“At the Healthy Ageing Campus, we can switch gears quickly.”
Bart-Jan Korteling is COO at Innocore Pharmaceuticals, a company based at the Healthy Ageing Campus in Groningen that develops long-acting medical injections. “Our mission is to make patients less dependent on daily pills and to guarantee stable medication delivery,” he explains. But his work goes beyond medication alone: it also revolves around collaboration with knowledge institutions and other companies.
The choice for the Healthy Ageing Campus was obvious. “We started out as a spin-off from a technology platform with knowledge about biodegradable polymers,” Bart-Jan explains. “With knowledge institutions and the UMCG nearby, we can quickly switch gears and collaborate with companies such as Polyvation and Symeres.” The proximity of expertise and young talent also plays a role in this: interns and graduates often take their first career steps at Innocore.
According to Bart-Jan, the campus functions as an innovative ecosystem. “It's a flywheel effect: companies, knowledge institutions, and students set each other in motion. Once there is movement, the wheel just keeps turning faster.” Bart-Jan considers the LIFE Cooperative, the northern partnership for companies in the life sciences, to be an important pillar in this regard. “This allows us to really learn from each other, for example about talent development and training or about regulations and quality.”
Bart-Jan also sees challenges on campus. “We strengthen each other, but we have to be careful not to get in each other's way. Retaining talent in the north is also difficult: many people eventually leave for other regions for their careers.” With around 35 employees and ambitious growth plans, Innocore sees the Healthy Ageing Campus as a place where innovation, knowledge, and talent come together. “There is a lot of potential in the north, but it doesn't happen by itself. You have to keep coordinating, pooling resources, and paying attention to where strengths reinforce or block each other.”
