The MoU signing marks a significant milestone in our joint commitment to supporting ground-breaking research and innovation that will improve healthcare and make Europe’s health ecosystem globally more competitive.
The Innovative Health Initiative is a unique public-private partnership between the European Union and Europe’s life science industries, namely the pharmaceutical, medical technology, biotechnology, digital health, and vaccine industries. Its core goals are to translate health research and innovation into tangible benefits for patients and society.
Like us, IHI receives EU funding under Horizon Europe and the MoU is in line with a wider drive to encourage EU programmes to build synergies where relevant. Concretely, the MoU between EIT Health and IHI focuses on the identification of areas of mutual interest and means of collaboration.
We already joined forces during the recent Matchmaking Info Session organised by EIT Health for the Member State-driven initiative Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) on health. The objective was to consider how EU initiatives – such as EIT Health and IHI – can be complementary to the IPCEI on health by (for instance) supporting SMEs and academia (which may contribute to addressing the market failure identified by the IPCEI but cannot benefit from its funding).
Another priority in the MoU is the identification of ways to leverage our acceleration programmes which could be used to support the further development of outputs from projects supported by IHI or its predecessor, the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI). Finally, under the MoU, we promise to communicate effectively with one another and share information and data as appropriate.
Our MoU with IHI is a significant step towards contributing meaningfully to EU priorities by creating a collaborative innovation ecosystem that promotes entrepreneurship and innovation in healthcare. By leveraging our unique strengths and resources, we aim to create a platform that supports healthcare entrepreneurs, researchers, and healthcare professionals across Europe.
Source: European Institute of Innovation & Technology | News (https://bit.ly/3oKWK0x)