TNO (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek TNO) is a Dutch independent contract research organization, one of the major ones in Europe. Based on its expertise and research in technological, policy, business and social innovation, TNO connects people and knowledge in order to create innovations, which strengthen the competition position of companies and societal welfare. With a staff of approximately 3000 employees and an annual turnover of 565 million Euros, TNO is carrying out research in order to achieve impact on five themes addressing the Societal Challenges: Industry; Healthy Living; Defence, Safety & Security; Urbanisation; Energy. TNO functions as an intermediary between basic research organizations and industry and society.

In the theme of Healthy Living applied research is carried out for the health domain, both prevention and care. TNO’s department of Child Health is the largest research organization in the Netherlands in the domain of preventive health care for youth. It focusses on obstetrics and maternity care, preventive healthcare for children and young people up to 23 years of age, psychosocial development of children, and youth health care training. In multidisciplinary teams (obstetricians, physicians, psychologists, epidemiologists, statisticians, health scientists, etc.) the department helps to produce solutions for obstetrics and maternity care, child health and childcare. Through evidence-based research we develop guidelines and interventions to be applied in these domains and assess the effects through evaluation and monitoring, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of preventive care for children.

TNO Child Health coordinates the POPS cohort. The POPS cohort and an overview of results are described in the article: “Profiling the preterm or VLBW born adolescent; implications of the Dutch POPS cohort follow-up studies”, in: Early Human Development 2015;91(2):97-102.