Section D
This category is focused on the processes of adoption, implementation, and deployment of the solutions identified with a participatory approach described in category C. It is focused also on the embedment of the CHERRIES demand-driven innovation approach in the innovation processes and RRI in organisations and industries. As the resources collected here show, a solution, can be of different kinds: a product (including also ICT app or software), a service, or a social innovation (new ideas addressing more effectively unmet needs, creating social relationships, and forming new collaborations, change in the business model or in the innovation process). Due to this diversity, also the adoption and implementation practices of the solution can take different forms, also in relation to the kind of actors involved in its co-construction. The resources describe some of these practices.
Adoption and implementation in the case of a product implies its access to the market and its commercialisation requires its pollicisation and knowledge among potential users (citizens, patients, professionals, providers, etc.). Commercialisation and access to the market of prototyped and tested products are crucial points for many start-ups and industries, and they require measures to support demand and market creation in order to help innovations to overcome the “valley of death”. Two subcategories are specifically focused on commercialisation and innovation in Pre-Commercial Procurement and Public Procurement of solutions. Pre-Commercial Procurement represents a possible interesting way to access the market.
For industries and SMEs, adoption and implementation mean also the incorporation of the RRI approach (6 keys and/or 4 dimensions) and/or of CHERRIES demand-driven approach in the process of production of the solution/product, such as the involvement of users and stakeholders, the integration of ethical and social aspects by design, etc. In this framework, one of the subcategories is focused on the description of implementing practices of RRI or of RIH (Responsible Innovation in Health) approaches in healthcare (on which a focus is also devoted in Part One of the Toolbox). It is important to note, that embedding RRI might concern also the culture, the norms, the rules, and the same identity of an organization, requiring for this, the implementation of an institutional change process. In the case of social innovation (i.e., products, services, models, practices, etc.) adoption and implementation means up-scaling, its transferability to other contexts, and its sustainability, with a definition and management of the relative requirements and conditions.
In CHERRIS Project, the adoption and implementation of the solutions co-created in the three pilots in Örebro (Sweden); Murcia (Spain), and Cyprus will be supported by different kinds of activities, such as business intelligence in market creation within a given territory; dissemination and exploitation; the organisation of impact investment workshops (including training and a pitching session) involving sectorial investors interested in the solutions among the organisations involved in the pilots and the CHERRIES community and beyond. Furthermore, some materials produced or being produced in the framework of CHERRIES Project might be very relevant to the adoption and implementation of the solution.
The resources of this category are divided into the following subcategories:
D1
Solution ImplementationThe resources of this subcategory describe different forms of adoption and implementation deployed in various contexts, varying on the basis of the type of co-created solutions involved (a product, a service, a model, a social innovation, etc.) able to address specific needs or challenges.
This section contains also resources about the scaling-up process of innovation. Other resources describe different practices and experiences for the adoption of the RRI approach (and in particular of its six keys), including an inventory of possible implementing practices on gender equality, open access, science education, and public engagement; a portal on open science and innovation (with access to a glossary, resources, and experiences); an account about a long-term experience in adopting RRI criteria in a funding research organization. Two resources describe the process of integration of RRI approach (keys and dimensions) within the regional innovation policies, as criteria for funding initiatives.
Some resources are also focused on social innovation, containing useful and inspiring reflections on its different phases of implementation, according to the type of involved organizations (social movements, market organizations, policymakers, academia, etc.). Implementing social innovation will allow to address unmet needs, in a more effective way, pursuing the benefits of all the community, by overcoming boundaries between disciplines, approaches, etc. The up-scaling process of social innovation is also described and explained (with advices and suggestions) in one of the resources.
The subcategory includes also two experiences describing the adoption of co-created solutions in healthcare. The first one (related to the InDemand project) reports the experience of healthcare systems in adopting solutions co-created by applying a demand-driven innovation approach. The second one documents the experience of Activage Project, aimed at setting up an interoperable IoT ecosystem for promoting an active and healthy life for aging people built on the basis of user experiences.
