EIT Health RIS Innovation Call 2022

EIT Health InnoStars seeks partners with early-stage healthcare projects. Its purpose is to fund the proof-of-concept phase for high-quality, strong, balanced projects, targeting EIT Health’s six Focus Areas and to be developed by local actors including both business and academic/research/healthcare institutions.

Last year, after more than 100 submissions, two projects from Latvia were among the 11 chosen for EIT Health support:

Koatum: a multiple-layer hybrid coating for medical implants with the ability of drug delivery. The three layers of the coating provide metal isolation, bioactive properties and delivery of a drug with antibacterial properties to promote the body’s acceptance of the implant.
O2-CPAP add-on: an add-on module for CPAP devices that helps patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) by controlling the oxygen concentration, enabling oxygen supplies to be adjusted while monitoring the patient.

Focus Areas

Focus Areas are identified as six of the most urgent healthcare challenges facing society, and we are dedicated to finding solutions that will strengthen healthcare systems, promote better health of citizens, and contribute to a sustainable health economy in Europe.

The six Focus Areas shape this call by directing EIT Health funding decisions and securing long-term sustainability. They ensure that concrete activities and expected outcomes are integral to call proposals, and they offer guidance for anyone preparing a proposal, as all proposals should address one (or more) Focus Area(s).

The six EIT Health Focus areas are:

1. Reforming Care Pathways: From diagnosis to treatment, care pathways are essential, yet current strategies focus heavily on the treatment phase. We are extending care pathways to provide end-to-end care before the onset of disease through to end-of-life support. And we are optimising long-term care to enable people with chronic conditions to live as well as possible.
2. Healthcare Transformation: We’re uniquely placed to accelerate the modernisation of healthcare systems in Europe. We bring together innovators and pool their talent to overcome fragmentation across healthcare delivery and create a sustainable healthcare system that can support an ageing society.
3. Harnessing Real-world Data: Healthcare data provides rich insight into diseases and, when used efficiently, it will open up new possibilities. It will deliver prediction models for early diagnosis, enhance treatment and inform how we can lead healthier lives. We want to exhaust the wealth of healthcare data available across Europe to improve the lives of patients and citizens.
4. Bringing Care Home: We are tackling the health challenges of an ageing population by prioritising innovative solutions that support healthcare delivery in the home and away from the hospital, improving health outcomes. Significantly enhancing the integration of health and social care will be vital in ensuring European citizens receive optimal treatment while releasing pressure on hospital services.
5. Health in the Workplace: In Europe, work-related stress affects one in four employees, leading to significant levels of absence – this is just one of the many work-related conditions we need to address. We want to improve workplace health at every level through better education, improved personal awareness and helping to make healthy choices easier.
6. Fostering Healthier Lives: Patients and citizens in Europe are at the centre of what we do. We want to change lifestyle behaviours by creating the tools and incentives for patients that help protect their health, preventing early ageing and reducing disease and disability.

Programme elements and Project funding

Funding of EIT Health RIS Innovation Call 2022 contains two types of support which aims to contribute to the business and technical project development of the proposals.

A. Financial support for the further development of the project/service/product

Project partnerships will be funded to a maximum of EUR 75.000 (including EUR 3.000 to be spent on mentoring per partnership, please see point B below). The requested funding per partner may not exceed EUR 25.000.
The eligible costs of non-profit organizations and micro and small enterprises are funded up to 100%. Medium-sized enterprises will only be funded up to 70%. Large enterprises cannot receive funding but can be part of a partnership and they can benefit from the networking opportunities.
Affiliated Entities can be part of the same or different partnerships, however if the same beneficiary (including its affiliated entities) is included in more than one winning project’s partnerships in any EIT Health Programme, the sum of all grants received by the beneficiary and its affiliates cannot exceed EUR 50,000 in the same year (2022).
EIT Health Hub and affiliates of the local EIT Health Hub can be part of partnerships but cannot receive funding from the EIT Health RIS Innovation Call.

B. Mandatory Training and Mentoring

Participants have to participate in online bootcamp. Deliverables of the training sessions should be provided by participants at the end of the Bootcamp. Delivered status and quality of the submitted documents are evaluated by service provider of the Bootcamp. Payment of the grant can be affected by the failure to fulfil these obligations.
Partnerships have to dedicate at least EUR 3.000 to be spent on mentoring. The mentors should be chosen from the Mentoring and Coaching Network (MCN) of EIT Health. At least 12 hours of mentoring is obligatory, but the total value must be spent.
One third of mentoring sessions are to be conducted at the beginning of the project implementation, one third halfway through and one third at the closure of the project implementation. Report on mentoring - including reached maturity level assessed by the mentor(s) before AND after the mentoring services - should be submitted as a mandatory element of the final report.

The final number of projects funded remains conditional on the approved budget of EIT Health RIS 2022.

Eligibility criteria

Submitted in English language.
Submitted through EIT Health InnoStars registration platform, Optimy.
Its content corresponds, wholly or in part, to at least one of the six EIT Health Focus areas.
It is targeting the completion of „Proof of Concept” phase as defined by CIMIT.
Participation in trainings (bootcamps) and mentoring sessions are obligatory for a stable team.
Mentoring services should be indicated in the budget table provided with the proposal.
Applicants who received grant for the same project/service/product in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 or 2021 from RIS Innovation Call, InnoStars Awards, European Health Catapult, EIT Health Headstart, Startups Meet Pharma, Startups Meet Healthcare providers and Bridgehead funding are not eligible to apply for RIS Innovation Call 2022.
Applicants who receive funding from RIS Innovation Call 2022 are excluded applying with the same project/service/product for Innostars Awards, European Health Catapult, EIT Health Headstart, Startups Meet Pharma, Startups Meet Healthcare providers and Bridgehead funding in 2022.
It complies with the eligibility conditions for partner participation. At least two legal entities’ collaboration is expected, where both business AND academic or research or healthcare institutions as partners are represented. Partnerships consist of only affiliated entities are not eligible.

Find more detail about eligibility criteria in the documents here

Call Introduction

A webinar on EIT Health RIS Innovation Call 2022 will be held on 02/11/2021 at 10:00 CET and will address the following subjects:

Introduction of EIT Health and EIT Health RIS Programme
Introduction of the EIT Health RIS Innovation Call 2022
Introduction of the Application form in details
Tips on how to submit a successful proposal

Direct link to the webinar here

If you want to read more about:

Eligibility criteria
Expected KPIs, deliverables, outputs
Eligible costs
Evaluation and selection process
...and other information

Then download FAQ, Call document and annexes here

Application

Applications can be submitted via the Optimy platform:

Apply

Deadline: 17:00 CET, 18 December 2021.