EIT Health Looks to Create New Business Ventures Addressing the Way we Manage Mental and Brain Health and Use Digital Biomarkers for Diagnostics

EITEIT Health, a network of best-in-class innovators backed by the EU, has announced the second year of its innovation programme, Wild Card. The second year of high-risk innovation programme Wild Card kicks off this week, challenging talent to deliver real solutions to the healthcare market.

  • EIT Health Wild Card programme application window open until 10 February 2019, looking for entrepreneurs, scientists, medical professionals, technical experts and researchers.
  • Successful applicants will be shortlisted for 2019 hackathon where they will fight for business support and funding.
  • Winning teams will receive world class business mentoring and €2 million in funding over two years.
  • Jan-Philipp Beck, EIT Health CEO: "We know this talent is out there... through this programme, we hope to bring their ideas to the next level."

Individuals will be taken on an entrepreneurial journey to become high-performing teams transforming their idea into a healthcare product or solution, thanks to the world class business mentoring, coaching and networking opportunities provided throughout four-phase innovation programme, Wild Card.

This year, Wild Card will focus on two challenges: mental and brain health and digital biomarkers in diagnostics.

The programme will build momentum through a week-long hackathon in April 2019 determining which ideas are selected to go through to the next phases; including a business acceleration and mentoring programme, and a final pitching round.

The ultimate goal of Wild Card is to create two new ventures and award them two years of support and €2 million in non-dilutive funding, helping them grow their high-risk ideas into thriving commercial businesses.

Each year, Wild Card sets down different challenges to the innovation community. Last year’s programme resulted in the development of two projects tackling the areas of antibiotic resistance and the use of data to enhance diagnostics: DX-Labtrack and Abtrace. These two newly-created start-ups will work with EIT Health over the next two years to accelerate their products towards market-readiness.

Wild Card is now offering the opportunity for new applicants to join the programme, looking at two major key issues that impact citizens' health in Europe. This year's hopeful candidates must present their experience, skills and ideas to address one of two questions:

  • Mental and brain health - How to improve prediction, diagnosis and treatment to fight mental disorders and strengthen brain health?
  • Digital biomarkers - How to improve early diagnostics with the application of digital biomarkers?

Commenting at the Wild Card programme application launch, EIT Health's CEO Jan-Philipp Beck said: "Now in its second year, Wild Card continues its search for risk-taking game changers who have the potential to bring about transformations in healthcare. We know this talent is out there and looking for the right opportunities. Through this programme, we hope to find them and offer them the business, research and financial supports necessary to bring their ideas to the next level."

Applications can be submitted via wildcard.eithealth.eu from 10 December 2018. The deadline for applications is 23:59 CET (Central European Time), 10 February 2019.

About the Wild Card programme

Wild Card is a game-changing health innovation programme pioneered by EIT Health. Each year, Wild Card sets out different healthcare challenge areas, with the goal of delivering solutions to enable European citizens to live longer, healthier lives. Focusing on applied research, entrepreneurial ideas and innovative thinking, Wild Card takes a venture-building approach that identifies, fosters and helps develop high-risk ideas into thriving commercial businesses.

Through this unique programme, EIT Health offers world class mentors and business coaches to equip participants with the knowledge and expertise necessary to start on the right path; supports and accelerates the formation of skilled and ambitious teams by facilitating connections with other like-minded innovators; and funds these teams on their journey, from ideation to start-up incorporation.

About EIT Health

EIT Health is a network of best-in-class health innovators backed by the EU. We collaborate across borders to deliver new solutions that can enable European citizens to live longer, healthier lives.

As Europeans tackle the challenge of increasing chronic diseases and multi-morbidity, and seek to realise the opportunities that technology offers to move beyond conventional approaches to treatment, prevention and healthy lifestyles, we need thought leaders, innovators and efficient ways to bring innovative healthcare solutions to market.

EIT Health addresses these needs. We connect all relevant healthcare players across European borders - making sure to include all sides of the "knowledge triangle", so that innovation can happen at the intersection of research, education and business for the benefit of citizens.

Most Popular Now

AI Distinguishes Glioblastoma from Look-…

A Harvard Medical School–led research team has developed an AI tool that can reliably tell apart two look-alike cancers found in the brain but with different origins, behaviors, and treatments. The...

AI Body Composition Measurements can Pre…

Adiposity - or the accumulation of excess fat in the body - is a known driver of cardiometabolic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and kidney disease...

AI can Strengthen Pandemic Preparedness

How to identify the next dangerous virus before it spreads among people is the central question in a new Comment in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. In it, researchers discuss how...

New AI Tool Scans Social Media for Hidde…

A new artificial intelligence tool can scan social media data to discover adverse events associated with consumer health products, according to a study published September 30th in the open-access journal...

'Future-Guided' AI Improves Se…

In the world around us, many things exist in the context of time: a bird’s path through the sky is understood as different positions over a period of time, and...

Yousif's Story with Sectra and The …

Embarking on healthcare technology career after leaving his home as a refugee during his teenage years, Yousif is passionate about making a difference. He reflects on an apprenticeship in which...

AI Tool Offers Deep Insight into the Imm…

Researchers explore the human immune system by looking at the active components, namely the various genes and cells involved. But there is a broad range of these, and observations necessarily...

New AI Tools Help Scientists Track How D…

Artificial intelligence (AI) can solve problems at remarkable speed, but it’s the people developing the algorithms who are truly driving discovery. At The University of Texas at Arlington, data scientists...

New Antibiotic Targets IBD - and AI Pred…

Researchers at McMaster University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have made two scientific breakthroughs at once: they not only discovered a brand-new antibiotic that targets inflammatory bowel diseases...

Study Finds One-Year Change on CT Scans …

Researchers at National Jewish Health have shown that subtle increases in lung scarring, detected by an artificial intelligence-based tool on CT scans taken one year apart, are associated with disease...

Highland to Help Companies Seize 'N…

Health tech growth partner Highland has today revealed its new identity - reflecting a sharper focus as it helps health tech companies to find market opportunities, convince target audiences, and...