The second episode of the “CHERRIES webinar series 2020 Exploring responsible healthcare ecosystems in Europe” was devoted to a reflection on “RRI practices in healthcare”, with the contribution of two experts: Rosina Malagrida, Head of the Living Lab for Health at IrsiCaixa & Co-coordinator of the Barcelona “la Caixa” Living Lab, and Barbara Kieslinger, Coordinator of Careables.org and Project Manager at the Centre for Social Innovation – ZSI, Vienna.
Part of interest: The entire webinar.
Target groups: Policymakers, RPOs, CSO, Innovation Business, Funding organisations, Intermediaries, Higher Education Institutions
Digital Health Europe provides comprehensive, integrated, and centralised support to the Digital Health and Care Innovation initiative in the context of the Digital Single Market Strategy. The project’s approach involves a number of actions that will boost innovation and advance the Digital Single Market priorities for the digital transformation of health and care (DTHC). The Platform contains practices of a digital solution in healthcare, including those related to the management of healthcare for Covid-19 pandemic.
Part of interest: The entire catalogue.
Target groups: Policymakers, Providers, Professional, Patients, CSOs, RPOs, Innovative business, intermediaries, Payers
UBORA is a platform for open-source co-design of new solutions to face the current and future global healthcare challenges, by exploiting networking, knowledge on rapid prototyping of new ideas, and sharing of safety criteria and performance data. UBORA (“excellence” in Swahili) brings together European and African Universities and their associated technological hubs (supporting biomedical prototyping laboratories and incubators), national and international policymakers, and committed and credible stakeholders propelled by a series of Design Schools and Competitions.
Part of interest: The entire platform.
Target groups: RPOs, Innovation business, Providers, Patients, CSOs, Higher Education Institutions
It is an online Platform where patients and caregivers around the world share the solutions they have developed also with the help of collaborators (other caregivers, professionals, etc) to cope with a health-related problem. The platform contains more than 150 solutions provided by people coming from more than 80 countries. The portal contains also a section devoted to COVID 19, including solutions concerning mobile apps, protective equipment, lung ventilator, websites, electronic devices, etc.
Part of interest: The entire platform.
Target groups: Innovation business, CSOs, Patients, Providers, Professionals, RPOs
ACTIVAGE is a European Multi Centric Large-Scale Pilot on Smart Living Environments. The main objective is to build the first European IoT ecosystem across 9 Deployment Sites (DS) in seven European countries, reusing, scaling up, and integrating underlying open and proprietary IoT platforms, technologies, and standards. The specific aim is to provide interoperability across these heterogeneous platforms, enabling the deployment and operation at the large scale of Active & Healthy Ageing IoT based solutions and services, supporting and extending the independent living of older adults in their living environments, and responding to real needs of caregivers, service providers, and public authorities. The guidelines address the need at this moment of the deployment of the ACTIVAGE pilots of collecting and documenting a series of experiences that can be translated into a series of recommendations for the replication of the same in another series of projects.
Part of interest: See in particular, paragraphs 4.1., 4.2., 5.3., and chapter 6.
Target groups: RPOs, Innovation business, Providers, Patients, CSOs, Policymakers
The resource contains stories of the application of the InDemand Project model in the three regions of Murcia (Spain), Paris (France) and Oulu (Finland): describing the challenges and the solutions implemented. Each region has identified specific challenges to be addressed by the solution proposed by the applicants. The resource describes for each story the challenges identified, the co-created solutions, and the participants that made it possible. The solutions are being implemented by healthcare providers and institutions.
Part of interest: The entire document. In particular, see Gravidity; A3D and Arno and Anonymous.
Target groups: Innovation Business, RPOs, Providers, Professionals, Patients, Payers
MARIE is an Interreg project involving 8 EU regions. Its objective is to improve regional public policy that supports the delivery of RRI to enterprises’ product, process, and service design, production, and distribution and promote the integration of RRI approach (key and dimensions) in organisations. MARIE achieves this aim through exchanging experiences on 3 types of support action contained in the RRI framework: Quadruple Helix; Open Innovation; Information & Tools for RRI application. Using interregional activities, communication, and stakeholder engagement, partners develop Action Plans that result in: improved policy instruments; more and better-targeted funding for RRI delivery; increased capacity among innovation actors; consolidated partnerships of quadruple helix innovation chain stakeholders. The resource describes the implemented practices, and the impacts already produced in the 8 regions.
