|
|
|
|
The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI)
|
|
|
European Partnerships are initiatives where the EU together with private and/or public partners commit to jointly support the development and implementation of a programme of research and innovation activities. These partnerships continue to be a feature in Horizon Europe. In the area of Health, the largest partnership or ‘Joint undertaking’ will be the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI).
|
|
|
|
|
The Innovative Medicines Initiatives to Innovative Health Initiative Transition
|
|
|
The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI), will build on the successes of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) which started life in 2008 as a public-private partnership (PPP) between the European Union and the European pharmaceutical industry.
The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) is European’s public-private partnership (PPP) dedicated to advancing health research and innovation, but working across a broader range of sectors, with new partners and an updated governance structure. The Innovative Medicines Initiatives (IMI) will transition to the future Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) and IHI will continue to support the projects launched under IMI as part of this transition.
|
|
|
|
|
The Innovative Health Initiative Public-Private Partnership
|
|
|
The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) is a public-private partnership (PPP) between the European Union and the European life science industries. The private industry members include the Pharmaceutical companies (represented by EFPIA) incl. Vaccine companies (represented by Vaccines Europe), medical imaging, radiotherapy, health ICT and electro-medical companies (represented by COCIR), the medical technology companies (represented by MedTech Europe) and the Biotechnology companies (represented by EuropaBio).
The public partner will be the European Union, represented by the European Commission. The core goals are to translate health research and innovation into tangible benefits for patients and society and ensure that Europe remains at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary, sustainable, patient-centric health research.
|
|
|
|
|
The Innovative Health Initiative Funding Model
IHI has a total budget of €2.4 billion and is funded jointly by the EU and by industry associations representing Europe’s life science industries (represented by COCIR, EFPIA / Vaccines Europe, EuropaBio, MedTech Europe).
The total budget for IHI for the period 2021-2027 is €2.4 billion and is broken down as follows;
- €1.2 billion comes from Horizon Europe, the EU’s framework programme for research and innovation.
- €1 billion will come from the IHI industry partners
- €200 million will come from other life science industries or associations that decide to contribute to IHI as contributing partners.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
IHI Governance Structure & the Current State of Play
In Horizon Europe all partnerships will be regulated under a Single Basic Act. 10 European Partnerships including the innovative Health initiative (IHI) will come under this umbrella regulation in Horizon Europe. The Single Basic Act (SBA) outlines the general principles and rules in relation to operation, reporting, advisory boards, planning and staffing. Specific provision for each individual partnership are also detailed such as partnership objectives, tasks, membership and their financial contributions.
|
|
|
|
|
The Governance Structure of for the Innovative Health Initiative
The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) is a public-private partnership (PPP) between the European Union and the European life science industries, and these partners sit on the IHI Governing Board. The Governing board ensure that IHI benefits from the input of the wider scientific and health community as well as the Member States and countries associated to Horizon Europe.
The partners of IHI are the European Union, represented by the European Commission, and the European life science industry, represented by the industry associations COCIR, EFPIA (including Vaccines Europe), EuropaBio and MedTech Europe.
The Governing Board is the main decision-making body of IHI, and is made up of four representatives of the EU and four representatives of the industry partners.
The Science and Innovation Panel (SIP) provides the Governing Board with science-based advice on a range of matters. Panellists include representatives of the European Commission, IHI industry partners and the SRG as well as the scientific community and the wider healthcare community.
The States Representatives Group (SRG) consists of representatives of the EU Member States and countries associated to Horizon Europe. The group is consulted on a range of issues, including draft call topics. It also acts as a vital link between IHI and relevant national and regional research and innovation programmes.
The Executive Director is responsible for the day-to-day running of IHI and manages the Programme Office. In addition to running IHI, the Executive Director and the Programme Office continue to monitor projects launched under the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), the fore-runner to IHI.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda
|
|
|
The legislation (Single Basic Act) creating IHI sets out a series of general, specific and operational objectives for the programme, but how are these bullet points in a legal text translated into real-life projects working on real-life challenges in health? The answer lies in the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, which focuses on the specific objectives of IHI. The objective are laid out the IHI website and further details can be found in the draft SRIA document.
