ABOUT US
Stichting Science meets Business Leiden
The Science meets Business foundation was founded in 2013 by Christiaan van Gorkum. Christiaan was an active member of the Leiden science community with an special interest in entrepreneurship, organising many events and bringing together the right people.
Leiden is a city that both flourishes in science and business. Leiden houses the Leiden University, the oldest university of the Netherlands, and the Leiden University for Applied Sciences. Both institutes are situated on the Leiden Bio Science Park, the 3rd Science Park of the European continent. On the park there are numerous companies, small and big, that turn science into business. However, the interaction between the knowledge institutes and the companies was lacking. Christiaan saw the lack of interaction as an opportunity and created the Science meets Business Foundation.
Cafes
Science meets Business' main way of creating the above mentioned interaction is the monthly Science meets Business Cafe. This cafe is organised every second Thursday of the month in the Foyer of BioPartner 1 and gives the floor to three speakers from in and around Leiden to speak about their science based company or start-up, business models and research.
Volunteers
Science meets Business is a not-for-profit institute and is run a 100% by volunteers. The team consists of Scientists, (PhD-)Students and Entrepreneurs from Leiden. The events and the foundation are funded by the Leiden municipality, Biopartner and the members of the Club of Science meets Business.
Location
The Science meets Business Foundation is part of the entrepreneurial community of PLNT Leiden. Due to the independent character of the Foundation, Science meets Business is not bound to one location and organizes events all over Leiden.
Documents
Since Science meets Business receives public funding and donations, and since we carry the status 'ANBI', we publish our annual reports and financial statements every year. Feel free to ask us about anything we do or did anytime.