Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EDAH (Interconnecting innovation ecosystems for common European data space in Health)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2023-09-01 do 2024-08-31
EDAH (Interconnecting innovation ecosystems for common European data space in Health) brings together 4 European clusters in Digital Health and Life Sciences that share the objective to foster the dialogue and development towards more inclusive, dynamic, (gender) diverse and interconnected innovation ecosystems in Europe to reach the European common data space in health.
The consortium includes four clusters/networks, all representing broad innovation ecosystems that have for many years been working to advance the secondary use of health data and creation of the common European Health Data Space. This includes Biocat, BioRegion of Catalonia (Biocat; coordinating country: Spain), Council of European BioRegions (CEBR; based in Belgium), Health Cluster Portugal (HCP, Portugal) and ScanBalt network (SB; Estonia). The consortium takes leadership in coordinating the project activities, but a wide range of clusters, bioregions and wider ecosystem stakeholders will be engaged in the project based on the joint effort of the core partners.
The partnership constituted in EDAH has five specific objectives to which the above-mentioned WPs contribute:
• O1 – Ensuring a coherent overview of the (ongoing) strategic developments related to the European Health Data Space (EU level policy processes, important initiatives and projects) and developing a deeper understanding of seven important EU ecosystems (innovation agendas and ecosystem stakeholders) represented by clusters/networks from Bulgaria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
• O2 – Setting up a coordination mechanism to connect important stakeholders from innovation ecosystems all around Europe and engage them in focused dialogue around key challenges and opportunities related to advancing the EHDS.
• O3 – Scaling up the dialogue at the EU level via developing further collaboration pathways with EU presidencies.
• O4 – All of the above will be used for, step-by-step, developing, validating and finalizing the Joint Action Plan (JAP) for synergetic work in the interconnected ecosystems of EU health-related clusters/ networks (facilitated by the dialogue mechanisms and collaboration frameworks developed in this project) to jointly advance the development of the EHDS.
The consortium includes four clusters/networks, all representing broad innovation ecosystems that have for many years been working to advance the secondary use of health data and creation of the common European Health Data Space. This includes Biocat, BioRegion of Catalonia (Biocat; coordinating country: Spain), Council of European BioRegions (CEBR; based in Belgium), Health Cluster Portugal (HCP, Portugal) and ScanBalt network (SB; Estonia). The consortium takes leadership in coordinating the project activities, but a wide range of clusters, bioregions and wider ecosystem stakeholders will be engaged in the project based on the joint effort of the core partners.
The partnership constituted in EDAH has five specific objectives to which the above-mentioned WPs contribute:
• O1 – Ensuring a coherent overview of the (ongoing) strategic developments related to the European Health Data Space (EU level policy processes, important initiatives and projects) and developing a deeper understanding of seven important EU ecosystems (innovation agendas and ecosystem stakeholders) represented by clusters/networks from Bulgaria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
• O2 – Setting up a coordination mechanism to connect important stakeholders from innovation ecosystems all around Europe and engage them in focused dialogue around key challenges and opportunities related to advancing the EHDS.
• O3 – Scaling up the dialogue at the EU level via developing further collaboration pathways with EU presidencies.
• O4 – All of the above will be used for, step-by-step, developing, validating and finalizing the Joint Action Plan (JAP) for synergetic work in the interconnected ecosystems of EU health-related clusters/ networks (facilitated by the dialogue mechanisms and collaboration frameworks developed in this project) to jointly advance the development of the EHDS.
EDAH Project was devised to foster the dialogue and development towards more inclusive, dynamic, (gender) diverse and interconnected innovation ecosystems in Europe advancing towards the European common data space in health.
To ensure a coherent overview of the strategic developments related to the European Health Data Space taking place across Europe (policy processes, initiatives and projects), EDAH has elaborated a deeper understanding of 7 relevant EU ecosystems (regarding innovation agendas, regulatory landscapes, good practices and ecosystem stakeholders). Portugal, Czech Republic, Sweden, Bulgaria, Spain, Belgium and Hungary (in order of publication Nov 2022-Apr 2024). The partners have involved other clusters and a variety of players in their networks, engaging in this process several stakeholder groups to a broad shared dialogue, enhancing synergies and complementarities in terms of innovation agendas, and highlighting good practices to be scaled-up.
This sound dialogue has been accomplished by linking the quadruple helix stakeholders among them and to the and huge challenge of secondary use of Health Data in Europe, focussing on different perspectives of the subject (industry, patients, infrastructures...). The partners have succeeded in strengthening the interconnection between key stakeholders at regional, national and EU level, and beyond, to a broader international scale, and in setting up focused fora on important topics related to the European Health Data Space. A relevant role on the impact pursued has been played by the strategy of relating the influencing dialogues promoted by the project to high-level events organized by National authorities in the framework of Member States’ rotatory Presidencies of the Council of the EU. The resulting outcome has been a scaled-up debate and high level contacts, shifting from the cluster/regional arena to the Member State and EU policy making level.
