No fewer than 34 inspiring project ideas were presented during the pitch meeting for scaling-up projects of the Healthy Society Programme, a collaboration between Medical Delta, Leiden-Delft-Erasmus and the Province of South Holland.
With this subsidy, the programme supports the Delta Action Agenda and underlines one of its objectives: to make what has proven to work well for healthcare in South Holland more widely available.
On Monday 19 January 2026, participants gathered at the Provincial House in The Hague to pitch 34 project ideas. This marked the first round of the call for seed funding for innovative health projects, which was launched last November. The large turnout shows how much energy there is to increase impact through collaboration and scale up successful initiatives within South Holland.
This is the beginning of a joint movement in which we will get to know, strengthen and support each other in the coming years. That is precisely what the Healthy Society Programme is committed to.'
- Irene Voskamp - Ter Borg
Scaling up together for a healthier society
This call focused on scaling up through collaboration: the broader application of new technologies, social approaches or working methods that have proven effective in practice. That is why consortia consisting of companies, foundations, local authorities, knowledge institutions and healthcare, welfare or policy organisations submitted joint applications.
This way, local authorities and healthcare institutions do not have to “reinvent the wheel” themselves, and the sharing of successful innovations is encouraged, so that more people can benefit from them more quickly.
With this funding, the Healthy Society Programme encourages collaboration, broadens regional networks and strengthens the scaling-up capacity within the three themes of the Delta Action Agenda:
- Healthy living environment
- Healthy food environment
- Vital and resilient residents
Shared ambition
The result was an inspiring morning full of innovative ideas on socially relevant themes, such as:
- the organisation of primary care
- a healthy lifestyle and living environment
- mental resilience and prevention
- digital care and technological innovation
- and healthy nutrition.
The diversity and quality of the ideas demonstrate the shared ambition to work together towards a healthier society in South Holland.
A number of projects have been selected from this first pitch round to submit a project application. A further selection will then take place, after which the grant will be awarded and the projects will start no later than this spring. Each selected project will receive €50,000 for implementation.
Many thanks to all participants for their valuable contributions!
Delta Action Agenda
With this call for seed funding, the Healthy Society Programme contributes to the Delta Action Agenda, an initiative of Medical Delta in collaboration with Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Universities and the South Holland Impact Alliance, a partnership of universities of applied sciences.
Joining forces
The pitch meeting at the Provincial House in The Hague led to valuable exchanges and new connections between parties. The common denominator was that by working together more effectively and joining forces, we can make a real difference to the health of everyone in South Holland. Read more about inspiring collaborations in the field of health in South Holland at www.gezondzuidholland.nl.
Contact
Healthy Society Programme Coordinator:
Stella Pfisterer via s.m.pfisterer@fsw.leidenuniv.nl, Faculty of Social Sciences, Leiden University. Stella is also affiliated with Erasmus University Rotterdam School of Management.
Read more about health in South Holland in the Healthy Society white paper “Towards a Healthy Society for Everyone”, which covers health inequalities, living environment, urban planning, prevention and more: