In August 2010, it became clear how the final subsidy application will be drafted for the consortia, how the financial flows will be structured and how the different roles will be set up.

The deadline for submitting specified budgets for the shared subsidy application of the individual consortia was 1 November 2010.

A framework collaboration agreement had been negotiated between the consortia and LSH. This collaboration agreement sets out the relations between LSH and consortia. The partners within a consortium conclude a supplementary agreement.

The LSH board recently decided that a more detailed version of this collaboration agreement is required. These contracts are currently being negotiated.

The 15th of december AgentschapNL approved the subsidy.

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All partners within the individual consortia will sign a consortium agreement. Then the consortia can launch their projects.

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In December 2009, the Government made an € 81 million subsidy available based on the application.

The Government indicated that it prefers to receive a single, final subsidy application and to pay out the subsidy to a single party. The Government requested LSH to serve as the coordinator in this case.

In view of LSH's additional role, LSH's governance changed in order to enable LSH to comply with the Government's request.

The next step is the final subsidy application, specifying the proposals of the various consortia.

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The Government granted LSH a preliminary subsidy amount of € 81 million for the following consortia:

• CyttronII
• VIRGO
• NeuroBSIK
• Netherlands Initiative for Regenerative Medicine (NIRM)

Yes. The Diabetes Cell Replacement Therapy Initiative (DCTI) received a € 7 million subsidy during the first 2008 FES round. DCTI was part of Top Instituut Gezond Ouder Worden (TI-GO - Top Institute Growing Older in Good Health) and is participating in order to have the subsidy and reporting run through the LSH program.

Since the spring of 2010, LSH has a foundation Executive Board, representing the various types of sector partners:

From the Top Institutes:

• Peter Luijten (CTMM)
• Willem de Laat (TI Pharma)
• Emiel Staring (BMM)

SME’s

• Roland Lageveen
• Rein Strijker

NFU/VSNU
An NFU/VSNU representative will join the Board in the near future.

In addition to the foundation's Executive Board, LSH has a High Profile Group as an Advisory Body to the Board.

The consortia consist of a number of partners. All partners must be clear from the start on how to deal with IP. This will prevent any confusion or discussions in the event of a valuable finding.

In addition to the collaboration agreement with LSH, the consortia conclude a mutual consortium agreement. Negotiations relating to these contracts will run via LSH's IP work group, with representatives of NFU, VSNU, large and small enterprises.

The IP framework negotiated within the CTMM program will become applicable to all consortia within LSH (see also paragraph 4 of the CTMM project agreement).

In particular to enable coordinated research within the sector, preventing any double research, and streamlining the red life sciences public and private research in the Netherlands.

The Government must allocate the FES funds to the various themes. In the Government's view, a joint subsidy application from the Life Sciences & Health themes is considered a success factor, as this demonstrates the self-organizing and collaborating capability of this sector.

This offers the option of communicating with the Government as one voice representing the entire sector.

Beyond a uniform application, the Government is also interested in uniform reporting from this sector. The Government requested LSH to arrange for uniform reporting.

LSH will serve as the central desk to distribute the subsidy from the Government to the consortia and to pass on the consortia's reports to the Government.

The final joint subsidy application indicates to which consortium each amount is assigned.

The know-how for intrinsic project management is mostly available within the consortia. For this reason, the consortia are 100% responsible for project content and management. LSH will not play any role in this respect.

The contract concluded between the consortium and LSH sets out the range of supporting facilities that the consortium wishes to employ.

LSH will only drive uniform processes within the consortia (including standard budgets and reports). This way, the consortia maintain their autonomy.

This pays for the coordinating tasks and reinforcing the position of the red life sciences sector in the Netherlands. This was not included in the original plans, as these were not based on having LSH serve as the financial coordinator.

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After having granted € 81 million to the sector in February 2010, the Government indicated a preference for having all subsidy flows and reports routed through LSH. In August 2010, the Government indicated how this should be structured. Even in the current situation, extensive consultation with many different parties is required, which takes up a lot of time.

No, LSH was not given any unallocated resources that may be distributed via a call for proposals.  The € 81 million grant indicates the amounts that are allocated to each consortium.

If required, the consortia may make use of the supporting facilities of the TTI's CTMM, TI Pharma or BMM. In practice, this will particularly relate to the following fields: project records and accounting, financial processing of project costs, sharing project information via online project site etc.

The Government designated the fields that the FES funds must be allocated to. During the 2009 FES round, 8 fields were designated as eligible, including the themes of high-tech systems and materials, food & flowers, life sciences & health, water, climate and space, ICT, chemicals and energy, creative industry and the educational sector.

A joint subsidy application from the Life Sciences & Health theme demonstrates the self-organizing and collaborating capability of this sector, which is one of the success factors on which allocation of resources is based.

A total of 500 million Euros was available. In various decrees, a total of 447.7 million Euros was earmarked for the various themes. The new Dutch Cabinet diverted the remaining funds to the 'general resources' in order to reduce the post-crisis national debt.

The LSH program bureau wrote a single plan for the sector, which can be downloaded from www.lifescienceshealth.com. In addition to the umbrella plan, 4 cluster plans were prepared. These cluster plans contain the specific plans prepared in accordance with a pre-agreed format.  In view of the fact that the content is mainly confidential, the cluster plans are not public.

On behalf of the sector, this plan was submitted to the Government as the subsidy application for the 2009 FES round.

The plan indicates the amounts requested for each consortium.

Essentially, the LSH plan states that former BSIK consortia with mainly explorative research ('Build') gear their activities toward three existing top institutes ('Bundle', CTMM, TI Pharma and BMM) in order to streamline mainly basic research with the existing TTI's.

This enables the consortia to accelerate development of their findings, resulting in a shorter time to market at a lower cost.

The Government determines a number of conditions for each FES round. The conditions that applied for the 2009 subsidy applications round included presenting the research proposals as a public/private partnership within the context of one of the eight themes as set out in advance:

• High-Tech Systems and Materials
• Food & Flowers
• Life Sciences & Health,
• Water, Climate and Space
• ICT
• Chemicals and Energy
• Creative and Educational Sectors

Additionally, the sector was recommended to issue a sector proposal in order to demonstrate the self-organizing collaboration capabilities of this sector.

Recently the Dutch government has announced to stop the FES funding. The remaining funds will be used for the 'general resources' in order to reduce the post-crisis national debt. At this moment it is unclear if and when a new FES funding will start. See also the answer of Will there be another call for proposals?