We want to promote innovation across borders; helping bring new products to new markets, accelerating the adoption of health products, services and concepts and, ultimately, improving the lives of citizens in Europe and beyond.
EIT Health Bridgehead: Take your healthcare business abroad
EIT Health’s Bridgehead programme brings together European health entrepreneurs who want to grow their business beyond their home market with the world’s top incubators and accelerators who have the expertise and resources to make it happen.
We help match your scale-up with an incubator or accelerator from EIT Health’s approved network – we call these organisations our Catalysers. Together, you will plan how to access new markets quickly and decisively, tap into local networks of partners and clients, access infrastructure and understand new regulatory systems. You’ll be given the seasoned expertise, insight and support needed to help realise your business ambitions.
If your company has a focus on active-aging, this year you will also have the opportunity to enter into the 2022 Healthy Longevity Catalyst Awards, a global innovation competition founded by the United States National Academy of Medicine (NAM) aiming to extend human health and function later in life.
Application deadline: 14 March 2022.
Our vision
Our programmes
Bridgehead offers you three different options to apply for:
BRIDGEHEAD EUROPE
Driving the expansion of your scale-up venture from one European market into another through partners with local knowledge
BRIDGEHEAD GLOBAL
Helping you expand your European health scale-up to markets, outside of Europe such as the US, Canada, China, Japan and South Korea amongst others
BRIDGEHEAD INBOUND
Supporting non-European ventures gain access to the European market
Why get involved
FLEXIBLE
Using our matchmaking process, choose where to work and with which Catalyser to best achieve your goals
TAILOR-MADE
Make the most of a bespoke, personalised service created for you to work in partnership with our Catalysers
SOFT-LANDING
A unique opportunity to be introduced to potential partners and access expert knowledge of the local health ecosystem in participating countries
RESULTS-ORIENTED
Progress with setting up local sales teams, getting distribution agreement signed-off, developing pricing strategies and more
FUNDING
A grant of €30,000 (Europe) or €40,000 (Global) to use with our network of handpicked and trusted Catalysers
GLOBAL COMPETITION
Present your innovation at the interntational NAM Annual Summit and compete for awards up to $1 million USD
UNIQUE ECOSYSTEM
Embed and raise the visibility of your scale-up in a unique and vibrant EIT Health ecosystem of more than 140 partners
How Bridgehead works
Our Catalysers
EUROPEAN CATALYSERS
Accelerators, incubators and clusters with a proven track record in building, accelerating and scaling-up healthcare companies.
The experts connect industries, corporates, entrepreneurs, specialists, commercial partners and mentors to provide unique access to knowledge, infrastructure and resources to accelerate growth across an interconnected continent.
GLOBAL CATALYSERS
An EIT Health-vetted network of committed European partners strongly networked and operating within markets outside of Europe.
The experts offer the same level of enthusiastic and engaged collaboration and support with the difference of providing the opportunity to expand into global markets including the USA, Canada, Israel, China, Japan and others.
Catalysers Catalogue
Each of our Catalysers have unique expertise and experience. You can find out more about each of them and where they operate in our Catalysers Catalogue. Here you can find the 2021 edition of the catalogue. We will soon update this with the 2022 catalysers.
DownloadWho should apply?
To qualify for Bridgehead Europe or Global, your company must:
- Be registered in Europe
- Sell a product or services in at least one market in Europe and be ready to open up a new market
- Deliver innovative, transformative products or services in biotech, medtech or digital health
- Have fewer than 250 full time employees
- To be eligible for the NAM Catalyst Award competition your innovation should focus on innovative ideas that fit the Healthy Longevity Grand Challenge objectives
For companies registered outside of Europe, to successfully qualify for Bridgehead Inbound your company must:
- Be registered outside Europe
- Sell your product or services in at least one market outside Europe and be ready to open up a new market in Europe
- Deliver innovative, transformative products or services in biotech, medtech or digital health
- Have fewer than 250 full time employees
- Companies applying to Bridgehead Inbound are not eligible for the Catalyst Awards of the NAM Healthy Longevity Grand Challenge
Financial obligations
Bridgehead Europe and Global: There is a 6% success fee of your company’s revenue in the new market, capped at three times the amount of the grant amount or three years after completing the programme, whichever comes first.
Bridgehead Inbound: Once you are selected, you will need to cover a participation fee of €500 and the cost of your soft-landing services. Those costs depend on the services requested by you and delivered by the Catalyser(s) of your choice but should amount to a total of €10,000.
“Bridgehead opens doors – giving you access to the right people and right organisations who can have the biggest impact in developing a market entry plan for a new market.”
Dr. Aida Nazarikhorram
Co-founder and CCO, Lux AI
“Through the collaboration with EIT Health's Bridgehead programme, our company was able to scale up and investigate the Dutch market in depth and to make plans for collaboration with potential partners.”
Nikolay Todorov
Marketing and Customer Relations Director, Smart Sort
Want to find out more?
Webinars are a great opportunity to learn more about this programme and to get all your questions answered by the Bridgehead team. Choose a date and join us:
- 3 February 2022 at 11 AM CET
- 3 March 2022 at 11 AM CET
Ready to apply?
Applying is simple. All you need to do is submit an application through our portal by 14 March 2022. Get your company’s information ready as you’ll need it to apply. Begin your journey today.
Apply now
