Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EATRIS-CONNECT (EATRIS-CONNECT)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2024-05-01 do 2025-10-31
EATRIS-CONNECT is a Horizon Europe infrastructure development project that supports the evolution of EATRIS-ERIC, the European Research Infrastructure for Translational Medicine. The project responds to a growing need for digitally enabled, data-driven and patient-centred approaches in personalised medicine, while addressing persistent challenges such as fragmented digital solutions, limited interoperability, uneven digital maturity across countries, and uncertainty around regulatory and ethical requirements for digital health and artificial intelligence (AI).
The overall objective of EATRIS-CONNECT is to strengthen the long-term positioning of EATRIS as a key European enabler of personalised medicine, by integrating digital transformation, patient engagement, impact assessment and sustainability into the core operations of the research infrastructure and through strengthening the organisational, scientific, and managerial capacity of the national nodes. The project combines technical development with capacity building, ecosystem integration and policy alignment at both EU and national levels.
Across Europe, valuable digital tools, data resources and expertise exist, but they are often developed in isolation and are difficult to reuse, scale or combine. This limits their impact on research, healthcare systems and patients. EATRIS-CONNECT addresses this challenge by supporting a federated, interoperable and sustainable ecosystem for digital transformation in personalised medicine.
A central outcome of the project is the creation of the EATRIS Digital Hub, which serves as a knowledge and service gateway for the research community. The Digital Hub brings together validated resources, workflows, guidance and services developed across EATRIS and partner infrastructures, making them easier to find, access and reuse.
Patient engagement is placed at the forefront of the project. EATRIS-CONNECT promotes the active involvement of patients as co-creation partners throughout the research and innovation lifecycle, ensuring that digital and translational solutions are developed in a responsible, acceptable and societally relevant way.
Through these objectives, the project contributes to European priorities such as the European Health Data Space, the AI Act, the European Research Area, and the European Partnership for Personalised Medicine, while strengthening national and regional innovation ecosystems.
The overall objective of EATRIS-CONNECT is to strengthen the long-term positioning of EATRIS as a key European enabler of personalised medicine, by integrating digital transformation, patient engagement, impact assessment and sustainability into the core operations of the research infrastructure and through strengthening the organisational, scientific, and managerial capacity of the national nodes. The project combines technical development with capacity building, ecosystem integration and policy alignment at both EU and national levels.
Across Europe, valuable digital tools, data resources and expertise exist, but they are often developed in isolation and are difficult to reuse, scale or combine. This limits their impact on research, healthcare systems and patients. EATRIS-CONNECT addresses this challenge by supporting a federated, interoperable and sustainable ecosystem for digital transformation in personalised medicine.
A central outcome of the project is the creation of the EATRIS Digital Hub, which serves as a knowledge and service gateway for the research community. The Digital Hub brings together validated resources, workflows, guidance and services developed across EATRIS and partner infrastructures, making them easier to find, access and reuse.
Patient engagement is placed at the forefront of the project. EATRIS-CONNECT promotes the active involvement of patients as co-creation partners throughout the research and innovation lifecycle, ensuring that digital and translational solutions are developed in a responsible, acceptable and societally relevant way.
Through these objectives, the project contributes to European priorities such as the European Health Data Space, the AI Act, the European Research Area, and the European Partnership for Personalised Medicine, while strengthening national and regional innovation ecosystems.
During the first reporting period (M1–M18), EATRIS-CONNECT made solid progress across all work packages, establishing strong foundations for the project’s long-term objectives.
Key technical and scientific achievements include:
- Establishment of governance and expert networks to support digital transformation, including a Digital Transformation Expert Network and a network of national Digital Transformation Champions (WP1 & 2).
- Development of the EATRIS Digital Hub, including a beta version based on user needs and expert input, designed as an open-access, AI-enabled knowledge hub “AI Translational Medicine Assistant” (WP1).
- Mapping of digital capacities across EATRIS national nodes, identifying existing tools, services and expertise that can be shared and sustained at infrastructure level (WP2).
- Creation of frameworks for quality, trustworthiness and inclusion of digital resources, ensuring that content shared through the Digital Hub meets scientific, ethical, legal and technical standards (WP1).
- Establishment of a Go Green framework providing practical guidance to support environmentally responsible digital transformation across the infrastructure, helping national nodes to identify, monitor and reduce the environmental footprint of their efforts (WP2).
