Boosting Interregional Innovation Investment and cooperation among Health Innovation Ecosystems

Project Description

Europe has traditionally excelled in providing high-quality healthcare and still holds the potential to become a global leader in health research and development. To realize this potential, there is a need to establish a long-term, collaborative ecosystem across regions that supports and incentivizes research and development, as well as stable partnerships.

The I3HIES project aims to enhance health innovation ecosystems to optimize the effectiveness of the healthcare sector and facilitate efficient international collaboration among key innovation stakeholders. With 9 partners from Hungary, Austria, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia, the project will focus on three thematic areas: medical devices, emergency equipment, and MDR compliance. Specifically, the partners will expedite the development of validated innovative investments in these areas and promote interregional cooperation within EU value chains. Initially, the partners will support the innovation process by assisting actors in identifying innovation opportunities, enhancing networking, collaboration, and co-creation through ideation support events.

The I3HIES project follows a complex approach to foster interregional innovation investments and collaboration in the health innovation ecosystem. Partners will work thematically in 3 focus areas (medical devices, emergency equipment, MDR compliance) and methodically in 2 implementation pillars (innovation investment and interregional cooperation and participation in EU value chains) on 2 intervention levels (intraregional and interregional), by providing a comprehensive portfolio of tailored services to 4-helix stakeholder groups (quadruple helix actors representing research, policy, business and society) that will experiment and validate at least 6 innovative methods, tools and techniques (interactive peer reviews, living lab concept, service design, customer friction, intrapreneurship, innovation scouting) in 5 thematic work packages (I3HIES Community Building, Front End Discover, Business Case Design, Preparation for Funding and Strengthening the Ecosystem).

The innovation actors participating in the I3HIES community will be supported i) to prepare innovation investments by facilitating and tutoring the innovation process from ideation through business case design till the preparation for funding, and ii) accelerate the development of validated innovation investments in the thematic priorities, and ii) to enhance interregional cooperation and participation in interregional partnerships and contribute to EU value chains.

The immediate goal is to validate 15 project ideas, establish 3 European partnerships and develop the most promising mini-business cases into concrete investment plans, thereby supporting the ongoing transformation of the healthcare sector.