Participants are welcome to join site visits and the reception in the City Hall for free. To participate you have to register at the congress secretariat. Free transportation departs from the registration desk. Transportation is not provided for the reception at the City Hall and the conference dinner.

Tuesday 4 October

Reception City Hall Rotterdam, Burgerzaal, 17.30-19.00 hours
Reception offered by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen of Rotterdam (walking distance 650 meter, 9 minutes)
Note: ID required

Wednesday 5 October

Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, 16.00-18.00 hours, departure time: 15.40 hours
The hospital is under construction adopting the concept of Healing Environment to recover and to work. New ideas and principles – like single patient rooms, the waiting concept and stress reducing sky ceiling – are tested. October 5, 16.00-18.00 hours. (No more registration possible, fully booked)

Recollection Museum Humanitas Akropolis,  18.30-19,30 hours, departure time: 18.00 hours
Akropolis is a nursing home in the north of Rotterdam, one of over thirty homes in this region run by Humanitas. One of its many services is a ‘Recollection Museum’, where dementia patients and their loved ones can ‘visit their past’ through typical and iconic period objects and interiors, sounds, fragrances and images.
Max. participants: 30

Thursday 6 October

Aafje Huis Meerweide, Rotterdam-IJsselmonde, 14.00 – 16.00 hours, departure time: 13.30 hours
Meerweide is one of 16 Rotterdam nursing homes run by Aafje, named after Dutch community care pioneer Aafje van Hulst, who worked in the first decades of the 20th century. Meerweide accommodates persons with physical complaints and/or dementia. It also is Huis van de Wijk (Neigbourhood House) and offers a variety of (social) services. After a short introduction on Aafje’s policy and current developments in care for older persons, participants will visit several units: a ‘classic’ nursing home, units for residents with light dementia, who are still largely independent, and a unit for daytime activities. Max. participants: 15

Hogeschool Rotterdam, University of Applied Sciences, 16.00-18.00 hours, departure 15.40 hours
Learn about elderly care in higher education. How to interest young people for working with elderly people? We have several experiments and projects on this subject. For example there is a dementia week for students in their second year. October 6, 16.00-18.00 hours. (No more registration possible, fully booked)

Conference dinner, starting 19.00 hours
Restaurant Zenne, Willemskade 27, 3016 DM Rotterdam (No more registration possible, fully booked, walking distance 1700 meters, 20 minutes)

Friday 7 October

ZonMw, Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, The Hague, 10.00 – 12.00 hours, departure 9.15 hours
ZonMw funds health research and stimulates the use of knowledge developed to help improve health and healthcare in the Netherlands. The way ZonMw operates is unique in the world. With a range of grant programmes, ZonMw stimulates the entire innovation cycle, from fundamental research to the implementation of new treatments, preventive interventions and improvements to the structure of healthcare. ZonMw supports knowledge enhancement, quality and innovation in health research and in healthcare. The organisation covers the entire spectrum, from fundamental health research to healthcare practice – from preventive and curative healthcare to youth care services. ZonMw is an organisation with 180-200 employees, up to sixty programmes and a yearly budget of ZonMw of approximately 150 million euros.

Method
Government ministries, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and other organisations commission ZonMw to find solutions to certain problems or to boost work in particular areas. Together with experts from the field, ZonMw analyses the current state of play, the problems that exist, the priorities and where to look for solutions. We then incorporate our findings into a programme – a plan of action that sets out the direction for developments in scientific research and health care. The programme gives scientific and health care institutions the opportunity to conduct research or to develop, test and implement innovations on a project basis.

Quality and innovation
ZonMw’s chief priority is high-quality scientific research and health care. Clear selection criteria mean only the best proposals are considered for grants. Innovations in health care practice are introduced only once their effectiveness and practicability have been proven.
Proposals for research and practical innovations must tie in with one of our programmes. Some programmes are designed mainly to boost scientific standards or developments in certain areas of science. In others, the emphasis is on developing and testing innovations within particular focus areas or for certain groups. And in other programmes, ZonMw directs improvement processes, coordinating the large-scale introduction of tried and tested innovations.

Applying knowledge and experience
Working in programmes ensures that the results of research and innovation projects can be applied in health care and in further scientific research. We therefore set high standards in terms of the implementability of project results when awarding grants for practically-oriented research. For us, the transfer and use of knowledge and experience is at least as important as the development of new knowledge. ZonMw implementation policy consists of 4 components: 1. Implementation criteria in grants, 2. Funding implementation programmes/projects, 3. Building capacity/infrastructure, 4. Building knowledge base on implementation.

Building capacity and infrastructure for implementation consists of running national quality improvement programmes, supporting academic collaborative centres and other types of consortia where research and implementation expertise is brought together. Also ZonMw has supported  implementation fellows who are trained in implementation expertise and advise on and carry out implementation projects from their university hospital settings.

Site visit
The site visit starts with a plenary on the unique way ZonMw operates and is organised. The different ways ZonMw programms scientific research and health improvement will be illustrated. Furthermore the way ZonMw makes use of it’s extensive network of scientific, healthcare and societal organisations will be presented. In small workshops on specific programmes the approach and vision of ZonMw will be illustrated and explained in more detail. Themes of these programmes are: nursing science (infrastructure), care for the elderly, district nursing and home care, mental health and dementia. A tasteful lunch amongst the colorful artwork of ZonMw will end the site visit.