Skip to main content
European Commission logo print header

Mediterranean Research Network on Footcare Sector

Final Report Summary - SOHEALTHY (Mediterranean Research Network on Footcare Sector)

Executive Summary:
The SOHEALTHY Project started in 2013 with the aim of enhancing the cooperation between Europe and the Mediterranean basin countries on high importance and impact areas for society related to the footcare sector. This is the case of the diabetic foot syndrome and other foot pathologies and conditions related to obesity and ageing.
Throughout the project, cooperation took place by means of different activities of diverse nature such us knowledge exchange actions, identification of technology transfer opportunities among the participating countries, identification of industrial needs in the EU-Med area and specific training actions, consisting in a series of training courses focused on the research priorities defined in the Strategic Research Agenda.
Furthermore, a community of experts was created within the project framework, with the aim of gathering professionals from different segments of the footcare value chain, interested in the project’s targets.
For the first time, a European project tackles the development of a joint Strategic Research Agenda in the footcare sector, with the participation of professionals from the clinical, industrial, academic and research sectors. In addition, the patients and their needs represent the essential core of the agenda in order to address the development of more specific and effective products.
The main activities carried out within the first year of the project were the creation of a project website and a EU-Med experts community, the SoA analysis of the most relevant technologies of the footcare sector, the organisation of a network event in Manchester, the creation of working groups for the development of a strategic research agenda (SRA), the identification of industrial needs, the organisation of exchange visits and the continuous dissemination of the SoHealthy project’s activities. More information about these activities can be found in the first periodic report.
During the second year of the project (Sept.2014 - Aug.2015) activities concentrated first on the management of the 5 working groups that worked together on the development of the SRA. In parallel, project partners worked on the mobility actions, according to the training plan developed and the technology transfer opportunities identified. As a result, 20 researchers were trained on different topics related to the SRA (WP3). Also, project partners continued working on maintaining the experts' community, trying to involve more members (WP1), and disseminating the SoHealthy project (WP4). In July, the final conference of the project was organised in Spain (WP1). Other tasks and activities were the identification of main financing lines that complemented the innovation supporting services (WP2). 2 training seminars on Horizon2020 (WP2) as well as 2 workshops on project results (WP3) were organised in Morocco and Tunisia and a worskshop on technology transfer was also organised together with CINEA project in Alicante, Spain. Moreover, as part of the clustering activities (WP3), the SOHEALTHY project, together with other 6 INCO projects, organised “the Innovation week”, in Casablanca.

Project Context and Objectives:
The SOHEALTHY project is a transnational initiative that arose with the aim of enhancing cooperation between Morocco, Tunisia, Italy Spain and the United Kingdom, on three fields of global importance and impact within the footcare domain: the diabetic foot, the obese foot and the ageing foot. There are significant problems and foot conditions that can be prevented or treated and in this sense, SoHealthy has successfully brought together stakeholders, both from industry, health care sector, universities and research, to make possible the effective transfer of knowledge and cooperation among partners for the achievement of results.

Main project objectives, classed by Work Packages, are listed below:

WP1 – Networking:
• Creation of a scientific and technological cooperation network of a high level centred on the footcare sector, specifically in the areas of obesity, diabetes and the older generation
• Identification of thematic working groups (gathered around specific research areas).
• Extending the scope of the network to new partners, linking with other organisations and promoting collaboration with new associated partners.
WP2 – Formulation of joint research strategies:
• Generating a robust joint strategic research programme on the specific key research and technological areas identified in WP1 by providing a prioritised list of research topics.
• Reinforcing the links between the partners through the performance of exchange visits.
• Facilitating the participation in the Horizon 2020 framework programme and other national and regional programmes, identifying main funding opportunities and project ideas.
WP3 – Knowledge exchange
• Increasing knowledge exchange among partners in the field of obesity, diabetes and ageing, within the footcare sector by hosting technicians and/or researchers in the partners’ organisations, devising specific training programmes and courses and organising workshops for showing results.
WP4 - Dissemination and promotion
• Facilitating the dissemination of results showing their added value to the industry-academia-policy makers representatives who can be interested in them.
• Assuring the successful implementation of results.
• Supporting collaborative dialogues among the partners.
• Providing a public area to allow the timely public dissemination of the publications supported by the project and to serve as a reference point.


