A patient-centred, challenge-driven and solution-oriented ELab
Healthcare innovations that target specific needs can be expected to be more effective. StartUB! sees students tackle real healthcare challenges in a solution-oriented programme.
StartUB! aims to encourage an entrepreneurial and innovative mindset among students through a challenge-driven education programme. University students from Spain, Ireland and Luxembourg work with entrepreneurs to find solutions for patient-centred challenges set by a hospital and a pharmaceutical company. The course features remote and in-person training.
Phase 1: Online training
This programme will present a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) entitled “The Entrepreneur’s Guide for beginners”, which is designed as a starting point for all those who want to improve their knowledge and skills in the world of entrepreneurship. Students in this course will be able to identify a business opportunity, develop the business model (and the steps to validate it) and know the main mechanisms to start a business. Created through a collaboration of all Catalan public universities and EIT Health, the course is in English with subtitles in Catalan and Spanish. Find out more about the online course and register here.
Phase 2: The challenges
The second part of the programme is planned to be run in parallel, at the University of Barcelona and National University of Ireland, and will make participants work on specific patient-centred challenges. Those who produce the best solutions will be invited to join in a “winter academy”, a training programme in which participants are to be immersed in the innovative ecosystems of Barcelona and Galway. This second phase is planned for November, and thus far plans still call for it to be held onsite in Spain and Ireland. Check back on this page for registration details.
Partners

CLC/InnoStars: Belgium-Netherlands
Partner classification: Education, Research
Partner type: Associate Partner
Founded in 2003, UNILU is a public institution and the first and only university of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is a multilingual and international institution, strongly focused on research. UNILU has the mission to serve Luxembourg as a platform of reflection and develop into one of the motors of economic diversification. Degrees are obtained from one of the three grouping of faculties: the Faculty of Science, Technology and Communication; the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance; and the Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education. Research focuses on a choice of priority areas. The research priorities have a conceptual link with strengths of Luxembourg’s society and its international context. Within these priorities were created three centres: the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH) and the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB). The focus on systems biomedicine originated from a governmental decision to create the knowledge basis to allow Luxembourg to become a biotechnological hub. The LCSB aims at unravelling the biological mechanisms underlying health and disease with a special emphasis on neurodegenerative diseases using molecular analyses and bioinformatics tools and computational models. UNILU as a young and developing university with a focus on systems biomedicine is well suited to engage into a programme to extend this focus towards the translation into the clinic and into building research bridges within Luxembourg to gain local critical mass. In addition, the government has decided to establish new medical training programmes in Luxembourg, which is expected to start in 2019 with the implementation of specialisation trainings in Neurology, Oncology and General Medicine. Moreover, in close cooperation with other universities a Bachelor in Medicine will start in 2020. Web: https://wwwen.uni.lu/ University of Luxembourg, 7 Avenue des Hauts-Fourneaux, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxemburg Why we are part of EIT Health Being part of the EIT Health gives us, and the whole Luxembourg, access to a network of Europe’s leading companies and academic institutions who are working on novel solutions for health preservation and on approaches to diagnosis and therapy in our society. It provides visibility for ongoing clinical and fundamental research in the area of biomedicine, as exemplified by a large interinstitutional research programme, the National Centre of Excellence in Research on Parkinson’s disease (NCER-PD). At UNILU we work in close collaboration with the other actors in the Health ecosystem to deploy a translational platform, integrating clinical research with basic science, and bridging effective prevention, diagnosis and therapy to patients in Luxembourg and beyond. One focus is on the functional consequences of identified mutations and the molecular signalling cascades in the pathogenesis of PD. While, the clinical research focus, within NCER-PD, is to establish and follow up a state-of-the-art cohort project of patients (800 patients and 800 controls) with parkinsonism in Luxembourg. The synergy between the basic and clinical research will lead to identify predictive and progression markers of the disease. On the end side of the Health system, Luxembourg implemented the ParkisonNet (www.parkinson.lu). EIT Health membership is a great chance for us to develop the results of our research towards patients far more efficiently than before. It offers a favourable environment for that: outstanding partners, truly good and proven infrastructures, and a financial endowment with which projects can be carried through to completion.
University of Luxembourg
University of Luxembourg, 7 Avenue des Hauts-Fourneaux, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxemburg
Key Activities in Research and Developement
Biomedical engineering, Life Sciences, Social sciences / health economics, Clinical research
Key Activities in Corporate Innovation
Pharma, ICT, Diagnostics, Imaging
Key Activities in Social Innovation
Healthcare provision
Key Activities in Education
Technical faculties, Medical faculties, Healthcare professional education/training