- Strengthening cross-infrastructure collaborations at node levels and across disciples, including the development of research workflows and an interdisciplinary research graph linking life sciences with environmental and social sciences (WP3).
- Integration of policy, industry and patient perspectives, through targeted engagement activities, policy analysis and patient engagement workshops (WP4).
- Implementation of training and capacity-building activities, including a successful PerMed Summer School, new digital training modules, and the launch of a Knowledge Exchange Programme (WP5).
- Development of an impact and KPI framework, enabling systematic monitoring of scientific, societal, economic and policy-related outcomes (WP5).
- Validation of digital transformation in a real-world clinical context, through a pancreatic cancer use case focusing on the development of a trustworthy AI-based screening approach (WP6).
Overall, the first reporting period focused on building shared structures, tools and communities that will support scalable and sustainable digital transformation across EATRIS.
Key technical and scientific achievements include:
- Establishment of governance and expert networks to support digital transformation, including a Digital Transformation Expert Network and a network of national Digital Transformation Champions (WP1 & 2).
- Development of the EATRIS Digital Hub, including a beta version based on user needs and expert input, designed as an open-access, AI-enabled knowledge hub “AI Translational Medicine Assistant” (WP1).
- Mapping of digital capacities across EATRIS national nodes, identifying existing tools, services and expertise that can be shared and sustained at infrastructure level (WP2).
- Creation of frameworks for quality, trustworthiness and inclusion of digital resources, ensuring that content shared through the Digital Hub meets scientific, ethical, legal and technical standards (WP1).
- Establishment of a Go Green framework providing practical guidance to support environmentally responsible digital transformation across the infrastructure, helping national nodes to identify, monitor and reduce the environmental footprint of their efforts (WP2).
- Strengthening cross-infrastructure collaborations at node levels and across disciples, including the development of research workflows and an interdisciplinary research graph linking life sciences with environmental and social sciences (WP3).
- Integration of policy, industry and patient perspectives, through targeted engagement activities, policy analysis and patient engagement workshops (WP4).
- Implementation of training and capacity-building activities, including a successful PerMed Summer School, new digital training modules, and the launch of a Knowledge Exchange Programme (WP5).
- Development of an impact and KPI framework, enabling systematic monitoring of scientific, societal, economic and policy-related outcomes (WP5).
- Validation of digital transformation in a real-world clinical context, through a pancreatic cancer use case focusing on the development of a trustworthy AI-based screening approach (WP6).
Overall, the first reporting period focused on building shared structures, tools and communities that will support scalable and sustainable digital transformation across EATRIS.
EATRIS-CONNECT goes beyond the state of the art by addressing digital transformation not only as a technical challenge, but as a system-level change for research infrastructures.
Key advances include:
- Moving from isolated digital tools towards a federated infrastructure approach, where validated resources can be reused across institutions and countries (EATRIS Digital hub).
- Embedding patient engagement and ethical reflection directly into digital development workflows, including AI-based solutions.
- Introducing a shared impact and KPI framework for a distributed European research infrastructure, enabling consistent monitoring of the Research Infrastructure efforts across diverse national contexts.
- Demonstrating how interdisciplinary research infrastructures can be connected through knowledge graphs and services-based navigation.
For further uptake and success, continued efforts will be needed in areas such as:
- Long-term sustainability and governance of shared digital assets;
- Expansion of training and skills development;
- Alignment with evolving regulatory frameworks;
Broader engagement with healthcare systems, industry and patient organisations.
Key advances include:
- Moving from isolated digital tools towards a federated infrastructure approach, where validated resources can be reused across institutions and countries (EATRIS Digital hub).
- Embedding patient engagement and ethical reflection directly into digital development workflows, including AI-based solutions.
- Introducing a shared impact and KPI framework for a distributed European research infrastructure, enabling consistent monitoring of the Research Infrastructure efforts across diverse national contexts.
- Demonstrating how interdisciplinary research infrastructures can be connected through knowledge graphs and services-based navigation.
For further uptake and success, continued efforts will be needed in areas such as:
- Long-term sustainability and governance of shared digital assets;
- Expansion of training and skills development;
- Alignment with evolving regulatory frameworks;
Broader engagement with healthcare systems, industry and patient organisations.