Announcements
Start PRECISEU – major European project in personalized medicine
Digital Innovation Zone (DIZ) together with the North-East Regional Innovative Molecular and Structural Imaging Cluster (IMAGO-MOL) and the North-East Regional
PeRsonalised medicine Empowerment Connecting Innovation ecoSystems across EUrope.
PRECISEU is a reference project of the Horizon Europe Program of the European Commission, which will address the main challenges defined in the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for personalized medicine (SRIA), agreed by experts from the European consortium EP PerMed. The project will complement this major initiative to achieve the goals of more preventive, personalized, predictive, patient-centered and participatory (5P) medicine in a shorter time.
PRECISEU uses the expertise and capabilities of its consortium and networks to connect infrastructures, analyze the European market for personalized medicine and patient access to it, promote the use of medical data to generate solutions, reduce the time to market of advanced therapies and train professionals and decision makers in the identified key competencies and skills.
The project will finance 4 large interregional consortia to develop research and innovation projects in the field of digital health and advanced therapies.
Accelerating the adoption of personalized medicine in Europe, reducing fragmentation and inequalities in the EU and facilitating the implementation of advanced technological innovations in diverse ecosystems with different levels of innovation, assets, strategies and policies.
It connects innovation ecosystems across Europe to advance truly personalized healthcare through personalized medicine.
It contributes to the transfer of practices and solutions between European regions.
Supporting the expansion of advanced technological innovations in the health sector based on two pillars of personalized medicine: health data and advanced therapies based on genes, tissues and cells.
THE CALL:
It is the first time that the European Commission launches this call, as part of the New European Innovation Agenda, and capitalizes on the potential of deep-tech innovation in the different territories of the EU.
Among the requirements for participation, the consortium had to include a minimum of 5 regional authorities, and all partners had to co-finance 50% of the project budget. Consequently, this restrictive limitation aims to facilitate synergies between regional/national funds and European funds to promote stronger cohesion and address pressing EU challenges such as the implementation of personalized medicine.
In addition, half of the project budget must be allocated to support companies and entities in the participating regions, thus creating interregional consortia to advance personalized medicine solutions to the market and patients.
PRECISEU:
A combination of various strengths and competencies make PRECISEU unique:
• The project, coordinated by Biocat – Catalonia, leads two of the most transformative areas for Europe’s health systems: health data and advanced therapies.
• Includes up to 9 EU regional authorities and one Ukrainian region: Rivne.
• The list of PRECISEU partners includes the pharmaceutical company (AstraZeneca) with its global hub and a patient association (POP), which plays a prominent role in training activities and best practices, highlighted by awards.
• The Catalan node includes the largest number of participating partners in the project, 5.
• It was the first project among all RIV European Innovation Ecosystems to sign the agreement with the European Commission and started the project that started on Monday, July 1, 2024, for a period of 60 months (5 years), until June 30. 2029.
• This project will join forces with the major European initiative EP Permed to achieve the goals of the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for personalized medicine.
• It is the only Personalized Medicine project awarded as Regional Innovation Valley (RIV) within this call.
Regional Innovation Valleys (RIVs)
Regional Innovation Valleys (RIVs) are an action within the New European Innovation Agenda Flagship 3.
A total of 151 regions have been recognized across Europe. The European Union will allocate 116 million euros to this initiative, financed through the European Innovation Ecosystems program of Horizon Europe and the Interregional Innovation Investment Instrument (I3) of the European Regional Development Fund.
The European Commission has identified Catalonia as a Regional Innovation Valley due to its leadership in the RIV call. Regions with different levels of innovation development and performance become Regional Innovation Valleys by signing grant agreements with the European Commission for RIV and I3 projects.
Biocat, the public-private foundation that stimulates the growth and international positioning of the life sciences and health ecosystem in Catalonia, leads a consortium composed of 25 partners from 12 European regions belonging to 10 EU member states (Spain, Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria,
Romania, Italy, Lithuania, Sweden, the Netherlands and Greece) and a country associated with the Horizon Europe Program (Ukraine).
The consortium includes:
Regional authorities: Emilia Romagna Region in Italy and Gothenburg Region in Sweden;
Innovation agencies: Sofia Municipal Agency for Privatization and Investments and Lithuanian Innovation Agency;
Clusters: BIORN (scientific and industrial cluster of the Rhine-Neckar region – Heidelberg, Germany) and Medvia in Flanders;
A European infrastructure consortium: EATRIS in the Netherlands;
A global pharmaceutical company: AstraZeneca;
Patient organisations: Madrid Platform of Patient Organizations (a member of the European Patients’ Forum);
European digital innovation hubs: DIZ NE in Romania.
Catalan participation is notable through Biocat, the Department of Health, ACCIÓ (Business Competitiveness Agency), Barcelona Supercomputing Center – National Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) and the recently established company in Catalonia, AstraZeneca.
Digital Innovation Zone (DIZ) together with the North-East Regional Innovative Molecular and Structural Imaging Cluster (IMAGO-MOL) and the North-East Regional
This project has received funding from the European Union under grant agreement No. 101161301.
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