Project Results:
NETWORKING:
At the beginning of the SoHealthy project, partners’ efforts focused on two main tasks: the definition of mutually interesting research areas amongst the research topics and the creation of an experts community. The first task started with the mapping exercise of the research and technology state of the art (SoA); to this end, a SoA form was designed in order to collect relevant and up-to-date bibliography from different sources (patents, research articles, doctoral theses...etc.) related to the footcare sector in order to identify current and future technology lines. In parallel to that task, The University of Salford prepared a document about the effect of ageing, obesity and diabetes on foot as it was crucial to understand the effect of each pathology / condition on the SoHealthy target group’s foot, the footwear requirements –according to such pathologies or conditions- and how each research field was linked with those needs.
In total, for the development of the document State of the art of the most relevant technology areas within the footcare sector SoA report, more than 300 bibliographic inputs- were analysed. As a result of such analysis, 90 technology and research trends were identified, which were divided into 11 major research fields. This document was the starting point for the following tasks of the project, mainly the mapping of partners’ expertise and competences, the identification of common interest technological and research areas and the creation of working groups on each topic.
Related to the State of the art analysis, 2 validation seminars were held in Spain and Tunisia, with the participation of 45 foot health-related professionals in total. The aim was to gather relevant footcare sector experts, ask them to prioritise the technology areas resulted from the analysis and identify new ones.
The results of both seminars as well as those obtained from other sources, such as the SoA validation forms, which were sent to the experts community, or a Networking event held in Manchester, were collated and processed in order to obtain a more complete list of technology / research trends at that moment.
In parallel, the project partners also carried out a mapping of partners’ expertise and competences and the identification of common interest technological and research areas, where the project partners provided information about their expertise, resources, key staff and the technology areas of their interest.
After the SoA report, the project partners worked in the creation of working groups on each specific topic. The project partners decided to create 5 working groups around 5 major footcare sector’s challenges, which covered the 11 major research areas defined in the SoA report.
It is worth mentioning that –since the beginning of the SoHealthy project- patients’ needs were at the centre of the working groups, as the project partners are convinced that patients are -and should be- the key drivers for the footcare industry. In addition, these working groups were interconnected and, in some cases, one research area was covered by more than one working group. The working groups were multidisciplinary, made of professionals from different segments of the footcare sector’s value chain.
In parallel to the creation of the working groups, a process map was also defined for the working groups called “the patient/consumer journey”, that process map became the general framework for the working groups to align their aims to impact upon the patient/consumer journey. This journey starts since a person who is elderly, obese or has diabetes has a foot problem or pain or needs a new pair of shoes, depending on the situation, so that the consumer/patient takes the healthcare or the retail route . This way, the prevention of the health problem throughout the retail route is also taken into consideration.
In parallel with the creation of the working groups, the project partners developed the document: Database of industrial needs and definition of main actors on each research area, of public nature. Such document contains the main footcare industry’s needs in each research area defined in the SoA report, according to 8 categories of industrial needs and identify the main actors. This document, along with the analysis on patient’s needs, were crucial to better understand the footcare sector, from those two different perspectives.
The creation of an experts community was a continuous task since the beginning of the project. It was very important to create a critical mass of experts to involve them in the project’s events and activities and share the project’s results with them. To this end, more than 187,000 potential experts were contacted through different channels: press releases, publications, conferences, emails, project website, etc. As a result of such intensive work, 160 experts from 18 countries worldwide joined our experts community.
Among the SoHealthy experts there are European, national and regional platforms related to the topics of the project. To highlight the following ones:
- PROsumerNet platform is The Design-based Consumer Goods Cross-ETP, a European Technology Platform, which has recently been officially recognised by the European Commission, is a European consumer goods research initiative that started in 2009 as a European project. Most probably, in the near future, the European Footwear platform will be part of this platform too. Since then, the PROsumer.NET initiative has provided the consumer goods sector with valuable information, such as the development of a research Roadmap, among others.
- Manu-Ket platform is the Spanish Technological Platform for Advanced Manufacturing. It is a technological platform that tries to identify the technological needs of future products and services, for which the incorporation of advanced materials, microelectronics, photonics and nanotechnologies require new processes, equipment and production systems.
- The Enterprise Europe Network is a key instrument in the EU's strategy to boost growth and jobs. Bringing together close to 600 business support organisations from more than 50 countries, they help small companies seize the unparalleled business opportunities in the EU Single Market.
These platforms and organisations normally carry out their own sector’s analysis and roadmaps, so it was important to inform them about the SoHealthy project’s results, mainly the research priorities defined in the SRA, in order to not to duplicate the efforts and create synergies with them. Thus, as said before, we sent the SRA to these experts and some of them published it on their websites.
Finally, it is also worth mentioning the collaboration with the Institution for Preventive Foothealth (IPFH), which is an American non-profit private foundation committed to raising awareness about the importance of caring for the feet through education, research and the identification of methods demonstrated by clinical research to prevent, treat and manage painful conditions and diseases affecting the feet, mobility, functional status and quality of life. Thanks to the collaboration with IPFH, information about the SOHEALTHY Project was published in the Journal on Active Ageing, a publication of the International Council on Active Ageing, which is one of IPFH's educational partners. This way, IPFH helped the SOHEALTHY project to extend foot health awareness to other countries throughout the world, like USA.
Also, it is worth mentioning the organisation of the Final Conference gathering representatives from the Academia, Research Centres, Students, Industries and healthcare professionals. It was estimated that 124,453 people were contacted through different dissemination channels. As a result of such intense effort, 167 people registered for the final conference (full seating capacity). Among the attendants’ countries of origin we find: Spain, England, Tunisia, Morocco, Portugal, Romania and Italy.
Within the following days after the conference was over, an online satisfaction survey was sent to the attendants in order to receive feedback from them and know their opinion. The results showed a high satisfaction with the conference. On average, it was obtained 4.67 points over 5, the foreign participants, and 4.39 over 5, the Spanish participants.