As a result of these 2 years of EDAH’s work, a meaningful quadruple helix collaboration within and across ecosystems for sustainable development of the European Health Data Space has been developed, and is in the origin of following collaborations, good practices and actionable knowledge already achieved and implemented, and those expected to be explored and designed in the future. A Joint Action plan has been designed to focus the partners’ efforts in the following years, focussed on overcoming the current deployment gap of digital health in Europe and on enabling new scientific discoveries, innovative commercial health products and services, all in all resulting in more efficient prevention and treatment of illnesses and ensuring a better quality of life in Europe and globally.
As main activities,
- the consortium has worked closely with local stakeholders and conducted comprehensive analyses of existing documents and strategies.
- During the project, the consortium has organized and actively participated in a total of 20 dialogues, events, roundtables, workshops, interviews and meetings.
- Work with EU presidencies optimal for engaging other regional innovation ecosystems in the EU in a broad-scale dialogue around these topics: Four large-scale EU-wide collaboration building and co-planning events were organized by the partners or counted the participation of the partners, being programmed as High Level events within the corresponding Presidency (from 2nd half of 2022 to 1st half of 2024).
- Proactive steps to involve stakeholders from the Czech, Swedish, Spanish and Belgium ecosystems and MS authorities / experts, sharing the outcomes and insights derived from the case studies.
- The partners have developed, validated and presented a Joint Action Plan (JAP) to advance EHDS in the interconnected ecosystems of EU health-related clusters/ networks
To ensure a coherent overview of the strategic developments related to the European Health Data Space taking place across Europe (policy processes, initiatives and projects), EDAH has elaborated a deeper understanding of 7 relevant EU ecosystems (regarding innovation agendas, regulatory landscapes, good practices and ecosystem stakeholders). Portugal, Czech Republic, Sweden, Bulgaria, Spain, Belgium and Hungary (in order of publication Nov 2022-Apr 2024). The partners have involved other clusters and a variety of players in their networks, engaging in this process several stakeholder groups to a broad shared dialogue, enhancing synergies and complementarities in terms of innovation agendas, and highlighting good practices to be scaled-up.
This sound dialogue has been accomplished by linking the quadruple helix stakeholders among them and to the and huge challenge of secondary use of Health Data in Europe, focussing on different perspectives of the subject (industry, patients, infrastructures...). The partners have succeeded in strengthening the interconnection between key stakeholders at regional, national and EU level, and beyond, to a broader international scale, and in setting up focused fora on important topics related to the European Health Data Space. A relevant role on the impact pursued has been played by the strategy of relating the influencing dialogues promoted by the project to high-level events organized by National authorities in the framework of Member States’ rotatory Presidencies of the Council of the EU. The resulting outcome has been a scaled-up debate and high level contacts, shifting from the cluster/regional arena to the Member State and EU policy making level.
As a result of these 2 years of EDAH’s work, a meaningful quadruple helix collaboration within and across ecosystems for sustainable development of the European Health Data Space has been developed, and is in the origin of following collaborations, good practices and actionable knowledge already achieved and implemented, and those expected to be explored and designed in the future. A Joint Action plan has been designed to focus the partners’ efforts in the following years, focussed on overcoming the current deployment gap of digital health in Europe and on enabling new scientific discoveries, innovative commercial health products and services, all in all resulting in more efficient prevention and treatment of illnesses and ensuring a better quality of life in Europe and globally.
As main activities,
- the consortium has worked closely with local stakeholders and conducted comprehensive analyses of existing documents and strategies.
- During the project, the consortium has organized and actively participated in a total of 20 dialogues, events, roundtables, workshops, interviews and meetings.
- Work with EU presidencies optimal for engaging other regional innovation ecosystems in the EU in a broad-scale dialogue around these topics: Four large-scale EU-wide collaboration building and co-planning events were organized by the partners or counted the participation of the partners, being programmed as High Level events within the corresponding Presidency (from 2nd half of 2022 to 1st half of 2024).
- Proactive steps to involve stakeholders from the Czech, Swedish, Spanish and Belgium ecosystems and MS authorities / experts, sharing the outcomes and insights derived from the case studies.
- The partners have developed, validated and presented a Joint Action Plan (JAP) to advance EHDS in the interconnected ecosystems of EU health-related clusters/ networks
EDAH, through its in-depth analysis of five EU innovation ecosystems, has identified the strengths and good practices within EU countries. These findings served as valuable benchmarks. Moreover, by pointing out areas of weakness and unexploited opportunities in these countries, EDAH provides valuable insights for policymakers. This knowledge aids them in prioritizing areas for improvement and take advantage of the current opportunities available to advance these critical agendas. To facilitate progress, policymakers should contemplate the adaptation of the regulatory framework pertaining to the secondary use of health data. Simultaneously, health systems must diligently strive to enhance the interoperability and security of this data.