EUREGHA has contributed to the European Commission’s call for evidence on the Horizon Europe European Partnerships to be implemented as Joint Undertakings.
The contribution recognises the value of the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) in fostering public-private collaboration and translating research and technological advances into practical health system solutions. It focuses on how IHI and other health-related Partnerships can strengthen their engagement with regional health systems and innovation ecosystems.
Successful health innovation depends not only on developing new solutions, but also on the capacity of health systems to adopt and scale them in real-world settings. Local and regional authorities should therefore be recognised not simply as pilot or validation sites, but as co-design and implementation partners from the earliest stages.
EUREGHA’s key recommendations include:
- Involving regions earlier in the innovation process: Regional authorities, healthcare professionals, patients, procurers and innovation actors should contribute from the outset to defining needs, shaping solutions and preparing implementation pathways.
- Reflecting regional diversity: European regions differ in their competences, governance models, healthcare structures, procurement capacities and innovation ecosystems. These differences should be better reflected in the design of Partnerships, calls and implementation strategies.
- Broadening the understanding of unmet needs: Unmet needs should include not only medical and technological gaps, but also service-delivery challenges, healthcare professionals’ perspectives, territorial inequalities, procurement pathways and health-system readiness.
- Strengthening dialogue with regional ecosystems: More regular and targeted exchanges between Partnerships and regional health and innovation ecosystems would help identify needs earlier and better align innovation with implementation realities.
- Supporting the full innovation chain: Greater attention should be given to the entire pathway from research and testing to adoption, procurement and scale-up in healthcare systems.
- Connecting Partnerships with territorial EU instruments: Stronger links with instruments such as I3, ERDF, Regional Innovation Valleys and Smart Specialisation Strategies could reduce fragmentation and align research investments with regional priorities and deployment capacity.
Regional networks such as EUREGHA and ERRIN can help connect European Partnerships with regional health systems, facilitate dialogue and gather implementation-oriented feedback.
The future impact of IHI will depend not only on the excellence of the innovation it supports, but also on its ability to engage the territories where solutions are implemented. Regions should therefore be recognised as strategic partners in defining needs, shaping solutions and enabling scale-up across Europe.
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