EIT Health has announced over €6m of funding in the fight against COVID-19.
The funding will be dedicated to 14 specially selected health innovation projects across Europe which will focus on immediate and impactful solutions that can be found to arm health services with better tools in navigating the pandemic.
As a Knowledge and Innovation Community of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), the initiative from EIT Health actively contributes to the wider EU response to the crisis.
The projects, which will all be completed by the end of 2020, focus on the creation of faster and more effective COVID-19 diagnostics, triaging solutions to identify who can be managed under remote supervision, home monitoring solutions, digital training for healthcare professionals and measure to address the shortage in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
A focus will also be put on data-powered initiatives to identify biomarkers associated with the progression of COVID-19 and treatment response at early stages of the disease.
Rapid response
EIT Health evaluated existing budget provisions for planned projects in 2020 in its ‘Rapid Response’ initiative and were able to reallocate funding to support promising solutions that may assist in the fight against COVID-19.
The 14 projects selected for the COVID-19 funding cover biotechnology, diagnostics, digital health and med tech, and will be run by 36 partners. The projects will work directly with healthcare services as part of the consortia so that the solutions can be built in line with clinical needs and implemented without delay.
Jan-Philipp Beck, CEO, EIT Health, said: “We are proud of the fast and invaluable action taken by our employees, partners and wider network in response to the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has highlighted our vulnerability but it also allows us the opportunity to come together and collaborate to find new ways of strengthening our health systems and create solutions to better equip the healthcare professionals working tirelessly to get us through this extremely difficult time.
“The projects that we have selected all show great potential using the power of the EIT Health network to develop cutting edge solutions.”
Jorge Fernández García, Director of Innovation, EIT Health added: “We thank each and every one of our partners who submitted to our Rapid Response, we received a high volume of creative and innovative proposals focussing on impactful solutions across many areas of pandemic response.
“The projects have been selected based on their scientific and technological innovation, and address areas of immediate and high unmet need in relation to COVID-19. All projects demonstrated that their implementation could and would be rapid with the support of EIT Health, and that they could be scaled across multiple geographies ensuring that access for many European citizens can be front of mind. Our network means that we are ideally placed to support the collaboration of industry, research, academia, and, crucially, health service delivery (such as large hospitals across Europe), to put solutions in the hands of those who need them.”
