Maris College The Hague wins Marc Cornelissen Young Talent Award

The Marc Cornelissen Brightlands Young Talent Award 2026 has been awarded to students from Maris College Belgisch Park in The Hague. They won the award for their submission, in which they developed an alternative to attaching arterial line holders to patients during hospital transport. The winners were chosen in Utrecht after six pitches by other graduating students from Technasium schools across the Netherlands.

Innovations for a circular world

The Marc Cornelissen Brightlands Young Talent Award is an encouragement prize for young sustainability pioneers, dedicated to adventurer Marc Cornelissen. For a long time, he committed himself to countering the impact of climate change on the polar region, but he died in 2015 due to a fatal accident during his final North Pole expedition. Last year, the Award was presented for the first time to Technasium students from Rotterdam. The Technasium is an educational track for beta-technical education at the HAVO and VWO levels. Central is the subject Research and Design (O&O), in which students work in teams on current beta-technical assignments from practice.

Butterfly clamp for safe patient transport

To have a chance of winning the award, graduating candidates from Technasium schools could submit their master's projects. Of the 32 submissions, 6 were selected for the final. The jury eventually chose the submission of Maite van Gils, Rebecca Newman and Hatice Kapan from The Hague as winner.

The talents developed, commissioned by Erasmus MC, an alternative for safely attaching arterial lines (the tube placed in the artery to measure, among other things, blood pressure) to patients during transport within hospitals. Arterial lines are crucial for continuous blood pressure measurement in patients, but pose a risk during transport, particularly due to the absence of a standardized, safe holder or clamp.

The jury was impressed by the project, particularly by how far the young people have already come in the development process. The jury said about this: “The winners have worked hard on a solution to make the transport of patients in the hospital safer, which has already resulted in a working, officially tested and approved product: the Butterfly Clamp.”

Sustainable, made from recycled hospital material

The clamp can be attached to a patient’s upper arm within seconds in a fast, efficient, patient-friendly and safe way. After the Butterfly Clamp has been attached to the arm with a silicone band, the blood pressure meter can quickly and safely be attached at the patient’s heart level, after which the patient is ready for transport. The sustainable aspect of the submission consists, among other things, of saving tape, which is often still used to attach things to the patient’s upper arm, and the Butterfly Clamp itself is sustainable. The clamp is made of recycled hospital material and is expected to last at least 20 years.

One year of tuition fees for follow-up study

All students of the winning team receive one year of tuition fees for higher professional education or university study. They also gain access to the Marc Cornelissen Brightlands Award Foundation's network, which offers a great opportunity to realize their idea.

With the presentation of the Marc Cornelissen Brightlands Young Talent Award, registration has also opened for the Marc Cornelissen Brightlands Award for adults. Inspiring ideas in the field of sustainability and circular transition can be submitted here.