The initiative’s proposal aims to address current challenges in health research and innovation.
The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) has launched a new call for proposals, including on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and arthritis, as part of its total budget of €96.5 million to address the health research and innovation challenge.
As part of the total budget, Horizon Europe, the EU research and innovation programme, is contributing €47.6 million, with IHI’s industry members contributing a further €40.9 million and IHI’s contributing partners contributing €8.1 million.
“This call for proposals is a fantastic opportunity to participate in ambitious projects that address grand challenges in health research and innovation,” said Dr. Niklas Blomberg, Executive Director of IHI.
The IHI aims to identify and develop models, interventions and best practices to improve the management of CVD in European cities, covering healthcare delivery, individual lifestyle changes and living environments. Five pilot studies will be carried out in cities to generate evidence for wider use of the model.
CVD is the world’s leading cause of death, causing 18 million deaths worldwide each year, with mortality rates even higher in highly polluted areas, including urban areas in the EU.
With research already suggesting that osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease, may exist in multiple subgroups, IHI aims to use big data approaches to identify patients who may benefit from different treatment approaches, paving the way for regulatory approval of means to predict the course of the disease and assess response to treatment.
Regulatory sandboxes allow innovators and regulators to work together to explore the best ways to regulate new technologies to protect end users.
The IHI plans to examine health care innovations that are potential candidates for regulatory sandboxes, analyze how they could accelerate science and health technology innovation, and provide recommendations on how regulatory sandboxes should be implemented and used to inform innovation, regulators, and other decision makers.
Finally, the effort aims to develop a framework and recommendations for using multiple types of patient-centered information in tandem with clinical research to ensure treatments are responsive to patient needs.