FORMULATION OF JOINT RESEARCH STRATEGIES
The Development of joint research strategies was one of the main tasks of the SoHealthy project. After the creation of the working groups, the following step was to decide how the working groups would be managed, defining the management structure and responsibilities, the communication management and a work plan for both, the working group and the task itself. With that aim, an action plan was developed to define the main steps to reach a Joint research programme. It contained the working group management strategy and the work plan to be followed by the members of the working groups, and it also defined the management structure and responsibilities of each one.
The activities with the working groups’ members started in September 2014 and finished in February 2015, with the organisation of a WG seminar in Barcelona. Each working group (WG) leader arranged a Skype conference with their WG members in September 2014 in order to give a brief presentation of the SoHealthy project and the working group’s objectives. The WG leaders introduced the members to each other and explained the working group’s objectives, tasks and rules, as well as the SoA template and the patient journey, which was the global framework for the working groups.
The work was divided into five steps or sections:
1. Mapping the patient journey
Within this step, the members of the working groups indicated on what stages of the patient journey each working group impacted on. After receiving feedback from the members, each leader prepared a SRA template and circulated it among their members.
2. Challenges and opportunities
The members of the working groups defined the footcare sector’s challenges and opportunities. Those challenges and opportunities had to determine the desired impact of the research and innovation priorities already mentioned. An integrated approach in addressing the challenges was of crucial importance.
3. Key research and innovation priorities
Those priorities came from the research/technology research areas identified in the State of the art report and those arisen from other sources such as the validation seminars and the networking event.
4. Impact on new products
Within this section, the members of the working groups identified how the prioritised research lines turned into industry innovations and these ones into new products and/or product modifications.
5. Key enablers
Identification of key organisations in the field of research, academia, policy...etc.
For the development of the final version of the SRA, the WG leaders included a country overviews section to provide an insight into the situation of the SoHealthy project partners’ countries: Italy, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia and United Kingdom, as regards as obesity, diabetes and ageing and the situation of the orthopaedic footwear sector in each of these countries.

A section titled “Recommendations & needed initiatives” was also included in the SRA. Such section summarises the main conclusions extracted from the exchange visits carried out during the project and the discussion with the diverse professionals contacted in the different events of the project. This section sends a very important message to the Governments involved as it shows the most urgent measures to be undertaken within each country.

