EPIC-NL
EPIC-NL
EPIC-NL is the Dutch contribution to international EPIC infrastructure, one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive health biobank. Since the 1990s, EPIC has followed over 521,000 participants across 10 European countries—including 50,000 in the Netherlands—to explore how diet, lifestyle, environment, and genetics influence chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. More than 90,000 cancer cases have occurred during follow-up, providing invaluable insight into risk factors and early detection. With more than 3.8 million biological samples stored, EPIC provides a globally unique research resource. EPIC-NL continues to support innovative research into early detection and prevention, helping uncover how our daily choices impact long-term health.
Infrastructure and User Services
EPIC-NL is the Dutch contribution to the international EPIC infrastructure, one of the world’s largest and longest-running prospective biobanks. Since the early 1990s, EPIC-NL has followed approximately 50,000 individuals to investigate the interplay between diet, lifestyle, environment, genetics, and the risk of major chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. EPIC-NL also is part of the National Cohort Consortium.
The infrastructure includes detailed baseline data, repeated follow-up on lifestyle and health status, physical measurements, and blood samples stored long-term in liquid nitrogen. This biobank contains high-quality plasma, serum, red-blood-cells and buffy coat samples, enabling a wide range of molecular analyses. EPIC-NL is linked to national disease and mortality registries, providing ongoing, comprehensive health outcome data.
Data collection and protocols are harmonized across EPIC-Europe, which includes over 521,000 participants from 10 countries and more than 3.8 million biospecimens. This harmonization allows researchers to contrast and compare EPIC-NL with international cohorts, increasing variability in potential determinants of health, facilitating the study of exposures less common in the Netherlands, and enabling cross-cohort validation.
EPIC-NL provides a rich resource for studying disease aetiology, biomarker discovery, risk prediction, and early detection. Approved users can access epidemiological data, biomaterials, and registry linkages. The infrastructure supports a range of research designs, including nested case-control and multi-omics studies. Users are supported by expert teams in epidemiology, biostatistics, and data management. Analyses are facilitated through a Digital Research Environment.
Access to EPIC and EPIC-NL is governed by strict ethical and data privacy protocols.
Examples/description of the type of research
The EPIC-NL infrastructure supports research into the causes and early development of chronic diseases, with a particular focus on cancer, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and other major non-communicable diseases. As part of the EPIC-Europe cohort, EPIC-NL provides access to a well-characterized population of approximately 50,000 Dutch individuals, followed since the early 1990s.
Researchers can access comprehensive baseline data, including dietary intake, lifestyle habits, anthropometric measurements, and health history, along with repeated follow-up through questionnaires and linkage to national disease and mortality registries. Biological samples collected at baseline and stored in liquid nitrogen enable molecular epidemiology and biomarker studies using genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and epigenetics.
The infrastructure has been used extensively to study associations between dietary patterns, nutrient intake, physical activity, obesity, smoking, and alcohol consumption with disease risk. EPIC-NL’s prospective design allows for time-resolved analyses of exposures before disease onset, reducing the risk of reverse causation.
Cross-cohort comparability with other EPIC centers in nine European countries enables international research on geographically variable exposures, rare outcomes, and validation of findings across populations. Over 3,000 peer-reviewed publications based on EPIC data—many including EPIC-NL—have contributed to public health guidelines and risk prediction tools. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=%22european+prospective+investiga…
Current and future research includes investigations of the exposome, early disease biomarkers, gene–environment interactions, and disease subtypes, supporting precision prevention and early detection strategies.
How to access the infrastructure?
Access to EPIC-NL is granted through a structured application process. Researchers submit a proposal detailing objectives, required data or biospecimens, and ethical approval. All requests are reviewed by a data access board for scientific merit, feasibility, and compliance with privacy regulations. Approximately 80% of access is for academic research, 15% for governmental research institutes, and 5% for industry or public-private collaborations. Data access is typically provided remotely under data use agreements, while biospecimen access involves coordinated retrieval based on sample availability and study needs. All access is subject to governance ensuring responsible and ethical use.