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 our Governing Board. Its main objective is to translate healthcare research and innovation into tangible benefits for patients and society. It is also looking for Europe to become a reference in the fields of interdisciplinary, sustainable and patient-centered health research.

Any organisation established in the EU or a country associated to Horizon Europe is eligible to receive IHI funding. In practice, IHI funding primarily supports the participation in its projects of organisations like universities, research organisations, patient organisations, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and mid-sized companies. Depending on the type of call for proposals, larger companies may also be eligible to receive IHI funding. Details of who can receive funding is spelt out in the call texts.

Contributing to IHI: industry partners and contributing partners

Large companies that are members of the IHI industry partners contribute to the programme, primarily through 'in-kind' contributions (e.g. their researchers' time, laboratories, data, compounds). They can also make cash contributions. IHI contributing partners provide resources to IHI in the same way.

At least 45% of each project's budget has to come from industry partner / contributing partner contributions (in exceptional cases, a lower percentage may be allowed).

Explanation of this specific topic

Projects funded under this topic should address this challenge by showcasing how existing hospital interventions, treatment approaches and technologies can be optimally combined to improve patient outcomes, enhance patient pathways, generate efficiency gains, reduce hospital staffing challenges, help to lower costs, and decrease societal burden.

In particular, projects should:

• Access and integrate clinical data routinely generated using existing technologies during the patient journey (e.g. medical history profile of patients, diagnosis achieved, for example, by medical imaging and in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) tests, digital information generated during the hospital procedure, vital signs and anaesthesia management, electronic healthcare record systems (EHRs), and drug prescriptions such as analgesics). The interoperability of these data should be addressed as appropriate. Suitable, secure IT infrastructure to support edge and cloud computing in compliance with the general data protection regulation (GDPR) and other data privacy policies at national and local levels should be utilised.
• Train and clinically validate explainable AI algorithms to support the development of training programmes, procedure planning and intraoperative assistance solutions, including clinical decision support systems.
• Demonstrate, via use cases using these data & algorithms, how combinations of and/or synergies between the above-mentioned tools, technologies, and therapeutic approaches can be harnessed to improve patient care. This should include comparing the combination of innovative interventional approaches and clinical decision support systems (CDSS) versus limited or no systematic combination of these innovative interventional approaches and CDSS.
• Implement tools to confirm successful treatment during or after the procedure and monitor therapy response and disease regression.
• Develop and implement new methodologies to assess and demonstrate the added value of combining innovative interventional approaches and clinical decision support systems to all relevant stakeholders.
• Encourage the uptake of the results of the project through a strong communication and outreach plan, including the publication of a gap assessment in order to guide future research in this field.

Applicants are expected to consider allocating appropriate resources to explore synergies with other relevant initiatives and projects including any projects resulting from Horizon Europe Cluster 1 Health topics, and, where relevant, seek engagement with regulators (e.g. through the EMA Innovation Task Force, scientific advice).

In case of interest, both as possible coordinator or partner,  please click on "m'interessa" and we will contact you.