CLC/InnoStars: Spain
Partner classification: Education, Research
Partner type: Core partner
The main research areas related to EIT Health at the University of Barcelona are: life and medical sciences, the experimental sciences (physics, mathematics, geology and chemistry), economics, business, law, humanities and educational and behavioural sciences. The University of Barcelona has a strong focus on Medical and Health Sciences (3,244 articles were written on this topic in the last six years, half of them in the first quartile, and 48 patents in the same period). UB has also a diverse network of University hospitals such as Hospital Clínic, Bellvitge Hospital and Sant Joan de Déu, and over 10 associated hospitals in the area of Barcelona. Additionally, there are several associated Research Institutes such as IDIBAPS, IDIBELL, ISGlobal, among others. Specialist areas include: nutrition, cancer, genetics, medicine (all specialities), nursing, pharmacy, physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, prevention, drug discovery, bioengineering, law, economics and business development.
University of Barcelona
University of Barcelona, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 585, 08007 Barcelona, España
Key Activities in Business Creation
Technology Transfer, Business coaching
Key Activities in Education
Entrepreneurship training, Medical faculties, Healthcare professional education/training


CLC/InnoStars: Spain
Partner classification: Research, Hospital / University Hospital
Partner type: Core partner
Hospital Clínic de Barcelona is a university hospital founded in 1906 that belongs to the Catalan Public Hospital Network (XHUP).We include almost all medical and surgical specialties, and are active in the areas of Patient Care, Research and Education, either directly or through related companies.
Hospital Clínic de Barcelona
Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, Carrer de Villarroel, 170, 08036 Barcelona, Spain
Key Activities in Social Innovation
Healthcare provision
Key Activities in Business Creation
Testing & Validation
Key Activities in Education
Medical faculties, Healthcare professional education/training


CLC/InnoStars: UK-Ireland
Partner classification: Education, Tech Transfer, Clusters, Other NGOs
Partner type: Associate Partner
BioInnovate Ireland is a forum which combines resources to catalyse and lead medical innovation. Its training programme aims to act as a neutral territory where academia, clinicians and industry can collaborate on developing novel medical technologies. The programme is an active partnership between multiple universities (NUI Galway, University of Limerick and University College Cork). It engages with hospitals all over the country, and is supported by Enterprise Ireland, IMDA and multiple industry sponsors.
NUI Galway - BioInnovate Ireland
NUI Galway - BioInnovate Ireland, Galway, Ireland
Key Activities in Corporate Innovation
Med Tech, Consumer products
Key Activities in Business Creation
Business coaching
Key Activities in Education
Entrepreneurship training


CLC/InnoStars: Germany
Partner classification: Business, Research
Partner type: Core Partner
Amgen is a values-based company, deeply rooted in science and innovation to transform new ideas and discoveries into medicines for patients with serious illnesses. We use cutting-edge science and technology to study the subtlest biological mechanisms in search of therapies that will improve the lives of those who suffer from serious diseases. In everything we do, we aim to fulfill our mission to serve patients.
Key Activities in Research and Developement
Life Sciences, Clinical research
Key Activities in Corporate Innovation
Pharma
Key Activities in Social Innovation
Healthcare provision
Key Activities in Business Creation
Incubation, Technology Transfer, Testing & Validation
Key Activities in Education
Healthcare professional education/training
