Millions in funding for collaborative cohort studies on healthy ageing
Lifelines is a partner in the Netherlands Cohort Consortium (NCC), which receives a grant of more than 17 million euros from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). With this investment, virtually all university medical centres, including the UMCG, the RIVM and VU University Amsterdam, are joining forces in a single national mega-cohort: a unique research infrastructure containing data from almost half a million Dutch citizens.
Major step forward for research into healthy ageing
The NCC combines the strengths of the eleven largest and most comprehensive cohorts in the Netherlands. Bringing these together creates a single, coherent network of research data on health, lifestyle, environment and ageing. This connection creates a coherent source of knowledge about health, lifestyle, environment and ageing. Thanks to the grant, the consortium can conduct large-scale research into how and why people age healthily and what we can do to prevent disease. The emphasis is on multimorbidity (the co-occurrence of multiple chronic conditions) and new health risks, such as emerging infectious diseases.
The Netherlands as an international example
The collaboration within the NCC strengthens the Netherlands' leading international position in epidemiological research. By combining data in a uniform manner, researchers can more quickly develop new insights that can be applied in clinical practice and health policy. The NCC works according to the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and in compliance with the GDPR. This creates a future-proof research infrastructure in which knowledge, data and expertise are shared sustainably between institutions.
About the Netherlands Cohort Consortium (NCC)
The Netherlands Cohort Consortium is a national partnership between eleven cohorts in the Netherlands, spread across seven universities and university medical centres and the RIVM. The participating cohorts are Lifelines, the Rotterdam Study (ERGO), the Maastricht Study, HELIUS, LASA, EPIC-NL, NEO, the Netherlands Twin Register, the Leiden Long Life Study, the Utrecht Health Project and the Doetinchem Cohort Study. In total, the network comprises nearly 500,000 participants and more than 50 years of health data.