STICHTING VILANS

Their core work

Vilans is a Dutch knowledge centre for long-term care, specialising in improving the quality and organisation of care for older people, people with chronic conditions, and their informal caregivers. Their H2020 work reflects their core mission: they contributed practice-based expertise to redesigning integrated care pathways for elderly populations across Europe (SUSTAIN), and to developing psychosocial support programmes for adolescent young carers — family members under 25 who provide unpaid care (ME-WE). In both projects they likely contributed implementation knowledge, stakeholder engagement with care organisations, and practical testing within real Dutch care settings. They bridge research findings and front-line care practice, making them useful in projects that need real-world validation rather than purely laboratory-based evidence.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their earlier H2020 engagement (2015-2019), Vilans focused squarely on integrated care systems for older people — the structural and organisational challenge of coordinating health and social care across providers. Their later project (2018-2021) shifted the lens from care systems to the individuals who provide informal care: specifically adolescent young carers and their mental health needs. This represents a meaningful widening of scope — from the older care recipient and the care system, toward the family caregiver and their psychological well-being. The direction of travel suggests growing interest in the full informal care ecosystem, not just the professional care infrastructure.

Vilans appears to be expanding from care system design toward the human and psychological dimensions of caregiving — a direction that positions them well for future projects at the intersection of mental health, ageing, and social care policy.

How they like to work

Vilans has participated exclusively as a consortium partner across both H2020 projects, never taking on a coordinator role — consistent with how a national knowledge centre typically engages in European research: contributing domain expertise while leaving project management to academic or institutional leads. With 21 unique partners across 12 countries from just two projects, they clearly work in mid-to-large multi-country consortia rather than small bilateral arrangements. This breadth of partners with no repetition suggests they are brought in as specialist contributors rather than being part of a recurring research network.

Vilans has connected with 21 distinct consortium partners across 12 countries through just two projects — an unusually wide network relative to their project volume, indicating they join large European consortia. Their geographic reach extends across Western and Northern Europe, consistent with the focus areas of both projects (pan-European care system reform and young carer support).

What sets them apart

Vilans occupies a distinctive niche as a practice-oriented knowledge centre rather than a university or hospital — they translate care research into operational guidance for care providers, making them valuable when a consortium needs a partner who can bridge academia and front-line care delivery. Their dual expertise in older adult care systems and informal caregiver support is rare in a single organisation, giving them cross-cutting relevance in ageing-related projects. For consortium builders, they bring Dutch care system access and a national network of care organisations, which is useful for multi-country implementation studies needing a credible Netherlands site.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SUSTAIN
  The larger of the two projects by budget (EUR 417,415) and thematically central to Vilans' identity — a pan-European effort to develop sustainable integrated care models for older people across multiple country sites.
• ME-WE
  Signals a strategic expansion beyond elderly care into adolescent mental health and young carer support, a relatively underserved and growing EU policy priority.