EIT Health welcomes new Partners in live event

2021 newcomers present themselves

EIT Health welcomed 14 new Associate Partners in a 25 February 2021 online event that allowed the newcomers to introduce themselves to our community. Coming from eight different countries, these new Partners enrich EIT Health’s network with a wide range of strengths, specialities and resources.

The live event featured the directors of EIT Health’s regional Innovation Hubs giving presentations about the new partners, as well as statements from representatives of the partners. The presentations were introduced by Jan-Philipp Beck, EIT Health CEO, who also interviewed the various partners about their potential contributions and their goals in cooperating with EIT Health.

“I’m very proud that the 14 partners we will introduce to you today will be reinforcing our network. Not only bringing greater geographical diversity, but also enriching our capabilities, with their assets, their experience and their expertise,” Jan-Philipp Beck said.

These Associate Partners officially joined EIT Health at the beginning of the year. In addition to the 14 presented during the live event, Erasmus University in Rotterdam is also joining as a new partner. At the same time, three existing EIT Health Partners deepened their involvement with the network by increasing their standing, from Associate Partners to Core Partners: Maastricht University, Region Stockholm and Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

Watch the recording of the online presentation of new EIT Health partners here.

The New Associate Partners joining EIT Health in 2021

ALCEN (France): A mid-cap company with 2,000 collaborators and about €250 million in turnover, ALCEN is a group of 22 operational subsidiaries, each focused on one technology, ranging from security to healthcare. ALCEN’s ambition is to establish an ongoing policy of innovation, and to achieve this, the company is developing a particularly extensive in-house technological base. ALCEN’s activities are organised around three pillars: proprietary products, high-level subcontracting and associated services. Their reasons for joining EIT Health include: being part of a dynamic innovation environment that will help the company develop innovative solutions with high social and societal impact; promoting collaborations across Europe involving start-ups, clinicians, laboratories, large companies and other actors; and improving patient management by proposing meaningful innovations to answer unmet medical needs.

Bio Check Up (Italy): An SME based in Naples, Italy, with deep experience in radiological evaluations, Bio Check Up provides professional consulting, assistance and research in healthcare, with the aim of supporting clinical decision-making processes. Bio Check Up aligns with the strategic goals of EIT Health and specifically, works on: strengthening healthcare systems in Campania, Italy, and Europe; promoting better health of citizens; contributing to a sustainable health economy in Europe; promoting equitable access to high specialisation; sharing ideas and cooperating on several levels and developing cutting edge research projects. Bio Check Up is part of a local network of academic institutions, hospitals and enterprises and can be a reference partner for innovative projects and technological transfer in healthcare, specifically in diagnostic imaging. Bio Check Up has a team of highly specialised professionals and researchers involved in image processing, automation and digitisation related to the diagnostic workflow. Their interest in EIT Health includes the opportunity to establish partnerships that promote innovation and high-quality research in healthcare, specifically in medical imaging and nuclear medicine.

Bluemetrix (Ireland-UK): A full-service data company with 18 years’ experience, Bluemetrix provides an automated data processing platform that offers companies the chance to control data from operations, to governance, analytics and reporting. Their BDM Health is a suite of tools that allows healthcare professionals to build data lakes from disparate systems – such as electronic health records, pathology systems and primary care data systems – to provide complete views of data from the patient, disease, care and administration perspectives. The organisational goals of Bluemetrix and EIT Health align well, as the new Partner and the network both emphasise the importance of strengthening healthcare systems through data. With their specialisation in data in a healthcare setting, Bluemetrix is a unique Partner in EIT Health.

DKV Servicios (Spain): This subsidiary company of the DKV Seguros Group works as a health, wellbeing and digital health services provider. DKV, a personal insurance company dedicated to insurance, reinsurance and health services, has recently made a firm commitment to digital health, reinforced by the creation of DKV Digital Health Innolab. Innolab aims to contribute to the improvement of health system sustainability through the concept of Smart Positive Health, which establishes a person-centred and holistic model that promotes the use of intelligent technological resources to implement a ubiquitous, preventive, personalised, proactive and predictive approach to care. DKV will add to the value of the EIT Health community by offering: insight from the private health insurance industry and access to citizens and professionals in that sector; the use of Innolab assets in new or existing programmes; a new member of EIT Health’s Living Labs network; and identification of new start-ups.

Erasmus University Rotterdam (Netherlands): This highly ranked, international research university is based in the dynamic and diverse city of Rotterdam. Founded in 1913, it is currently one the biggest universities of the Netherlands with a student population of 29,000 and a research community of about 1,400. Scholars and students in seven faculties and two institutions work on global social challenges in the areas of: health, wealth, governance and culture. Erasmus University Medical Center, is already an EIT Health Core Partner.

Helsinki University Hospital HUS (Finland): The largest hospital district in Finland, with about 680,000 patients receiving medical care annually, HUS is also the country’s largest healthcare provider and the second largest employer. HUS is recognised as managing the most demanding specialist medical care in Finland, and it has nationwide responsibility to provide centralised care for many rare and severe diseases. HUS and its Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Clinical Trial Unit have excellent resources to strengthen the EIT Health network, including the largest cancer treatment centre in Finland and a significant clinical trial unit. Membership in EIT Health provides HUS with new opportunities for business collaboration, both in terms of new clinical trials and translational projects, while enhancing possibilities to seek funding for research projects within the wider Horizon Europe programme.