Part of interest: The entire resource.
Target groups: Innovation Business, Policymakers, CSOs, RPOs, Start-ups, Intermediary organisations
The main objective of the ROSIE Project was to use transnational cooperation to improve skills among entrepreneurs and innovation actors to promote RRI in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Central Europe. Results of the project are tools and training modules to improve RRI capacity, with a comprehensive RRI strategy and transnational pilots to test tools and strategic proposals. The main outputs of the ROSIE project are the road maps and national pilots. The resource describes the approach and methods followed in the pilots for embedding RRI: UNI/PdR, STIR, Living Lab, used COMPASS RRI self-Check tool.
Part of interest: See in particular the part devoted to approach and methods.
Target groups: Innovation Business, RPOs, Policymakers, Intermediaries, Start-ups, Intermediary organisations
The document (Region de Murcia, 2017) describes the strategy to foster innovative entrepreneurship based on the STEM vocation for the period 2018-2021. The strategy for the period 2018-2021 presents some changes with respect to the precedent strategy: coordination and communication; community and society; cooperation and labour; learning; enterprises; innovation, science, technology, and development; empowerment; entrepreneurship.
Part of interest: The whole document.
Target groups: Innovation business, RPOs, Policy makers
This document (TeRRItoria Project, Deliverable D3.2, 2019) is an Inventory of 43 RRI Governance Innovation Practices, detected in 15 RRI projects conducted in Europe and beyond, proposing relevant and new models of RRI governance innovation practices. Based on the analysis of the 15 RRI projects, the report underlies the reflexive and the context-depended nature of RRI, requiring for its integration a tailored approach that needs to take into account the existing problems, the aspired future situations, as well as the agency and the capacities of the actors (individuals, or organisations). The summary contains a list of possible practices and approaches that might be inspiring in applying RRI (gender equality, public engagement, science education, and open access) and a list of practices adopting a unified approach on RRI.
Part of interest: The entire document, and in particular the summary.
Target groups: Policymakers, Providers, Professional, Patients and CSOs, RPOs, Innovative business, intermediaries
The Foster Portal is an online collection of training materials on RRI and Open Science. In particular, it contains: an integrated RRI and OS taxonomy and a knowledge repository showing resources linked to RRI in different subcategories (videos, tutorials, and guidelines).
Part of interest: The entire portal.
Target groups: RPOs, Innovation Business. Higher Education Institution
INNOVCare aimed at researching integrated care pathways for rare disease patients, bridging gaps between social and healthcare, and facilitating the organisation of everyday life for them and their families. The report (Deliverable D9.5, 2018) presents the theoretical and methodological framework of the up-scaling process and the way for adopting and implementing social innovation in other contexts. Up-scaling describes the effort to increase the impact of (social) innovations.
Part of interest: In particular, see from Pg. 8 to 12 and from Pg. 36 to 58.
Target groups: Policymakers, Patients, Providers, RPOs
The document (by Mulgan, and Sanders, 2007) addressed the issue of social innovation: what it is (new ideas that meet unmet needs); who do it (politics and government, markets, movements, academia, and social enterprises); how the stages of social innovation happen; linear and not linear process of social innovation; the innovation stages performed by different actors; the future of social innovation. Social innovation happens in different fields and is promoted by different kinds of actors (not only the non-profit sector). The theoretical discourse is accompanied by a description of stories and experiences.
Part of interest: The summary (Pp. 4-7) and the stages of social innovation (Pp. 21-34).
Target groups: Policymakers, RPOs, Innovation Business, CSOs
The paper is focused on innovation, considering four main strands of research, studying innovation at the organisational, systemic, sectoral, and macroeconomic levels. Several fundamental issues are explored, such as the co-evolution between technological and institutional change; the role of demand; and the impacts of innovation on individual and collective welfare. There are also important methodological challenges, such as the need for more systematic interactions between the different levels of analysis; the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of technological and institutional changes; and the search for a combination of contingent explanations based on case studies with general analytical results based on econometric and formal models. The article describes also the regional network of innovation actors.
