EIT Health launched as a European flagship project

Campus news

12/11/2014

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) has announced a new future-oriented project that has emerged the winner of a pan-European competition: EIT Health, with international headquarters on the Garching campus of TU München. A total of 144 industrial and scientific partners from a number of EU countries will join forces to investigate key health issues. TUM is one of the core German partners. The EU is sponsoring the project as a Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) for seven years to the tune of around 80 million euros per year. One of the Co-Location Centers distributed across Europe is in Heidelberg. The proposal was prepared by a consortium under the leadership of Roche Diagnostics GmbH.

The international headquarters of EIT Health will be on the Garching campus of TU München. (Photo: A. Heddergott / TUM)

In launching these major projects, the EU is seeking to bundle cutting-edge European skills with a view to promoting key future-oriented topics relating to the “knowledge triangle” of research - education - entrepreneurship in a way that is visible to the entire world and to sharpen the global competitiveness of the European economy. “EIT Health is a resounding success for Germany, as the consortium concentrates leading forces in German science and industry and links them with leading international partners in Europe,” says TUM Vice President Prof. Thomas Hofmann, who was successful in bringing the headquarters to Garching.

The new support program is a Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC). KICs are legally independent partnerships comprising universities, scientific organizations, companies and other entities that deal with selected future-oriented topics of key social relevance at the EU level. To this effect, the participating partners work to develop new products, educational concepts or services, and to promote the start-up scene. The TUM is already a member of two of the three existing KICs: Climate KIC and EIT ICT Labs (Future Information and Communication Societies). The Munich metropolitan region is at the heart of the German start-up scene, and the TUM has received several awards for its entrepreneurial support programs.

EIT Health will be one of the world’s biggest research projects in the health sector. It focuses on key issues of demographic change, such as improvements in healthcare, healthy living and active aging. The large-scale project comprises six local centers (known as Co-Location Centers), which concentrate skills in the respective countries or groups of countries. The co-locations are in London (Great Britain/Ireland), Stockholm (Sweden/Denmark), Barcelona (Spain), Paris (France), Heidelberg (Germany/Switzerland) and Rotterdam (Belgium/Netherlands). In addition, EIT Health, together with the InnoStars Cluster, links eight promising innovative growth regions in Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Wales.

After the signing of a consortium agreement for an initial period of seven years mid-2015, EIT Health is set to be launched. After the launch phase, the consortium will receive around 80 million euros annually from the EIT. Many of the 144 partners (52 core partners, 92 associated partners) have already established a collaborative culture that will now serve as a foundation for the EIT Health program.

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