Netherlands Cohorts Consortium (NCC)

Netherlands Cohort Consortium (NCC):

a nationwide infrastructure for population health sciences

NCC is a unique infrastructure of prospective cohort studies in the Netherlands with a focus on collection, harmonization and pooling of extensive data to address multimorbidity. Through NCC researchers will have access to a diversity of data concerning mental health, physical health, social networks, stress, life style, environment, socio-demographic and economic factors.

We aim to include all population-based and population-representative Dutch cohort studies that provide advanced longitudinal clinical phenotyping and biomedical data for research into the determinants of multimorbidity. NCC brings data and researchers together to perform excellent research into unraveling the complex interplay between biological mechanisms, lifestyle, behavioral, socio-economic and environmental factors. Linkage with CBS-data, PALGA, NKR and other registries will even further strengthen the possibilities for excellent multidisciplinary research

Participants 

The NCC currently consists of >450.000 participants from the Netherlands originating from 11 population-representative cohort studies that are listed below. In the future additional cohort studies will be able to join the consortium.

Data access

 Within the NCC we aim to grant access to the infrastructure against data-handling costs. At current, all cohort studies have their own conditions and procedures on data access. Researchers can apply for data according to these individual procedures. Within the near future we will harmonize these procedures, to provide researchers with a one-stop-one-shop possibility to access data of all cohorts included in NCC.

Gouvernance 

The NCC is lead by an executive board which is chaired The Maastricht Study at MUMC+. The executive board meets monthly and includes one representative per participating cohort study.

Contact 

Miranda T. Schram, Maastricht University Medical Center+, ncc@mumc.nl

NCC and existing Dutch infrastructures 

The diverse and longitudinal active data collections of our cohort studies provide the needed basis to multiple existing infrastructures, like BBMRI and Health RI. All individual cohort studies provide their study samples and outcome phenotypes to these infrastructures, thus forming the fundament of such enterprises. The NCC aims to guarantee the foundation on which these infrastructures expect to build.