East Netherlands at a Glance

The provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel form the eastern part of the Netherlands and share a common border with Germany on the eastern side. The combined population of the regions is about 3 million people and the land area is about 20 percent of the entire country.
East Netherlands is attractive to foreign companies for three dominant areas—food, health and innovative technology—where it has both expertise as well as a critical mass of existing companies to fuel business. Within these three areas, the regions attract activities encompassing production and assembly, R&D, distribution and logistics, marketing and sales as well as support centres. Indian giant Apollo Tyres, which recently acquired Vredestein Banden BV, has set up Apollo Vredestein BV in Enschede in Overijssel.
The regions’ unique proposition lies in its ability to offer businesses the support of three excellent academic and research institutions—the Wageningen University & Research Centre, University of Twente and Radboud University at Nijmegen.

Food

To take advantage of the regions’ unique strength of private investment backed by knowledge and research institutions, a novel concept was evolved. Starting with the Food Valley, the provinces have developed a network of partners that combine the research capabilities at the Wageningen University, which is known worldwide for its research programs in agro-food and life sciences, with the market know-how of the business community.
The Food Valley acts as the initiator and catalyst to nurture projects that are cutting edge and innovative in the food sector. The focus areas within food are health, safety, bio-ingredients, consumer behaviour, sensors and structures and adjacent technologies. Other major research institutes like Plant Research International, Rikilt- Institute for Food Safety and Nizo Food Research add value to the Food Valley, which is inhabited by major brands like Kikkoman, Numico, Grolsch, Aviko Campina, Givaudan, Nestle and Heinz.

Health

Along similar lines, Health Valley has come together as a network of private and public partners supporting business and innovation the field of health. Supported by the three universities in the regions, the specialty areas are monitoring, diagnostics and therapy, medical devices, regenerative medicine and e-health. Other famous institutes like BioMedical Technology Institute (BMTI), Roessingh R&D Rehabilitation Centre, NCMLS Molecular Life Sciences and FC Donders Neuro-Imaging are magnets for health-related businesses to locate here. Some prominent names are Solvay, Abbott, Synthon, GE Healthcare, Novartis, NXO, New Brunswixk and Scientific.

Technology

The regions are also home to several companies that are here to take advantage of the excellent facilities in innovation and technology, like Thales, Ten Cate, Urenco, Panduit, Power-Packer, Vredestein, Alcatel/Lucent, Bell Labs and TKH. The Business Cluster Semiconductors East NL attracts semiconductor companies to the regions. With two centres at Nijmegen and Enschede, the cluster is a network of companies looking to improve competitiveness throughout the value chain of development, production and application of advanced integrated circuits (ICs), micro electromechanical systems (MEMS), sensors and wireless systems.
University of Twente has a strong IT specialisation and runs a multi-million Euro programme to stimulate innovation and technology in the region. CTIT is another institute that attracts several IT companies to the region, while Telematica Institute is a magnet for telecommunications players. Nanotechnology, supported by MESA+ and advanced materials supported by IMPACT are two other strong areas of innovation in the East Netherlands regions. Clean technology, aerospace and automotives are also growing focus areas.