Up to 50 professionals of the footcare sector from 9 Eu-Med countries (7 from Europe, 2 non-EU countries) contributed to the SoHealthy Strategic Research Agenda (see the Acknowledgements section of the SRA). To highlight the diverse nature of professionals who have worked in the SRA, including professionals from the clinical, industrial, academic and research sectors. Thus, the SRA contains the view of foot health-related professionals from the whole value chain.
The SRA was finally released in May 2015. It was –and it is- very important for the success of the project to reach a high number of stakeholders and policy makers in the EU-Med area.

INNOVATION SUPPORTING SERVICES
Project partners identified the main financing lines and funding programmes available in their respective countries (Spain, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and United Kingdom). The final aim was to improve the information about financing programmes and the possible funding available on a National, European and International scale in order to promote new collaboration projects that were linked to the research areas contained within the joint research programme. This information about the financing programmes was related to the development of Innovation supporting services, where, among others, the project partners defined and designed a series of supporting services to support the phase of project preparation for participation in R&D projects.
The supporting services included the definition of the process of project development, partners search, presentation of Horizon 2020 Participant Portal, CORDIS and the Enterprise Europe Network as useful tools for the development of proposals, partners search, search of existing projects, etc., identification of the National Contact Points (NCPs) for project preparation, and useful tips for proposal writing, submission and communication.
Related to the innovation supporting services, in September 2014 and March 2015, 2 training seminars on Horizon 2020 were held in Tunisia and Morocco respectively. Both training seminars gathered in total 75 participants.

KNOWLEDGE AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OPPORTUNITIES
Project partners also identified the Knowledge and technology transfer opportunities by completing a SWOT analysis that reflected the TT situation in each country/ area of participating members. Also, they identified the main training needs of both, the project partners’ organisations and their respective countries (England, Morocco, Italy, Tunisia and Spain) and geographical areas (Europe and the North Africa area) in order to develop specific training programs. The partners also identified the main training organisations in the EU-Med area and the courses or programmes they offer (related to footcare) in order to know the training offer available in each country.
As a result of the information collected, a training plan was developed to plan what it was called the “mobility actions”, or, in other words, the secondment of researchers / technicians. Such training plan contained the partners’ main training topics/needs, which were linked to those partners that could satisfy those needs, according to their expertise and competences and provided the basis for establishing the technicians/ secondment plan.
As a result, the mobility actions were held the weeks beginning 11th and 18th May 2015.

Furthermore, On the 23rd of September 2014 and the 2nd of March 2015, 2 workshops were held in Tunisia and Morocco, respectively. The aim was to present the project’s results achieved until that time and to create a dialogue framework on the topics related to the SRA. To this end, representatives from the Ministry of Industry and Health, of each country, attended the workshops.

(For more detailed information about the project achievements, see D5.3_Publishable Final Report SOHEALTHY in attachment to this report)
Potential Impact:
The main final results of the project and their impact are summarised below:

- Creation of a EUMed cooperation network with more than 160 experts from 18 countries, gathering all agents of the footcare sector value chain. These experts can interact in an innovative communication platform.
- Development of the document: “The effect of ageing, obesity and diabetes on foot”, establishing links between patient’s needs and the research areas identified in the state of the art report. It contributes to a better understanding of the patient’s needs and how these needs affect the orthopaedic footwear production and design processes.
- Analysis of the State of the art of the most relevant technology areas related to the footcare industry. As a result, 90 research trends were identified, for what more than 300 bibliographic inputs were analysed.
- Development of the document: “Database of industrial opportunities and main actors for each research area”, which provides a better understanding about the necessities of the industry in the areas defined in the SRA, differentiating between countries.
- Creation of 5 multidisciplinary working groups around 5 major footcare sector’s challenges, with the participation of 35 experts from 9 EU-Med countries. These WGs comprised professionals from different segments of the footcare sector: researchers, industrialists and health care professionals.
- Development of a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA), identifying 25 research priorities in the short, medium and long term (2015-2020). Up to 12 European project proposals related to these priorities have been already submitted to Horizon 2020 calls. Moreover, 7 project ideas were generated and identified in a seminar and a brokerage event and will be further developed and submitted to the forthcoming calls. The SRA has been distributed to the experts community, as well as relevant organisations, stakeholders and policy makers from Europe and North Africa, in order to increase its impact.
- Development of 2 reports on knowledge and technology transfer opportunities and on training programmes and courses. Both reports are strongly linked and helped partners to obtain a real picture about the situation in their countries. Thus, from these reports, specific training actions were designed and adapted to each case and a plan was developed for the secondment of researchers/technicians. As a result, 20 researchers from Italy, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia and UK were trained on computer aided design, materials, adhesives, biomechanics and foot morphology. These researchers/technicians will act as multiplicators in their respective countries.
- Realisation of 5 exchange visits to 3 hospitals, 3 private clinics, 2 companies and 1 national public orthopaedic centre in Italy, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia and UK. Information collected contributed to a better understanding of the sector’s needs, reinforced the links between the partners and involved more experts.
- Development of innovation supporting services to support the phase of project preparation and facilitate the participation in Horizon 2020 programme and other programmes, identifying main funding opportunities and project ideas.
- Organisation of different types of events: a network event, 2 workshops on project results, 2 training seminars on H2020, a seminar on technology transfer, 3 validation seminars, the innovation week in Casablanca and the final conference that have increased the cooperation network and the number of people informed about the project and trained on Horizon 2020 and technology transfer and have brought out specific opportunities for research collaborations. In total, 98 people received training on H2020 and technology transfer, 70 people participated in validation seminars and 350 people participated in the events and workshops. As a result, up to 532 people were directly involved in the project events.
- Production of more than 160 publications about the project.


