InnoStars and TU Delft launch EIT Health DRIVE programme

EIT Health InnoStars together with TU Delft, EIT Health Partner, has created and launched a new ecosystem development programme to boost the healthcare innovation capacity in more progressing EU regions.

The new programme will be focused on joint learning to move the regions included in the EIT Health Regional Innovation Scheme to the next level of development.

„The main purpose of EIT Health DRIVE is to nourish innovation in Central, Eastern and Southern European regions. We will work on deepening the knowledge and skills of innovation leaders and foster closer interactions between knowledge triangle actors. This is an exclusive programme with the active participation of EIT Health Hubs which drive this valuable transformation of their regions. Thanks to the engagement of TU Delft we are able to equip participants with expertise to boost their local innovation ecosystems. EIT Health DRIVE has a real chance to become a game-changer”, says Mónika Tóth, EIT Health RIS Programme Manager.

The programme is structured in such a way that it targets five improvement areas: engaging clinical stakeholders in innovation, improving processes related to start-up acceleration, driving student entrepreneurship, developing technology transfer capabilities, creating a network of policymakers to drive innovation. At the end of this pilot edition of the programme, local innovation leaders will design concrete strategies based on an analysis of the key features of their regions.

“This is a unique design thinking approach based on the methodology that we partially developed. Fifteen years ago, TU Delft struggled with under-developed entrepreneurship skills, culture and support mechanisms for the students and staff. Back then, we decided we needed to work on that and we set a number of mechanisms in motion. Some failed and others were a great success. It’s a pleasure to work in this DRIVE training programme with the EIT Health Hub leaders on a deep strategic analysis of regional assets, benchmarking and sketching a real action plan and mid-term regional strategies. For the purpose of joint learning, a dedicated online platform was created so that the connected regions can complete their data collection and see the benchmark to others. On the same platform, the leaders can inspire themselves with relevant learning materials”, explains Roel Kamerling Senior Programme Developer at TU Delft.

“Besides a dedicated online learning platform, the programme consists of two new formats of sharing the knowledge. The participants will be able to learn from the success and failures of people who played pivotal roles in developing the Delft or other ecosystems during the series of Inspirational Talks. The online meetings will host top-notch experts from TU Delft, but also local innovation leaders who will share their lessons learnt. In addition, during Masterclasses they will be provided with explicit know-how about specific topics such as market validation, technology transfer policies or creation of an investor network”, says Nóra Félegyházi, RIS Innovation Ecosystem Development Manager.

The programme is targeted at EIT Health Hubs and their local networks in 14 EIT Health RIS regions.

More information about EIT Health DRIVE is available here.

To learn more about possibilities of participation – please contact the respective EIT Health Hub in your region. The list is available here.