Newsletter March 2024
Welcome to the inaugural edition of our newsletter 📩, where we invite you to uncover the essence of our mission and the ambitious goals we strive to accomplish in smart health. 🚀
Who Are We
We, VELES Excellence Hub, are dedicated to advancing innovation excellence throughout South-East Europe, forging sustainable, place-based innovation ecosystems through creating the Regional Smart Health Data Space (RSHDS).
Focusing on the Widening countries of Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and Cyprus, we aim to establish this region as a dynamic hub for pioneering healthcare solutions. 🧑🔬 With the support of three developed countries – Sweden, Spain, and Germany, our consortium, comprising 15 partners across seven countries, is committed to driving impactful change.
Officially launched on June 1st, 2023, as part of the HORIZON-WIDERA-2022-ACCESS-04 initiative, our project, valued at 4,750,000 euros, is set to conclude on May 31, 2027.
The Reasoning Behind VELES
One of the European Commission’s top priorities is to create a European Health Data Space by 2025, enabling the seamless exchange and accessibility of varied health data. 🔬 This initiative seeks to tackle the challenge EU citizens encounter when seeking healthcare abroad ✈️, attributed to the current lack of health data interoperability.
Furthermore, the four widening countries – Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, and Cyprus – underscore, through their RIS3 strategies, the pressing need to digitalize society and enhance vital services provided by both public and private stakeholders. 💻 Within this framework, the healthcare sector emerges as a focal point, emphasizing the imperative for progress and advancement.
Consortium Partners
Collaboration is at the heart of what we do. 🫀 Our consortium, built upon the Quadruple Helix approach, comprises 15 members with complementary expertise, from the public sector, academia, citizens, and private companies.
Our team is a diverse blend of researchers, public sector officials, industry leaders, and user-cluster advocates. Each member brings unique skills to the table, allowing us to function as a unified force in tackling scientific, technical, economic, and societal challenges. Leading the consortium is Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, represented by its research center GATE.
Meet the Consortium Partners
🇧🇬 GATE, Health and Life Sciences Cluster – BIO Cluster, the Ministry of Electronic Governance, and Telelink Business Services (TBS) | from Bulgaria
🇷🇴 Imago-Mol Cluster, and UEFISCDI Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding | from Romania
🇬🇷 JOIST Innovation Park, and Hellenic Digital Health Cluster (HDHC) | from Greece
🇨🇾 CYENS Centre of Excellence, 3AE Health, National eHealth Authority, and Archangelos Michael Elderly People Nursing Home / Rehabilitation Centre for patients with Alzheimer (AMEN) | from Cyprus
🇸🇪 Chalmers Industriteknik | from Sweden
🇩🇪 International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) | from Germany
🇪🇸 InnEurope | from Spain
Pioneering the Health Data Space
We pave the way for the European Health Data Space (EHDS) by enabling the development of a Regional Smart Health Data Space (RSHDS). ⚡
While an enormous volume of health data is generated every second, its accessibility to healthcare professionals is far from straightforward. The intricacies and disparities in rules, structures, and processes, both within and across countries, act as major obstacles to healthcare delivery and innovation. 😥
Furthermore, cybersecurity concerns are of utmost importance. This leaves patients unable to harness the full potential of their own health data, and cybersecurity becomes paramount to safeguard this invaluable resource.
As most patients’ health data is still recorded on paper, citizens cannot always easily access their health data electronically. Sharing this data with multiple healthcare professionals becomes particularly challenging. And crossing national borders adds another layer of complexity.
To address these issues, we will demonstrate the capabilities of the Regional Smart Health Data Space through the implementation of four interconnected 🔗 pilots focusing on cancer treatment (Greece), Alzheimer’s (Bulgaria), cerebral tumours (Romania), and dementia (Cyprus).
What We Have Done Until Now
✅ In June 2023, we commenced our journey with a kickoff meeting in Bulgaria, hosted by GATE, the coordinator of our project.
✅ September was a busy month for us as we showcased our project at the IDSA Ecosystem Building Call. Additionally, we made our mark at the InnoHealth Forum 2023, a groundbreaking hybrid exhibition held in Greece. This remarkable event was orchestrated by our consortium partner, JOIST Innovation Park, in collaboration with the European Digital Innovation Hub Health Hub. We also actively participated in SpinOff Bulgaria, the premier initiative for technology transfer, science-based innovation, and university spinoffs in Bulgaria. Congratulations to our consortium partner, Health and Life Sciences Cluster Bulgaria, for orchestrating a successful event!
✅ In October 2023, we were enthusiastic participants at the Health IT Conference in Greece and the European Big Data Value Forum 2023 in Valencia, Spain.
✅ November saw us engaged in the enriching 3-day Clusters Training, themed “How can clusters grow and become sustainable utilizing digital transformation?” This training was organized at the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH) in Heraklion, Crete. Additionally, we actively participated in the EHTEL – Collaborating for Digital Health and Care in Europe Symposium in Ghent.
✅ In February of this year, we participated in the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) Winterdays in The Hague. Moreover, we showcased our project during the Workshop titled “WIDERA Excellence Hubs: MED and SEE Region,” organized by the MetaCities Excellence Hub in South-Eastern Europe and NCP_WIDERA.NET, the network of national contact points for the WIDERA program area of Horizon Europe. Watch a part of our presentation below.👇
What’s Coming Up Soon
In the upcoming months, we will unveil the inaugural result of our project – ‘The State of Play and Strategy for Innovation Ecosystem Transition Path’ report. 📝 This report will stand as a comprehensive overview of the digital health ecosystems in the four widening countries and innovation in healthcare, followed by insights into good practices from developed countries within the project consortium: Germany, Spain, and Sweden.
Additionally, it presents a strategy to strengthen Smart Health innovation ecosystems for the benefit of all stakeholders. The analysis is based on desk and field research conducted in the countries with key stakeholders from the local and regional ecosystems.
📅 Plus, between May 14th and 15th, 2024, the next consortium meeting will take place in Cyprus and will be hosted by our partner, CYENS.
How You Can Support Us
If you’re passionate about smart health and our progress toward establishing the RSHDS, connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or visit our website.
And if you think someone else might be interested too, please share this newsletter with them or encourage them to subscribe here. 🙌
Thank you for reading us,
VELES Excellence Hub Team