The activities related to Dissemination started with the Creation of a Website and a communication platform. In mid-November 2013 a first version of the Website containing basic information about the project and its partners was launched. This “basic” Website was extended with much more functionalities according to project’s needs, so that the final version of the Web was finished and published in February 2014. Since the beginning of this task, INESCOP, the task leader, wanted to design and create a useful and functional Website for both visitors and experts, so that it was a useful tool for attracting new experts to the Sohealthy community while keeping the interest of the experts that already joined the community.
The website was continuously updated throughout the project, publishing news related to the project’s events, including the information of the new experts, uploading the public and private documents, presentations displayed at the different events of the project, etc. As a result, the SOHEALTHY website received 22,549 visits since the beginning of the project.
The SOHEALTHY Website also included social media links (LinkedIN and Twitter) and links to RSS feeds.

Apart from the Website, the project partners decided to create an innovative interactive platform called “Sohealthy platform”. This interactive platform is private, as opposed to other platforms such us LinkedIN, Twitter, etc. and it enables the members to publish news related to the footcare sector, share their ideas, publish information about courses, events, conferences, etc related to the sector, create groups according to the member’s specialization, comment the ideas and publications, etc. Therefore, this platform complements the functionality of the SOHEALTHY project website and transform its members from passive to active members.
With the aim of disseminating the project results, the project partners carried out around 167 dissemination actions towards their respective networks and communities at a European, national and regional level, and the number of people reached through the dissemination actions is estimated in more than 187,000 people.
It is worth mentioning the publication “The perceived role of biomechanics in future footwear provision for European adults who are older, obese or who have diabetes”, published on Footwear Science (ISSN: 1942-4280; D.O.I.: 10.1080/19424280.2015.1039079) a specialised journal on biomechanics and footwear (the Official Journal of Footwear Biomechanics Group).

For dissemination actions carried out throughout the project duration, partners have used the dissemination materials designed for that purpose: posters, entry questionnaires, email signatures and leaflets in English, French, Italian and Spanish as well as the posters and leaflets about the SOHE ALTHY project’s final results produced at the end of the project. Those leaflets can be downloaded from the public area of the project website.

As a result, more than 50,000 e-mails were sent with the Sohealthy signature and more than 2,500 leaflets (both electronic and printed) were sent -and distributed- at events.
We would like to highlight that, despite the project has already finished, the project partners will continue promoting and disseminating the SoHealthy project’s results in fairs, events related to foot health, publications, etc.

List of Websites:
www.sohealthyproject.eu

Project Coordinator: Dr. Enrique Montiel (emontiel@inescop.es)
Technical Coordinator: Ms. Victoria Barrantes (victoria@inescop.es)

INESCOP - Instituto Technológico del Calzado y Conexas
Pol.Industrial Campo Alto, C/Alemania 102
03600, Elda (Alicante) SPAIN
www.inescop.es