Part of interest: The entire document.
Target groups: RPOs, Innovation Business
D2
RRI and Responsible Innovation in practiceThe processes of adoption and implementation concern also the integration of RRI approaches in health innovation and related business models. In particular, this subcategory is focused on two specific areas: the area of healthcare systems, also taking into consideration the approach of RIH – Responsible Innovation in Health and the area of SMEs and Industries, in which RRI adoption seems more difficult and less developed in comparison with the area of Academia/research organisations. In both these areas, the attention is mainly focused on the adoption and integration of the four dimensions of RRI (anticipation, inclusion, reflexivity, responsiveness). Especially in the case of SMEs, the four dimensions seem to be more compatible with the experiences of industries (also with respect to other approaches on responsibility such as CSR).
Some of the resources describe in detail the RIH approach and how to use it and its tools for assessing responsible innovativeness in the health sector of products and production processes (see also Section E). Two other resources illustrate the RRI Award in health and an application of the four dimensions RRI in the eHealth experiences. For many years the ICTs have been one of the domains characterized by an effort to introduce the RRI approach.
Various resources, produced in the framework of European projects, such as Responsible Industry and PRISMA, provide methods and guidance and describe concrete experiences of integration of RRI dimensions in the business model and production processes of industries and SMEs. All these resources provide in different ways, inspiring and useful guidance and tools on how the principle of responsibility in innovation processes and business should be deployed.
This is a paper (by Silva, Lehoux, Miller, and Denis, 2018) inspiring the experience of InFieri. It describes the components of the RIH framework, based on the literature on RRI and health innovations. In particular, the framework integrated the RRI characteristics of addressing societal needs and challenges; engaging a range of stakeholders to improve decision-making and mutual learning; anticipating potential problems, assessing available alternatives and reflecting on underlying values, assumptions and beliefs; and providing guidance on ways to act following the previous principles; with the three other criteria of innovativeness, health relevance and subsidiarity. Using these criteria, the authors set up an inventory of around 100 innovations in health matching RIH criteria.
Part of interest: The entire document.
Target groups: Innovation Business, Policymakers, CSOs
InFieri is a research program that focuses on Responsible Innovation in Health (RIH) carried out by the University of Montreal in Canada (Quebec, Ontario) and in Brazil (state of São Paulo). The RIH Assessment Tool was developed and validated by InFieri to assess responsibility in health innovation. In particular, it might be used by policymakers and providers to assess whether an innovation is qualified as a Responsible Innovation in Health (RIH). Drawing on RRI and health policy research, the RIH Tool entails a three-step process: screening, assessment, and rating. The RIH assessment Tool includes four inclusion and exclusion criteria, nine assessment attributes, and a scoring system. The resource contains the User Guide developed to facilitate the application of the Tool.
Part of interest: The entire tool.
Target groups: Policymakers, Providers, Innovation business, RPOs
This is an article (by Demers-Payette, Lehoux, and Daudelin, 2016) presenting the outcomes of three mixed focus groups, involving users of medical technology (patients, clinicians), developers (engineers, designers), and innovation managers (of universities, in hospitals, and in biomedical firms) about the issues RRI and innovation in health. It is aimed at identifying needs and challenges in the healthcare system, by a discussion on the four RRI dimensions (inclusion, anticipation, reflexivity, responsiveness). The resource provides useful suggestions for the further development of responsible medical innovation.
Part of interest: The entire article.
Target groups: Innovation Business, RPOs, Patients and CSOs, Providers, Professionals, Payers
This article (by Fraaije and Flipse, 2019) proposes an implementation framework of responsible research and organisation in SMEs, based on the operationalisation of the RRI dimensions − i.e., inclusion, anticipation, reflexivity, and responsiveness. The framework, mainly addressed to engineers and practitioners, is based on a literature review. The resulting framework integrates a set of qualifiers that are central to the concept of ‘responsive’ research and innovation, from the point of view of the process of innovation and the point of view of the product. These are the qualifiers for the innovation process: transparency, inclusion, reflexivity, anticipation, responsiveness. The framework also allows the identification of ‘RRI shortcuts’ to be avoided.
