences Café XL in the park. “A nice mix of people sharing knowledge, making new contacts and that is the basis for a new idea, a new collaboration and therefore a new innovation that improves our lives”, says Peters. During the first Open Day of the Leiden Bio Science Park, initiated because of its 40th anniversary, many companies opened their doors.

More than 1500 visitors found their way to the laboratories, lectures, tours and more. “It was a really great day”, says Peters “and the reactions and enthusiasm of all those visitors show that we are really adding something to Leiden”. Martijn Bulthuis, director of Leiden&Partners, agrees. “With the Dutch Bio Science Week we show what Leiden and the region have to offer when it comes to Life Sciences & Health. And that is no coincidence.

The week gives substance and meaning to Leiden as a city of science. In addition, it not only gives something back to the residents of Leiden and the surrounding area in the form of a dynamic program, but we also create something for the future. As the largest player in the Life Sciences & Health domain in the Netherlands, it helps us attract talent, conferences and companies,” says Bulthuis. For a look back at the Open Day and the Dutch Bio Science Week, go to www.dutchbioscienceweek.nl.