Open Call SC1-HCC-04-2018: Digital Health and Care Services - Support for Strategy and (Early) Adoption

European CommissionHealth and care service providers and users are increasingly facing complex decisions when exploring and investing in new health and care solutions. There is a need to support cross-border cooperation in preparation of procurement of research and innovative digital solutions, including on how to balance innovation risks with improved outcomes. Further support is also needed for implementing high quality policies, strategies and practises in a concerted manner and providing more confidence in addressing key areas of interventions and related unmet needs, procedures and other measures. In addition there is a need to facilitate an appropriate dialogue with the supply side and academic stakeholders to understand the constraints and possibilities.

Scope

Create favourable framework conditions for cross-border Communities of Practise (CoP) and create a network that will assist the health & care research and innovation ecosystems in taking investment decisions on future procurement of research and innovation and, eventually, on (large scale) deployment of eHealth systems and new care delivery models. The network should support existing ecosystems, create capacities, promote, co-ordinate, collaborate with other innovation accelerators and investors, and focus on adoption and scale of health innovation European wide. To facilitate sufficient knowledge brokerage all appropriate actors in the innovation chain and systems should be engaged

The consortium should represent a well-designed network of procurers and demand side actors e.g., European regions, national care authorities, NGOs, patient and consumer organisations that have proven experience in the field and the capacity to engage and consult objectively all relevant actors. The consortium should also connect to investors, National Promotional Banks and Economic Development Agencies.

Additionally, diverging expectations and risk management in innovation chain should be addressed by offering a set of support activities beyond the innovation procurement procedures including access to finance and investor networks.

Approaches addressing consumer health should be interlinked in those cases where the institutional health and care services are expected to contribute.

The consortium is expected to assist those procurers that intend to prepare for a cross-border innovation procurement e.g., guiding them to address well-defined unmet needs of users in health and care, use the repositories of best practises and implementation guidelines and providing opportunities for networking.

The findings in earlier co-ordination and support actions for procurers e.g., EPP eHealth, Inspire and EAFIP should be taken on-board. Networking with supply and consumer market actors, investors and business accelerators should be well established (e.g. eHealth hub, EIT-KIC, EIP-AHA, AAL, ENoLL, National Promotional Banks, Economic Development Agencies). The progress in Blueprint Digital Transformation of health and care and EU-US MoU on health IT innovation eco-systems should be incorporated.

The proposal should include parallel activities building up on the competences and capacities of the network including but not limited to:

1) Co-ordinate the development of a multi-collaborative growth policy & strategy of the European health & care procurers and other demand side actors in the quadruple helix systemic context. The knowledge brokerage should facilitate easy migration of competences benefitting the ecosystems at various maturity levels in the innovation chain in thematic Communities of Practise and other professional networks.

In particular, the following elements should be taken into account:

  • facilitating the development of key areas of interventions in knowledge brokerage settings to get validated and accepted in health & care delivery services integrating data strategy as a fuel of novel digital health services;
  • linking research institutions, university hospitals in the context of thematic CoP;
  • education of new collaborative innovation principles and practises;
  • building upon national initiatives, however, taking into account the Lisbon treaty and
  • developing the existing or building up repositories of methodologies and set-ups of CoPs

2) Tailored assistance for procurers, regions, cities, national authorities and users to foster sustainable adoption e.g., by developing case specific innovation/business models, giving legal aid, addressing regulation, managing risks, sharing best practises, training and education, access to finance, addressing procurement events etc., interlinking with innovation acceleration of digital health and care industries, other actors.

3) The network should undertake activities that investigate the feasibility and facilitate the concrete preparation of a cross-border PCP for at least one shared common user and procurement need.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to €3M over three years would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of a proposal requesting other amounts or duration.

Expected Impact

The proposal should provide appropriate indicators to measure its progress and specific impact in the following areas:
  • Concerted approach and solutions to the challenges faced by the health ecosystems as perceived by service providers and users in several countries. Increased opportunities for health and care services providers to address unmet needs. Reduced fragmentation of service providers' demands.
  • Evidences of support and collaboration with consortia developing unmet needs for innovation procurement and implementation aspects beyond the innovation procurement procedures.
  • Concrete preparation of a cross-border PCP for at least one shared common procurement need.

Deadline: 24 April 2018 17:00:00

Deadline Model: single-stage

Type of action: CSA Coordination and support action

For topic conditions, documents and submission service, please visit:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/sc1-hcc-04-2018.html

PS: Find your partners or consortia preparing a project proposal
If you are working on Horizon 2020 research project proposals and you would be interested in a SME partner from Germany, please contact us, we are happy to share our experience, expertise and knowledge. If you need help to identify a potential partner with particular competences, facilities or experience, please join and explore our project, (HEALTH IT) SPACE, at www.healthitspace.eu.

Most Popular Now

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foun…

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLAG) has launched new NHS App features to transform the way patients access and manage their appointments within the NHS. The programme, known...

Genomics England Deploys Sectra Imaging …

Genomics England has completed installation of an enterprise imaging system that will help to support a world-pioneering initiative for cancer research. The programme is linking whole genome sequencing, pathology and...

Orion Health Strengthens French Business…

Orion Health is strengthening its presence in France with the appointment of digital health industry heavyweight, Tristan Debove, to lead its operations. Tristan Debove has more than 25 years of experience...

AI Approach may Help Detect Alzheimer's …

Although investigators have made strides in detecting signs of Alzheimer's disease using high-quality brain imaging tests collected as part of research studies, a team at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) recently...

AI Predicts Cancer Patient Survival by R…

A team of researchers from the University of British Columbia and BC Cancer have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model that predicts cancer patient survival more accurately and with more...

Virtual Reality Games can be Used as a T…

Virtual reality gamers (VR game) who finished it faster than their fellow gamers also have higher levels of general intelligence and processing capacity. This was the result of a study...

Will Future Computers Run on Human Brain…

A "biocomputer" powered by human brain cells could be developed within our lifetime, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers who expect such technology to exponentially expand the capabilities of modern...

Detecting Anaemia Earlier in Children Us…

Researchers at UCL and University of Ghana have successfully predicted whether children have anaemia using only a set of smartphone images. The study, published in PLOS ONE, brought together researchers and...

AI can Help Optimize CT Scan X-Ray Radia…

Computed tomography (CT) is one of the most powerful and well-established diagnostic tools available to modern medicine. An increasing number of people have been opting for CT scans, raising concerns...

Study Reveals Smartphone Spyware Apps ar…

Smartphone spyware apps that allow people to spy on each other are not only hard to notice and detect, they also will easily leak the sensitive personal information they...

Orion Health Appoints Mark Hindle as Vic…

Orion Health has appointed Mark Hindle as its new vice president for the UK and Ireland. Mark has joined the leading supplier of digital tools to improve healthcare experience from...