Part of interest: The entire document.
Target groups: RPOs, Innovation Business
The PRISMA Project involved social science researchers and technologists from five different research organisations around the EU talking to eight technology industries about Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). The goal was to draw specific lessons about how RRI can be implemented in practice in the industry. The document presents two different approaches in embedding RRI: an approach focused on external support to industry; and an approach based on the embedding of ethicists in the research team. The document describes the activities implemented by the Project in the 8 industries on how to embed RRI approach in their innovation programs.
Part of interest: From Pg. 19 to 50; from Pg. 57 to 63.
Target groups: RPOs, Innovation Business
The Guide (drafted in the framework of Responsible industry Project) provides strategic options and recommendations to be considered on a case-by-case basis by industrial actors engaged in research and innovation to pursue responsible practices and behaviours when developing devices, products, and services. In particular, the Guide contains a Framework to implement RRI, developed on the basis of research undertaken by companies that are active in research and innovation in the domain of ICT. The Framework operationalises RRI in companies dealing with ICT for an ageing society addresses four main questions: Who is responsible for what? How can RRI be integrated along the value chain? What voluntary tools can be used for RRI? How can ethical and social impact analysis be performed?
Part of interest: The entire document and in particular the part of the Framework (Pp. 8-22).
Target groups: Innovation Business, RPOs
This is an article (by Van de Poel et al., 2017) focused on how companies can integrate RRI (and mainly its 4 dimensions) into their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies and business strategy. The authors developed a conceptual model that links a company’s RRI strategy to its context, and that helps to translate the RRI strategy into activities that result in RRI outcomes. A process for developing company-specific RRI key performance indicators (KPIs) that can support companies to measure RRI outcomes is also described. The framework distinguishes four main elements, namely context, strategic level, operational level, and RRI outcomes.
Part of interest: The entire document.
Target groups: Innovation business, RPOs
This is an article tied with the CareConnect Project eHealth innovations in the Twente Region (by Konrad, Greiving, and Benneworth, 2018) and focused on the innovation process of an eHealth application, which emerged as a user-driven, local project. The eHealth application is based on a communication platform that creates a network around a particular patient, who needs regular care, including the different parties involved in the patient’s care; and aimed at facilitating the communication and coordination of this care network. The authors trace the innovation and implementation process, and explore, firstly, to which extent and in which form different dimensions of responsibility are presented along the innovation process. Secondly, they consider if and how the regional and partly local, bottom-up nature of the innovation network, was conducive to enacting the dimensions of responsibility. The article also describes the composition and function of the network.
Part of interest: The entire article.
Target groups: Providers, Professionals, RPOs, Policymakers, Innovation business, Patients, CSOs
The RRI Health Award is an initiative carried out in the framework of Project Orion, focused on promoting open science by the implementation of co-creation activities and training. The context included six modalities of participation (one for each RRI Key): ethics, governance, gender equality, open access, public engagement (here called “public commitment”), and health education, with a concept that seeks to encourage active participation and involvement of society in science and innovation from the earliest stages of research projects to ensure that future results are as aligned as possible with societal needs. Orion website contains also a menu of co-creation methods (Deliverable D3.1.).
Part of interest: The entire document.
Target groups: Policymakers, Providers, RPOs, CSO, Innovation Business, Higher Education Institutions, Payers
D3
Pre-commercial procurement: a possible way for innovation to market accessThe resources of this subcategory are focused on Pre-Commercial Procurement processes as a possible way for innovations to access to the market. The resources present also innovative practices in this field. As specified in the EU page on PCP,while Public procurement refers to the process by which public authorities, such as government departments or local authorities, purchase work, goods or services from companies, Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) refers to the mechanisms by which “public sector, from the demand side, challenges the industry to develop innovative solutions for public sector needs and it provides a first customer reference that enables companies to create competitive advantage on the market.” As explained in the EU page on PCP, this form of procurement contains benefits for both the suppliers and the public procurers. “In PCP, public procurers share the benefits and risks related to the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) resulting from the research and development (R&D) with suppliers at market price. Suppliers retain IPR ownership rights, while procurers keep some usage and licensing rights”. Apart from the management of IPR issues, as stressed by UE (see the resources below), the use of PCPs provide shared benefits.
