EIT Health Spain holds its 2nd Annual Meeting at the CaixaForum in Madrid

Impressive evolution of the consortium is noted

The second EIT Health Spain Annual Meeting took place 14 December at the CaixaForum in Madrid. The Spanish regional innovation hub of EIT Health celebrated its second year of activity in an event chaired by Carmen Velan (pictured above), Spain’s Secretary of State of Investigation, Development and Innovation. The gathering was attended by the consortium’s partners and numerous relevant actors of the Spanish health innovation ecosystem.

In her speech, the Secretary of State noted that she has closely followed the evolution of the consortium since its creation and was “very satisfied” with the results obtained so far. She also mentioned the support given by her Ministry to the KIC initiative: “Today we are in an EIT activity that promotes the famous triangle of knowledge, research, education and innovation. This fits perfectly with the Spanish strategy of science, technology and innovation, which proposes to go from the idea to the product, from the laboratory to the market, understanding by market a sustainable society particularly in health,” Ms Vela said.

The three central interventions of the Meeting had were based on the three pillars of EIT Health. The Innovation Pillar was addressed by Cristina Bescos, Manager of the European program Philips Healthcare, who give a presentation on Innovation in digital health focused on co-creation and collaboration. The Acceleration Pillar was represented by Andrew Funk, who spoke about his project Homeless Entrepreneurs, an initiative focused on promoting the talent of homeless people, so they can play an active role in society. The Campus Pillar was covered in a presentation about the initiatives aimed at healthcare for citizens that were developed in the cities of Łódź (presented by Aneta Andrzejczyk and Aleksandra Olejnik), and Granollers, (presented by Francesc Martínez and Esteve Llargués).

Representatives of Spanish start-ups Peptomyc, Mowoot and WIVI, winners in the national call of the European Health Catapult 2017 in the categories of Medtech, Biotech and Digital Health respectively, presented their projects to the public and received their recognition certificates.

In addition, EIT Health Spain awarded a certificate to the eight winners of the 2017 Headstart calls in recognition of their participation: AELIX Therapeutics S.L., Rethink Medical, 2Eyes Vision, Avizorex Pharma, Onalabs, Osasen, Virtual Bodyworks and Peptomyc. At the end of the meeting, the winners of the 2017 Summer School Awards, whose posters were on display at the venue, also received their Certificate of participation.

The event ended with a few words from the Chief Operations Officer of EIT Health, Jan-Philipp Beck, who greeted the partners and colleagues of the Spanish regional innovation hub present at the event, thanking them for their collaboration with the consortium.

After the meeting, the partners of EIT Health Spain celebrated the last General Assembly of the year at the ImpactHub Madrid.

To download the agenda, information package, the speakers’ presentations and the pictures of the Annual Meeting, click here. For the press release in Spanish, see below.

II EIT Health Spain Jornada Anual – Press release in Spanish