VAN NOORDWIJK AWARD - battle of the universities - The Van Noordwijk Award (the award for winning the Willem Kolff Battle of the Universities) was founded in 2003. It's a contest between university research teams, which aims to inspire young researchers to come up with unorthodox and practical innovations for clinical problems in a limited timeframe, concerning large numbers of patients. The researchers compete in interdiciplinary university teams to stimulate different and cross-over thinking. The award was named after Jacob van Noordwijk M.D. PhD. (1920-2008), the first assistant of Dr. Kolff in wartime Holland in 1944-45, who played a key role in developing the artificial kidney. The first 'battle of the universities' was held in 2011 (Leiden), the second in 2014 (Eindhoven), the third in 2018 (Leiden). |