Nevertheless, PCP procedures are scarcely used. For this reason, the European Commission provides support for public procurers to use and implement PCPs. SMEs, big companies but also Research Performing Organisations, the Academia, and start-ups can participate in PCPs. As a matter of fact, CHERRIES project itself might be considered a PCP initiative. Even if due to its nature of R&D activities, PCP can go up to the development and the purchase of a limited volume of first products or services developed, it can represent a first step for accessing to the market and to commercialisation. The second step to commercialisation can be the use of the Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions (PPI) procedures.
In every case, PCP might represent a step forward the commercialisation of a product or a service and might help in overcoming the so-called “valley of death” of innovation. PCP/PPI implementation foresees the following phases: phase 0 curiosity-driven research; phase 1 solution design; phase 2 prototyping development; phase 3 original development and testing of a limited volume of 1st test product/service; PIPPI phase 4: deployment of commercial volumes of end-products; wide diffusion of the newly developed solution.
The resources collected here describe different innovative experiences of PCP in the healthcare sector, for different diseases and situations (e.g., home care, diabetes, digital health, aging, pain self-management, etc.) and by using a different way of implementation (platform, community of practices, etc.). In most of the resources, a crucial aspect of PCP is related to the involvement of users and stakeholders in collecting unmet needs. This aspect is also at the core of the experience of Oulu (Finland) where living labs have been used in Public procurement process. Two resources are focused on the need to innovate Public Procurement mechanisms. Some resources describe initiatives carried out at the level of a single hospital, while others describe experiences of large EU projects or initiatives, at different stages of PCP phases and the problems encountered.
The third episode of the “CHERRIES webinar series 2020 Exploring responsible healthcare ecosystems in Europe” was focused on “The role of procurement in healthcare innovation” with the contribution of John Rigby and Samuli Kauppinen, with a reflection on whether the innovation frameworks are changing towards more responsible and sustainable approaches and with a reflection on the question if the rules and the framework are ready enough to support this cultural change and to cope with the complexity of the health sector.
Part of interest: The entire webinar.
Target groups: Policymakers, RPOs, CSO, Innovation Business, Funding organisations, Intermediaries, Higher Education Institutions
The resource is the web page of the European Commission on Pre-Commercial Public Procurement. This is the UE definition: “PCP enables public procurers to compare alternative potential solution approaches and filter out the best possible solutions that the market can deliver to address the public need. Public procurers can drive innovation from the demand side by acting as technologically demanding customers that buy the development and testing of new solutions.” Apart from IPR issues, PCPs produce benefits such as developing innovative solutions for the societal challenges of the future; facilitate the access of new innovative players to the public procurement market; share the risks and benefits of designing, prototyping, and testing new products and services between procurers and suppliers; improving the conditions for wider commercialisation and take-up of R&D results. PCP might be followed by the adoption of the Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions (PPI). “Public Procurement of Innovative solutions (PPI) happens when the public sector uses its purchasing power to act as early adopter of innovative solutions which are not yet available on large scale commercial basis”.
Part of interest: The entire platform.
Target groups: Professionals, RPOs, Innovation Business, Patients, Policymakers, Start-ups, Intermediary organisations
PiPPi is an EU Project coordinated by The Center for Innovation at the Karolinska University Hospital to innovate procurement of digital health and care services, by establishing an active Community of Practice (CoP) of people, who wish to learn something by collaborating with other members of the group both in real and virtual world; and sharing goals, interests, information, and experiences. The CoP is composed of policymakers, payers, enablers, industry, healthcare providers/hospitals, the research community, patients. The CoP has been involved in the process of identifying and formulating unmet needs in the digital healthcare and service area. This process was the basis for the activation of the PCP/PIPPI procedures. The works on unmet needs and their prioritisation is a loop process.
