Introduction- EIT Health is calling for activities for our portfolio in 2022 and beyond! The projects must be aligned with one or more  EIT Health Strategic Goals and one or more Focus Areas:

• Strategic Goals: 1. Promoting better health of citizens; 2. Strengthening healthcare systems in Europe, 3. Contributing to a sustainable health economy in Europe.
• Focus Areas: 1. Towards Health Continuum Care Pathways; 2. Bringing Care Home; 3. Creating the Enabling Environment for Healthcare Transformation; 4. From the Workplace to the Health Place; 5. Harnessing the Power of Real‐World Data; 6. Fostering Healthy Lives by Introducing Behavioral Change.

Activities are expected to contribute to the achievement of widespread, demonstrable socio-economic improvements to society. For this reason, special consideration should be given to:

• Involvement of citizens and patients in the co-creation of activities, and outreach to citizens and patients with information and knowledge generated by or about activities.
• Outcomes that matter most to citizens and patients, aiming beyond the clinical end points, to account for patients' symptom burden, the functional impact of a treatment and health-related quality of life.
• Compliance with ethical, legal and social principles, such as the diversity of participants, consideration of gender differences in research & innovation and the need for accessibility of digital and physical spaces for people with disabilities.

Important considerations on Co-Funding: All projects are encouraged to contribute as much co-funding as is feasible. In the Business Plan 2022, EIT Health will have to reach a minimum co-funding rate of 20%, corresponding to a maximum reimbursement rate of 80%. - This requirement means that 20% of costs must be covered by the Partnership and the EIT Health organisation (HQ and regional Innovation Hubs/InnoStars) and 80% of costs will be covered by EIT. For the Innovation portfolio (meaning all innovation activities together) the co-funding rate is set to 30% (= 70% reimbursement rate). 

Call Objectives- EIT Health Education works with EIT Health Partners to provide pan-European best-in-class education programmes that empower life-long learners to promote better health of citizens and contribute to a sustainable health economy in Europe. The ambition of the Education Call for Business Plan 2022 is to create a concise, coherent, and impactful Education portfolio to continue building a brand for excellence in Education. EIT Health Education calls for Education programmes that support the transformation of healthcare systems through high-value solutions and provide the economy with knowledgeable, capable professionals, citizens, and patients to tackle public health challenges. EIT Health Education will increase its focus on the development of digital education programmes and materials. Thus, from 2022 onwards, it is mandatory for all EIT Health Education programmes to produce digital learning materials.

Call options: Two types of Education activities: Co-Create! Programmes and Degree Programmes. These are described in detail below:

Co-Create! programmes:

The goal of these programmes is to design, create, and deliver innovative, impactful, and high-quality education interventions that educate and equip the healthcare workforce, entrepreneurs, citizens, patients, and talents across Europe to tackle public health challenges. To achieve this aim, co-creation between different stakeholder groups, such as patient organisations, industry, and academic partners is essential. In addition to addressing one of the six EIT Health Focus Areas, Co-create! programmes must address one of the following three themes: In addition to addressing one of the six EIT Health Focus Areas, Co-create! programmes must address one of the following three themes:

Theme 1: Sustainable health workforce

A sustainable and resilient health workforce - equipped with the knowledge, skills, values, ethics and behaviours to address existing and future health challenges - is a key driver for effective health and care in Europe and beyond. Examples of main health workforce challenges include an ageing workforce, inadequate working environments, emigration of highly trained professionals, and the lack of consistent and complete data to analyse staffing needs and enable well-informed and efficient planning and utilisation of resources. A well-performing, well-trained, and motivated health workforce is a key enabler for strengthening health systems in Europe.

Theme 2: Global pandemic - innovation and technology

Global pandemics push innovation and technology forward in unexpected ways. Technology and innovative solutions play a key role in analysing, tracking, predicting, and combating a threat. They are also key enablers to support and provide high-quality care for vulnerable people/patients and to relieve the pressure on overwhelmed medical professionals during pandemics. Besides offering great potential, the use of technology also brings challenges that need to be analysed and addressed. Examples of some technology shortcomings that emerged during the COVID-19 outbreak include delays in reporting and testing, lack of complete longitudinal data, and the spread of health misinformation online. Educating citizens, patients, health professionals and entrepreneurs to develop and benefit from innovative and technological solutions for pandemics can be a crucial factor in sustaining health systems and protecting the health and wellbeing of individuals.

