4TU.Health - Team

Hanneke Bodewes

Secretaris 4TU.Health

Hanneke Bodewes has ample experience in the field of research and innovation policy, especially in health sciences and the development of public-private partnerships. Hanneke has been working with the TUs for three years now (University of Twente) and has been involved in the development of 4TU.Health from the start. She is our go-to person for any questions concerning 4TU.Health, our work field and our partnerships.

Prof. Dr. Ir. Richard Goossens

Full professor Physical Ergonomics, Delft University of Technology  | Department of Human-Centered Design 

Program Director Convergence Health & Technology, Delft University of Technology, Erasmus Medical Center and Erasmus University Rotterdam

Chair Delft Health Initiative, Delft University of Technology 

Richard Goossens is a full professor of Physical Ergonomics since 2009 at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering. The emphasis of his research is on ergonomics/human factors in relation to product innovation in order to establish safe, comfortable and error-free task fulfilment in complex multi-user situations in a medical setting. The goal is to generate design requirements, methods and products (services). The requirements should anticipate the implementation of these products on a large scale and daily use. In 2012 he was appointed a Medical Delta professor (with an extra appointment in Erasmus Medical Center). From 2017 onwards he is the Chair of the Delft Health Initiative with its mission to bring together researchers involved in health research and innovation, in order to focus TU Delft expertise and contribute to pioneering health technologies within relevant (inter)national research programs.
His motto: “In the end, there is a solution for everything.”

Drs. Emelie van Bentum

Secretaris Delft Health Initiative

Since 2014 working at TU Delft, currently in 2 roles; on the one hand executive secretary of the Delft Health Initiative, the initiative that brings together researchers involved in health research and innovation. And otherwise working at the TU Delft Impact& Innovation Centre within the team Corporate Innovation the role of TKI-coordinator; responsible for the Public-Private Partnerships in cooperation with the Top Sectors. Background in Healthcare, Policy & Management (Erasmus University Rotterdam) and >10years working experience in Pharma and for-profit business.

University of Twente - Prof. Dr. Maroeska Rovers

Scientific Director of the Technical Medical (TechMed) Center at the University of Twente

Maroeska Rovers is the Scientific Director of the Technical Medical (TechMed) Center at the University of Twente. She also is a professor of medical technology and innovation at the Radboudumc, director of Health Innovation Netherlands, and a member of several international boards, such as the scientific committee of Excite international, the IDEAL collaboration, and the Science and Innovation Panel of the EU IHI program.

Her ambition is to contribute to the development of effective, affordable and valuable medical innovations. Her research has been characterized as visionary, innovative, international, and highly productive. In her research, she combines methods and discoveries from various disciplines, such as surgery, epidemiology, health technology assessment, biomedical sciences and policy to make beyond state-of-the-art progress, and then translate these insights into practical tools.

Since the methodology is leading, she is involved in various technological areas, varying from e-health to AI and robotics to implants. Her international (multi-center) projects have shown that she can bring together the joint efforts of internationally leading experts to further develop worldwide innovations. She also has ample experience with the scientific co-ordination of clinical studies, and these studies have demonstrated real impact through the uptake of published findings in international clinical guidelines and by practitioners and methodologists. She is an elected member of the Academia Europe and the Dutch academia of Engineers.

Dr. Mariska van den Berg 

Funding Officer of the Technical Medical Centre/University of Twente

Mariska van den Berg is Funding Officer at the TechMed Centre of the University of Twente. In this role, she supports researchers in the health and (technical)medical domain in setting up funding strategies and applying for research funding at national and European funding agencies. Both by aiding the application process, and by connecting researchers to the right partners. In this way, she aimes to contribute to improving human health and our healthcare system. Mariska has a background in biology and airway pharmacology.  

Dr. ir. Agnes Berendsen

Assistant Professor, Wageningen University & Research

Agnes Berendsen is a dietician by training and received her degree in Nutrition and Health with a specialization in Nutritional Epidemiology in 2010. Agnes obtained her PhD in dietary patterns and cognitive performance as part of a large European project. During this period, she has been visiting researcher at the School of Medicine, Harvard. As a nutritional epidemiologist, she has ample of experience in conducting human dietary intervention studies as well as establishing and handling data of prospective cohort studies. Currently, she works as Assistant Professor on the physiological changes after bariatric surgery in women with obesity as well as the consequences for their offspring in order to contribute to healthier future generations.

Dr. Noortje Bax

Project Officer for the Center for Care & Cure Technology Eindhoven (C3Te)

Noortje Bax received her degree in (Medical) Biology (2006) from Radboud University Nijmegen. She developed herself as a researcher with an extensive track record in cardiac and cell biology, by receiving a PhD-degree (2011) from the Leiden University Medical Center. She continued her scientific career at Eindhoven University of Technology (dep. BME). At her adventures trip in science, Noortje learned that close collaborations and the creation of synergy between technology and biomedical science will lead to expansion of collective knowledge leading to sustainable improvement of healthcare. As project officer, she supports researchers within the care & cure domain (www.tue.nl/c3te) within dep. of Electrical Engineering and dep. of Applied to expend synergistic partnerships with medical centers and industry that are crucial to create novel healthcare technologies.