Part of interest: The entire platform.
Target groups: Professionals, RPOs, Innovation Business, Patients, Policymakers
ProEmpower is a PCP project to buy R&D (research and development) services to improve the treatment and the self-management of diabetes type 2 patients using a Personalised Diabetes Management Solution. The solution has to be interoperable with respect to the existing systems of the pilot regions. The PCP includes the following steps: Open Market consultation (by webinars, focus groups); a call for tender; the implementation of phase I, by the definition of the concept design, the solution architecture and technical specification; the implementation of phase II, by the development of a prototype system in two iterations; the deployment of phase III, by the development and testing of a pilot system. The solutions have to apply the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) principles and the patients’ data processing rights.
Part of interest: The entire itinerary.
Target groups: Innovation Business, Policy Makers, Start-ups, RPOs, Providers, Patients
The RELIEF project – recovering life wellbeing through pain self-management techniques involving information and communication technologies (ICTs) – is a PCP project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 program. In this case, the challenge/need to be addressed by the solution requires more research. The challenge has been presented to industry/SMEs in an Open Market Consultation. A European call for tender of the solution has been launched. Then the PCP procedures started. The PCP of RELIEF includes the following phase: phase 1 solution design; phase 2 prototype development; phase 3 pre-commercial small scale productive/service development − field test ad comparison for selecting the 2 best solutions; phase 4 Commercialisation diffusion of product/service.
Part of interest: The entire documents.
Target groups: RPOs, Innovation business, start-ups
This paper (by Haukipure, Vainamo, and Torvinen, 2016) examines Public Procurement, aiming to increase understanding of how the living lab approach and end-user involvement create innovativeness and enhance public procurement results, providing effective and better solutions. The empirical findings are based on a real-life unique Public Procurement in the healthcare field where the living lab approach was used through the product testing phase, which was included in the procurement procedure. The selected group of users performed product testing in a real homecare environment. The quality of the product based on product testing played a significant role for the first time in public healthcare-related procurement in the City of Oulu, Finland. In this case, the winning solution was not the most inexpensive but the one obtaining the highest quality scores by users.
Part of interest: The entire article is useful because innovates the public procurement process with the introduction of living labs.
Target groups: Policymakers, RPOs, Innovation Business, Patients, Providers, Payers, CSOs
This document was produced in the framework of the UNCAP Project (Deliverable D5.2., 2017). The deliverable describes relevant new public procurement models used in the public sectors that can be accommodated for future exploitation of the healthcare market by UNCAP. The document is based on the results of desk research and on the experiences carried out by the UNCAP project.
Part of interest: Download the Deliverable D5.2 and see the part devoted to the public procurement in each EU country and the conclusion.
Target groups: Innovation Business, Policy Makers, Start-ups, RPOs
This is a paper (by Faurholt-Jepsen et al., 2019) related to the PCP EU project of NYMPHA-MD focused on support to people with bipolar disorders. During the PCP carried out in the framework NYMPHA-MD project, two Smartphone-based monitoring systems were developed by two IT companies, and their solutions were selected among other companies’ innovative solutions during the PCP to be tested. The resource presents the multi-center pilot study carried out to examine the feasibility and usability of these systems (the Pulso system and the Trilogis-Monsenso system) for patients with bipolar disorder, developed and selected to be tested.
Part of interest: The entire document.
Target groups: Innovation Business, Policy Makers, Start-ups, RPOs, Providers, Professionals
D4
CommercialisationThis fourth subcategory is focused on a crucial aspect of every innovation process, i.e., the access to the market and commercialisation of products and innovations, avoiding to waste time and resources to produce products and services that remain at the stage of a prototype. This is a big issue in particular for start-ups and SMEs. There is a big amount of studies and publications on this issue (including problems and obstacles in market access), as well as experiences, projects, and initiatives, to provide different forms of support at European, national, regional, and local levels (incubators, business angels, different forms of investment, public communication activities, accelerators, organization of events like labs, hackathons, awards, calls for funding, etc.).
