Innostars prepared the recommendations on the development of the Medical University of Łódź

The Medical University of Łódź, a Core Partner of EIT Health, wants to become a research university.

A new excellence strategy of the EIT Health Core Partner will direct and divert the course of the university’s future in the field of research and development for the next 6 years.

The Medical University of Łódź, a Core Partner of EIT Health, as one of the largest medical universities in Poland has begun to work on an excellence strategy called MEDiKUM, which will help obtaining research university statute in accordance with the so-called Act 2.0[1]. Recommendations for the university that will help in building this strategy were developed by EIT Health InnoStars.

Today in Poland 19  academic organisations are willing to become a research university. Under the new regulations, only 10 of them will be able to obtain the statute of a research university. The university development plan will be created by the end of the first half of this year. The goal of the excellence strategy (MEDiKUM) is to strengthen university research cooperation with prestigious research centres around the world, increase international recognition of academic success, increase the quality of student education, develop the competence of postgraduates and clinicians and manage the university using a modern business approach. As a result, the organisation will be ready to be transformed into a research university and strengthen its R&D potential. “We are already in the group of the best scientific centres in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe. We want to take another step and follow the best medical universities in the world to create our own catalyst for innovation for healthy living and active aging. At the university there are many medical innovations and ground-breaking research analyses that should be commercialised as soon as possible to help physicians, clinicians and researchers, and ultimately also patients”, says prof. Lucyna Woźniak, Vice-Rector for Science and International Cooperation at the Medical University of Łódź.

The European organisation EIT Health InnoStars, which won the tender for preparing a strategy for the Medical University of Łódź, is involved in education, acceleration and implementation of innovative solutions in the field of medicine, health care and active aging in Europe. “Given the potential of the Medical University of Łódź and its activity in the European arena, the university is already on the right path towards a transformation into a research unit. Thanks to a long-term excellence strategy for health and healthy aging, the Medical University has a chance to become one of the most modern of its kind in Poland and the region of Central and Eastern Europe”, says Mikołaj Gurdała, Regional Manager at EIT Health InnoStars. “EIT Health supports the development of public-private partnerships and projects in the field of innovative medicine and healthcare. We combine entities from the area of​ science, industry, research and development, but also start-ups from various countries and help launch innovative international projects. Thanks to a network of 150 partners across Europe, including organisations such as Oxford University Hospital, GE Healthcare or the Sorbonne, we have well-established experience in developing strategies aimed at modernising, among others, medical schools“, adds Mikołaj Gurdała.

An example of the project implemented in cooperation with the Medical University of Łódź and EIT Health is CLOSE2, in which 9 partners from all over Europe are involved. Within its framework, an artificial pancreas is developed for patients with type 2 diabetes and a tele-informatic platform cooperating with the artificial pancreas, which monitors the treatment of such patients.

More information: Mikołaj Gurdała, Innovation Manager & Regional Manager North-Eastern-Europe, EIT Health InnoStars.

[1] The Law on Higher Education and Science