BRIDGE - EIT Health

Biomanufacturing Regions for Integrated Development and Growth in the Ecosystems (BRIDGE)

The challenge

 

Europe faces a critical production gap in biomanufacturing, fragmented regional ecosystems, and significant difficulties in scaling world-class research to market. This systemic failure threatens the EU’s technological sovereignty and its ability to respond to healthcare demands.

BRIDGE provides a strategic, interregional collaboration framework, connecting Catalonia, Silesia, and Campania to create a resilient biomanufacturing corridor. The project transfers essential knowledge fosters joint industry-driven initiatives, and provides a clear pathway to strategic EU investment (I3 Instrument), ensuring European innovation thrives.

The BRIDGE project (15 September 2025 – 14 September 2027) aims to harmonise capabilities and integrate key regional biomanufacturing ecosystems to accelerate innovation, improve industrial capacity, and strengthen the competitiveness and resilience of the European Health Union.

EIT Health's role

Within the BRIDGE project, EIT Health plays a central role as one of eight consortium partners, leading Work Package 5: Communication and Dissemination. This responsibility places EIT Health at the forefront of shaping how the project’s insights, results and long-term value are shared across Europe and beyond.

The BRIDGE consortium itself reflects the collaborative ambition at the core of the project. Bringing together eight partners from Spain, Italy and Poland, alongside leading European networks. It spans the full bio-manufacturing value chain, connecting regional ecosystems, academia and industry. Within this framework, EIT Health acts as a catalyst, translating complex innovation into accessible narratives that inform, engage and inspire.

Objectives

The objectives of BRIDGE are to:

1.Build stronger regional ecosystems by mapping and aligning the biomanufacturing landscapes in Silesia and Campania with the benchmark of Catalonia, fostering growth through targeted knowledge transfer.

2.Enable cross-regional collaboration by establishing Interregional Biomanufacturing Interest Groups to identify value chain gaps, share expertise, and spark new cooperation opportunities.

3.Upskill the ecosystem by developing and pilot a tailored training programme to boost the competence, competitiveness, and resilience of medical biotech stakeholders.

4.Address industry challenges by identifying key industrial needs from large companies and connect them with innovative solution providers to create new business partnerships.

5.Unlock funding opportunities by building a pipeline of investment-ready projects and match them with regional, national, and European funding opportunities, including EIT Health support.

6.Shape future innovation pathways by developing S3-based roadmaps to guide regional biomanufacturing growth and support selected projects in accessing instruments like I3 and other EU funding programmes.

Project partners

The BRIDGE consortium brings together a multidisciplinary group of eight partners from three European regions: Catalonia (Spain), Campania (Italy), and Silesia (Poland), representing actors from regional ecosystems, academia, and industry across the bio-manufacturing value chain.

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