About the community + Programmes

Life expectancy has increased significantly in the post war period but at the same time we have also seen an increase in chronic diseases and multi-morbidity. This means more treatment and follow-up of patients are needed and and as a result higher costs for the healthcare systems. This EIT wants to improve the monitoring and prevention of diseases so we can have healthier and longer lives at a lower cost for the healthcare service. They have 6 focus areas in which they want to create breakthrough innovative products and services:

• Reforming care pathways which are now focused at the treatment whereas in the future they should include the entire cycle from the onset of disease all the way through end-of-life support
• Transforming the health care sector by reducing the fragmentation and bring innovations from different countries together
• Data is the new gold and this also applies to the health sector where good analysis of large amounts of available data can lead to new insights and innovation.
• Bringing care from the hospital to the home
• Improving the health and stress levels of care workers
• Helping people to live healthier and prevent diseases

The approach is threefold: education, innovation and acceleration of market take-up.

First of all, they want to better train the workforce of tomorrow through the Campus programme. They try to upskill workers so they are up to date with the latest technologies. Secondly, innovators are detected and helped by a team of experts so they can develop their products and services and reach out to a new audience. Their accelerator programme is not just limited to start-ups but can help at every stage of growth whereby its primary aim is to shorten the time-to-market for the product or service.

How to get involved?

The EIT publishes regularly calls for proposals for these different programmes. You can find out the opportunities and latest news at the webpage of the innovation community https://eit.europa.eu/our-communities/eit-health

The Headquarter of EIT health is in Munich but there are in addition seven regional innovation hubs. For Belgium, this is based in Rotterdam. You can contact the hub director by mail Menno.kok@eithealth.eu

You can also attend or watch InnoveEIT, the annual conference of the EIT where you can meet other members of the communities and experts of the EIT itself.

Finally you can contact the NCP for health, sarah.stroobants@fwo.be