The faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Groningen is the second oldest medical faculty in The Netherlands. Like the university, it was established in 1614. Ever since the foundation of the Groningen University Hospital in 1797, hospital and faculty have been cooperating closely. The Faculty of Medical Sciences has two tasks: providing medical scientific education and carrying out medical scientific research.

ESEM's mission brings benefits to medicine, to engineering and hence to the community, by supporting and identifying to medical doctors current and developing engineering contributions and technical developments in medicine; and by identifying for engineers specific medical problems which need to be solved by appropriate technological means.