EIT Health and IHI join forces to support health research and innovation across Europe

EIT Health and the Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU) have joined forces to support health research and innovation across Europe.

The organisations have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to formalise the collaboration, which will use their individual capabilities to support entrepreneurs, researchers and healthcare professionals and ‘make Europe’s health ecosystem globally more competitive’.

EIT Health is part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) – a body of the EU – while the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) is a public-private partnership between the EU and Europe’s life sciences industries.

Both organisations receive EU funding under Horizon Europe and share the same core goal of driving healthcare innovation to create positive impacts for patients and society.

They have already collaborated during the recent Matchmaking Info Session organised by EIT Health for the member state-driven initiative, Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) on health.

Another priority in the partnership is to identify ways to leverage EIT Health’s Accelerator or Access to Finance programmes to support the further development of outputs from projects supported by IHI or its predecessor, the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI).

Jean-Marc Bourez, chief executive officer of EIT Health, said the MoU “paves the way for exploring joint actions on shared objectives”.

“I look forward to the potential opportunities this new collaboration will generate for our partners and the possibility of leveraging the societal impact we are responsible for,” Bourez said.

Also commenting on the collaboration, Dr Hugh Laverty, executive director ad interim of IHI JU, said: "It’s clear that IHI and EIT Health have a lot in common. This MoU underscores our joint commitment to working together, so that we can benefit from each other’s strengths and exploit synergies wherever possible.

“This collaboration will benefit our projects and ensure that Europe remains at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary, sustainable, patient-centric health research.”

Earlier this month, EIT Health, together with Luxinnovation and Medical Valley, announced the European Digital HealthTech Hub Conference on 16-17 May in Luxembourg.

The event aims to bring together healthtech stakeholders from across Europe to share experiences on how national and regional hubs can optimise their support to digital medical device companies, from incubation to market launch.