Our view of a healthy society

The Dutch government has drawn up a number of missions for the coming years. The goal is that by 2040, all Dutch people will live in good health at least 5 years longer. There should also be a smaller gap between the health of the lowest and highest economic groups. The ambition is to reduce these health differences by 30%.

5 key points for a healthy society

At TNO, we want to make a demonstrable contribution to these missions. Together with government agencies, knowledge institutes, and companies, we develop technological and social innovations that improve health and professional employability. In this way, we contribute to a healthy, vital, and productive population, lower healthcare costs, and increased economic growth. We focus on 5 key points.

1. Effective prevention and behavioural intervention

We make a demonstrable contribution to maintaining health and halving lifestyle and work-related diseases. By preventing or curing these diseases, we can ensure that many people enjoy a better quality of life and we save a lot of money. We therefore contribute to developing innovations that help patients to change their lifestyle, among other things.

2. Personalised digital and analogue health and lifestyle interventions

We believe that personalised prevention, treatment, and support – both digital and analogue – should be the norm. Because everyone is different. Physically, but also in terms of genetic background, mental health, and social context. That's why we develop customised technological solutions and frameworks. For example, personalised pills. We also focus on models to bring data together into personalised and comprehensible recommendations.

3. Faster, better, and cheaper drug development

We want healthcare to remain affordable for everyone and accessible to all. To this end, the production of drugs must be made faster, better, and cheaper. At TNO, we develop technologies and models for this and make them usable by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

4. A healthy, innovative work environment

We contribute to a healthy work environment with safe-by-design solutions, behavioural interventions, and models showing the effects on health. We also work on innovations to predict and control the indoor climate. One example is sensors that let you know if you’re ingesting dangerous substances. In addition, we work towards an inclusive, sustainable, and flexible labour market. This keeps employees healthy and enables them to work longer.

5. Healthy living environment

The environment in which we grow up, live, work, exercise, sleep, and relax affects our health. The combination of exposure to polluted air and noise pollution, for example, has a major impact on us. At TNO, we work with field labs in which we create a healthy living environment through the monitoring of toxic substances and modelling. We do this, for example, by researching the indoor climate (healthy buildings) and through emission measurements and emission distribution models. But also by monitoring air quality from space, assessing exposure, and explaining the effect of exposure.