The SRIA emphasizes that the work supported by IHI will be pre-competitive, meaning it will not deliver products or services directly into healthcare systems or the market.
As such, IHI projects are expected to focus on the following kinds of activities:
- discovery of new molecules, mechanisms of action, processes, technologies;
- development and testing of these discoveries;
- development of methodologies for the assessment of safety, health outcomes, or for health-economic evaluation;
- pre-standardisation activities;
- contributions to regulatory science;
- pilots / proofs of feasibility, including in silico (i.e. virtual) trials.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Call Themes and Structure
With the pharmaceutical, medical technology, biotechnology, digital health and vaccine industries on board as partners alongside the European Union, IHI is well placed to forge successful, cross-sectoral, collaborative projects. The calls will be structured into single stage calls and two stage calls. IHI has published a draft for the proposed first themes on their website.
|
|
|
|
|
The following themes may be included in the first IHI calls for proposals:*
Single stage calls
- Innovative patient-facing care pathways for patients with neurodegenerative diseases and comorbidities
- Next generation imaging and image-guided diagnosis and therapy for cancer
- Precision oncology: Innovative patient-centric, multi-modal therapies against cancer
- Access and integration of heterogeneous health data for improved health care in diseases areas of high unmet public health need
Two stage calls
- New tools for prediction, prevention and monitoring of cardio-metabolic diseases including secondary manifestations to enable timely intervention
- Strengthening EU clinical development excellence and innovation attractiveness: Harmonised methodology to promote the uptake of early feasibility studies (EFS)
*All information regarding future IHI Call topics is indicative and subject to change. Final information about future IHI Calls will be communicated after approval by the IHI Governing Board.
It is anticipated that the launch of the first call for proposals will happen in the first half of 2022. Further updates will follow
|
|
|
|
|
|
Who can get involved and receive funding?
|
|
|
In addition to the industries association and their member, the call topics and funding will be open to academic, SME’s, other industrial sectors, regulators, associated partners and there will be a strong emphasis on patient engagement and the involvement of patient representative groups is encouraged. Details of who is eligible to receive EU funding and who is expected to contribute to projects will be spelt out in our call texts.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Innovative Health Initiative Launch Event
The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) aims to build on the successes of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and will hold a launch event in a virtual setting on Wednesday, January 26th, from 10:30am to 1:00pm.
The event will be broken up into two sessions:
In the first session, IHI Executive Director Dr Pierre Meulien will present IHI and explain why we are launching a new European partnership for health. He will also describe what's new compared to the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), and what will stay the same. IHI staff will then present opportunities for stakeholders to get involved in IHI, for example by applying to become a member of the IHI Science and Innovation Panel (SIP), or by becoming an expert evaluator. They will also offer a preview of the draft topics under consideration for inclusion in the first IHI call for proposals.
The second session will feature a high-level discussion during which representatives of the IHI partners, namely the European Commission, the European Parliament, COCIR, EFPIA, Vaccines Europe, EuropaBio and MedTech Europe, will present their vision for IHI.
Both sessions will include time for questions from participants.
IHI warmly encourages small and medium-sized enterprises, patient organisations, regulatory authorities, academic teams, industry, hospitals and other organisations with an interest in IHI projects to take part in the launch event.
Registration (https://bit.ly/ihi-register) is now open and the agenda is available via the IHI website at https://www.ihi.europa.eu/news-events/events/introducing-innovative-health-initiative-europes-new-partnership-health
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sign Up for the Dedicated IHI Newsletter
The Innovative Health Initiative will have its own dedicate newsletter that will provide announcements on IHI events, calls for proposals and news from our projects. You can sign up now to stay informed by subscribing on the IHI Website and you can also stay up to date on the IHI calls by following their social media Twitter or LinkedIn.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Please feel free share this newsletter with the Irish research community, your colleagues, companies and encourage them to sign up on our website for further updates on EU funding for health.
Further updates on the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) will be communicated as program progresses.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
National Contact Point for Health Horizon Europe 2021 - 2027
Member States Representative for IRL for the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Enterprise Ireland
The Plaza, East Point Business Park
Dublin 3
Dublin
D03 E5R6
Ireland
|
|
|
