In 2012, CGS’s research programme resulted in its first spin-off: The Pilot Plant (De Proeffabriek).

The Pilot Plant is a consultancy for responsible innovation. It supports knowledge-intensive organisations with the integration of social responsibility in their work. Strengthening the relation between research organizations and the ‘users’ of knowledge (companies, policy makers, the media and citizens) is central.

In 2009, CSG researchers Maud Radstake (senior researcher Radboud University Nijmegen) and Daan Schuurbiers (then PhD-student Delft University of Technology) submitted a proposal for NGI’s Venture Challenge. The proposal intended the foundation of a company for advising and training of life scientists based on insights from societal research on life sciences. It wasn’t selected for participation in the Venture Challenge, but NGI offered the submitters a tailored workshop to develop the plan further instead. Subsequently, Radstake and Schuurbiers submitted a proposal at CSG for a pilot study. This was accepted for funding from CSG’s Valorization Fund in 2010. After obtaining his PhD-degree in the same year, Schuurbiers conducted the pilot study in 2011. The Pilot Plant started on 1 January 2012.

Part of the pilot study in 2011 was a pilot project with the Dutch Top Institute Food and Nutrition.

In 2012, The Pilot Plant and CSG collaborate in:

Training course Ethical and Societal Issues in the Development of Medical Products for the Centre for Translational Molecular Medicine
NGI Embedding project Towards Responsible Datamanagement in Personalised Diagnostics: interconnected datacultures in life science, medicine and society (ReDaPeD).