INiTS (Austria): Based in Vienna, Austria, this is one of the top university business incubators in the world. INiTS serves all academic institutions in Vienna with incubation and tech transfer services. Since its incorporation in 2002, INiTS has run a unique incubation programme with a focus on innovative, R&D-based business ideas. INiTS‘ track record in healthcare start-ups includes: Marinomed (INiTS‘ first IPO), Apeptico, f-star, Medicus.AI, Miracor, mySugr and S-Target, to name a few. To enable founders to focus on developing their technologies, INiTS offers up to €100,000 in investment to selected incubees. They share EIT Health’s mission to drive change in European healthcare and to scale up health-tech/digital health start-ups.

Institut Pasteur (France): With more than 140 research units, a worldwide network of 32 institutes and staff of more than 2,700 at its Paris Campus, the Institut Pasteur is a strong addition that brings new opportunities for cooperation to the EIT Health network. The Institut Pasteur’s strategic plan includes three scientific priorities: emerging infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and brain connectivity and neurodegenerative diseases – as well as concerted actions in vaccinology and cancer. Institut Pasteur’s motivations for joining EIT Health include the opportunity to leverage assets to address patient and market needs, and the chance to leverage their investments in education and entrepreneurship activities through the Business Creation and Education programmes.

KORIAN (France): The company manages nursing homes, specialised clinics, assisted living facilities and home hospitalisation, with a presence in six countries (France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands). They have 893 establishments and 470,000 clients. Their objectives with EIT Health partnership are to: enhance medical networks and research activities; establish partnerships with high-level scientific organisations; obtain support and partners for innovative solutions and care pathways; and improve training and mobility of healthcare staff through pan European programmes.

Łukasiewicz Research Network – PORT Polish Centre for Technology Development (Poland): This institute focuses on developing new technologies by conducting research for the benefit of, and in cooperation with, industry. Łukasiewicz – PORT allows high-class specialists to use an infrastructure of the most advanced research and development laboratories in Poland. The centre’s activities focus on biotechnology (including biobanking) and materials engineering, allowing them to carry out both scientific research, as well as pilot studies for the industry in a comprehensive manner.

Medical University of Gdańsk (MUG) (Poland): This modern academic centre is widely acclaimed both nationally and internationally. The university is characterised by high scientific and development potential and is the only medical university in the country selected to the elite group of the top 10 best Polish universities by the prestigious Excellence Initiative – Research University competition. The Perspektywy educational foundation ranking rated MUG the best medical university in Poland. MUG educates more than 6,000 students, including doctoral and postgraduate students. This number includes 935 foreign students, which is over 15 percent of the full student body. The university provides education in all medical professions, based on a modern teaching and clinical infrastructure.

Patient Innovation Association (Portugal): A non-profit organisation, with headquarters in Lisbon, Portugal, addresses the needs of patients with any disease in any geographical location. Patient Innovation provides an international platform and social network for patients, caregivers and collaborators to share health innovations that they develop themselves to cope with the challenges of the medical condition that they face. The platform currently has more than 100,000 users worldwide, and 1,500 solutions published and medically approved, on the basis of more than 2,500 innovations submitted from more than 80 countries. Patient Innovation’s participation in EIT Health is expected to help find the right partners to develop projects that highlight the ideas and innovative potential of patients and their caregivers. Patient Innovation is already developing “Patient Innovation Bootcamp: Boosting Patient Entrepreneurship”, supported by EIT Health in collaboration with a consortium formed by several EIT Health partners, University of Copenhagen, IESE, Biocat, Glintt and NOVA University Lisbon.

Polpharma (Poland): This is one of the leading drug manufacturers in the region of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Polpharma is a strong, international pharmaceutical group, employing more than 7,500 and offering high quality drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and innovative solutions for patients and business partners from around the world. With a wide portfolio of around 750 products, the company supports patients in the treatment and prevention of the most common diseases. About 400 million packages of drugs, helping people in 35 countries, leave Polpharma Group factories every year. The company’s APIs go to over 60 countries. Partnership with science, and investment in new products and technologies allow the company to provide patients access to innovative healthcare solutions.

ProductLife Group (France): The group is a leader in providing regulatory and pharmacovigilance outsourcing consulting services to the global life sciences industry. They bring EIT Health expertise in the fields of regulatory, safety and pharmaceutical compliance, and a risk management mindset. Their motivation for joining EIT Health includes the opportunity to collaborate on building the digital transformation and a greater ability to co-develop methods and tools for automation and data assessment.

Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (Portugal): This young European university has a strong international profile and a broad portfolio of courses and programmes, attended by about 20,000 students. NOVA is listed in the most prestigious international rankings of newly established universities. For instance, NOVA is listed in the Top 10 among European universities founded less than 50 years ago.