CROSS-SECTORAL ALLIANCE AS THE KEY FOR INNOVATION-DRIVEN BUSINESS SUCCESS OF ESTONIAN AND GREEK REPRODUCTIVE HEALTHCARE

Project Information

NESTOR

Grant agreement ID: 101120075

DOI

10.3030/101120075

EC signature date 12 June 2023

Start date 1 September 2023

End date 31 August 2026

Funded under

• Widening participation and spreading excellence

Total cost

€ 2 996 625,00

EU contribution

€ 2 996 625,00

Coordinated by

TARTU ULIKOOL
Estonia

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NESTOR (CROSS-SECTORAL ALLIANCE AS THE KEY FOR INNOVATION-DRIVEN BUSINESS SUCCESS OF ESTONIAN AND GREEK REPRODUCTIVE HEALTHCARE)

Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2024-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Constantly decreasing infertility rates and low success rates of in vitro fertilization (IVF) associated with the advanced age of couples create challenges in reproductive medicine. It is crucial to fill the existing gaps to unlock the socioeconomic benefits and boost the commercial viability of reproductive medicine in Europe. The gap in access to excellence is especially witnessed in Widening countries such as Greece and Estonia, where the academic sector is lagging behind, producing a low volume of commercialised innovations and low-quality clinical services. It poses obstacles in creating competitive positions for highly talented specialists with career perspectives and a strong interest in boosting local reproductive medicine, stimulating the brain drain, and minimizing life-long learning opportunities.
The contribution of the NESTOR project to solving these challenges is aimed at improving the research and innovation performance of institutions involved in reproductive medicine by boosting the collaboration between industry and academia in Widening and non-Widening countries through cross-sectoral and international mobilities. The NESTOR consortium consists of 8 partners from academic and industry partners from the Netherlands, Greece, and Estonia, ensuring the knowledge transfer and advancement in four key reproductive medicine modalities for the reproductively aged population: personalised medicine solutions, IVF embryo and uterine health studies, and novel non-invasive prenatal testing technologies.
In total, NESTOR will engage 23 ERA Talents from the Widening Countries, boosting their research skills, nurturing their innovative and entrepreneurial mindset, and providing them with other transferable skills. The well-tailored secondment methodology is aimed at raising their research profiles, improving their career perspectives and opportunities for lifelong learning, which will help reverse the brain drain in the long term.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the first reporting period, 2 Greek Talents carried out 7,7 months of secondments.
The Greek academic Talent 3-AUT started their secondment to the Estonian industry partner CCHT to learn how CCHT made the NIPT service available at the national and global level, and to identify the steps needed in order to transfer the technology to AUT and enable the initiation of a publicly funded NIPT service in Greece through the establishment of a collaborative research and development network between AUT and CCHT and the UM and UTARTU. Additionally, Talent 3-AUT also worked on the technological possibilities and challenges of using genetic information for predicting reproductive potential, especially in the context of ageing.
The Greek industry Talent 1-AN started their secondment to the Estonian academic partner UTARTU to learn which types of IVF-derived data can be used to train the algorithms for female reproductive ageing prediction.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The activities have a direct impact on two Widening Countries (Estonia and Greece) R&I ecosystems in the field reproductive biology/medicine. By facilitating public-private collaboration, sharing expertise and infrastructure, and engaging diverse research groups, institutions, universities, and stakeholders, the project strengthens the skills and capacities of the recruited talents in Widening countries and increases the intersectoral skills needed in the reproductive medicine fields of the respective countries. Enhanced capacities enable pushing the scientific and technological frontier in research and development of reproductive medicine, placing NESTOR industry and academic partners at the forefront of the scientific and technological achievements in the field and importantly creating a sustainable ecosystem for life-long talent upskilling where the R&I talents are attracted and guaranteed with prosperous career opportunities. In the long term, this will lead to reverted brain-drain burdening the Estonian and Greek partners. NESTOR will increase partner institutions’ research excellence, enhancing R&I transfer from the academic partners to the service providers, increasing the applied research capacities, creating a sustainable talent training ecosystem and boosting talent employability and entrepreneurial growth, thus attracting excellent talents and international researchers to the institutions.
NESTOR has a direct impact on six research-performing organizations in the Widening Countries, facilitating institutional changes that are most relevant for innovative translational reproductive medicine research, improving their ability to conduct research, develop technical infrastructures and produce high-quality future researchers in the emerging field of infertility treatment.
NESTOR makes better use of the existing infrastructures in both the Widening and non-Widening countries to maximise project impacts.
NESTOR’s transparent HR strategy aims to provide equal opportunities both genders. Moreover, the project encourages women taking leading roles (incl. task leadership).