Theme 3: Impact of climate change on human health

Climate change can influence human health and disease in numerous ways. Disruptions of physical, biological, and ecological systems due to climate change that can cause adverse health outcomes include rising temperatures, more extreme weather, rising sea levels and increased carbon dioxide levels. Some examples of health outcomes that can result from the effects of climate change are increases in respiratory disease, injuries and premature death; changes in prevalence and geographical distribution of infectious diseases; food- and water-borne illnesses; and mental health and stress-related disorders. To turn climate and environmental challenges into opportunities and build resilience against climate impacts, it is essential to educate and empower health professionals, Industry, and communities to innovate and tackle the risks of climate change.

Degree programmes:

These programmes seek to develop and support pan-European master's and doctoral programmes that deliver innovation and entrepreneurship skills to students. The ultimate aim is to nurture the talents of tomorrow (entrepreneurs, change agents, professionals) to boost innovation in the healthcare ecosystem. New EIT Health Degree programmes need to address at least one of the following four themes:

Theme 1: Innovation and Entrepreneurship in healthy living and active ageing

Theme 2: Technological Innovation for Health

Theme 3: Healthcare Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Theme 4: Health and Medical Data analytics

Duration: Co-Create! Programmes-Maximum four years (may be shorter); Degree programmes: One year of development (development year) and maximum four years for Labelled Degree Programmes (1+4)

Budget

- Co-Create! Programmes: Overall 8-10 Co-Create! programmes (with multi-annual business plans) will be selected for the Education Portfolio 2022: · 2 Programmes maximum €1.5 million; · 3-4 Programmes between €300,000-€500,000; · 3-4 Programmes between €100,000-€300,000.

- Degree Programmes: In total (including new applications and re-applications), five Degree Programmes will be selected for the Education Portfolio 2022. Development year: · Innovation & Entrepreneurship (I&E) module development: Maximum €60,000; · Management costs: Maximum €70,000. Maximum EIT Health funding per development year for master's and PhD programmes: €130,000. Labelled Degree Programmes (1-4 years): · Management costs: Maximum €70,000; · Start-up creation support/Prize: Maximum €60,000; · Student mobility grants per student per month:; o Master's programmes: Maximum €1,600; o PhD Programmes: Maximum €1,800; Maximum EIT Health funding per year for Labelled Degree Programmes: · Master's programmes: Maximum €500,000; · PhD Programmes: Maximum €500,000.

All Education proposals are required to demonstrate Partners' commitment to the sustainability of their programme beyond the financial support of EIT Health ecosystem.

Eligibilty

• Proposals must include only Core and/or Associate Partners who have paid their membership fees for the year 2021.
• Proposals must involve partners from a minimum of two regional Innovation Hubs (formerly known as Co-Location Centres) /InnoStars, reflecting a pan-European character (involving at least two independent entities from two different eligible countries).
• Proposals must be led by either an EIT Health Core Partner, Associate Partner or a Linked Third Party.

Deadlines

The submission of each proposal will follow a two-step-approach:

• Submission of an Expression of Interest (EOI): activity leaders must submit an EOI on the Plaza submission system by 13 January 2021, 16:00 CET. Activity Leaders will be informed no later than 22 January 2021 to recommend whether a complete proposal should be submitted or in some cases to group EOI's addressing similar topics to create a complete proposal.
• Submission of Complete Proposal: activity leaders submit a complete proposal on the Plaza submission system using the same ID number from their EOI by 24 March 2021, 16:00 CET.

Evaluation

Remote Evaluations: Each eligible proposal is evaluated by external evaluators based on the criteria described in the relevant sections - Innovation, Education or Business Creation, between 1-20 April 2021. A maximum of 100 points will be awarded by each evaluator during the remote evaluation. The final remote evaluation score will be the average of all remote evaluators' scores. The results of the remote evaluations and invitations for hearings will be issued to the activity leaders on 3 May 2021.

Hearings: The hearings are conducted by an Evaluation Panel. A maximum of 100 points will be awarded from the hearings by each evaluator. The final hearing score will be the average of all hearing evaluator scores.

A maximum of 100 points will be awarded from the hearings by each evaluator. The final hearing score will be the average of all hearing evaluator scores.

In case of interest, please contact lnorton@fsjd.org