As shown in the subcategory D3, Pre-Commercial Procurement initiatives might facilitate access to the market. Furthermore, as various resources collected in this Toolbox suggest, a focus on the unmet needs of citizens, users, patients, professionals, and healthcare providers might facilitate the commercialisation. For this reason, the adoption of a bottom-up demand-driven approach by SMEs and industries is strongly recommended.
Thanks to the information and experiences collected implementing the three pilots in Örebro (Sweden); Murcia (Spain), and Cyprus, the CHERRIES Project is geared to identify policy recommendations on the use of RRI demand-driven approach for making innovation and business support in healthcare more apt to address societal needs.
All the resources collected here have a practical character so that entrepreneurs and innovators can find them useful for an assessment of their enterprise or their product. In particular, two resources contain practical guides on business, with particular regard to e-health products and solutions. Two resources, on the basis of experiences carried out in the framework of EU projects, include lists of obstacles and factors that might hinder access to the market. Three other resources are focused on the cycle of health tech innovation, on Technology readiness level and Market readiness level that might be used as reflecting tools in designing and implementing the commercialisation and sustainability processes.
In the framework of European E-Health Business Support, eHealth Hub is an EU-funded initiative, exclusively focused on digital health, providing long-term support to the stakeholder ecosystems and addressing key challenges of European SMEs: fine-tuning a business model, securing investments, engaging the demand-side, and accelerating commercialisation, getting legal and regulatory guidance to develop solutions in compliance with a multi-layer complex framework. eHealth Hub’s goal is to provide business-oriented services tailored to the needs of eHealth SMEs and stakeholders and to secure their continuation after the project end via a sustainable support structure. The resource contains various smart guides.
Part of interest: The entire resource.
Target groups: Innovation business, Providers, RPOs, Start-ups, Intermediaries
This is a practical introductory manual on business modelling and routes to market, drafted in the framework of GET project (2015). The Guide presents some approaches to business development in the sector of health. In particular, the Guide presents three approaches: business model Canvas, the lean start-up methodology, and the continuous improvement methods. Tools and resources are also included. Each approach is discussed individually to offer an outline structure and a fundamental level of understanding, together with links to tools, literature, and case studies for further details and references to help the application of these methods and to help the achievement of best success to eHealth start-ups.
Part of interest: The entire document.
Target groups: Innovation Business, Start-ups, Intermediaries, Payers
On the basis of an analysis of a Single Digital Market (2015), the resource provides lessons learned from investors on the situation of digital health. In particular, the resource describes the investment framework in eHealth, with data and interviews with investors (GET project made interviews with more than 250 investors in digital health). The resource contains the list of criteria adopted to be taken into consideration by SMEs and start-ups in a self-assessment exercise on three areas of issues: when a company is ready for its next step; a product that is a solution; a company ready for its next round of investment. The resource contains also a list of potential investors in eHealth.
Part of interest: The entire document, and in particular from Pg 16.
Target groups: Innovation Business, Start-ups, Intermediaries, Payers
This is a paper (by Van Velthon and Cordon, 2017) describing the outcomes of a workshop on health stakeholders on driving factors, obstacles, and conflicts related to the adoption of digital health innovation.
Part of interest: The entire document.
Target groups: RPOs, Business Innovation, Providers, Professionals, CSOs, Patients
CIMIT (Consortia for improving medicine with the Innovation and technology) defined a set of instruments to support healthcare innovation technology development. The starting point is the healthcare tech innovation cycle (composed of three main phases: Invention, Translation, and Commercialisation), establishing a sequence of healthcare-specific milestones. In this context was created a roadmap to guide teams for navigating the complex journey from an unmet clinical need to the becoming standard of care; and able to address clinical, market/business, regulatory, and technology risks. The elements of the cycle are: clinical need; idea; proof of concept; proof of feasibility; proof of value; initial clinical trials; validation of solution; approval and launch; clinical use; standard of care. Several other instruments delivered from CIMIT are included in this resource.
Part of interest: The entire resource.
Target groups: Innovation business, RPOs, Start-ups
Guidance and Impact Tracking System (GAITS) platform is designed to assist the commercialisation of healthcare innovations. This is a free educational resource site to help teams who are developing healthcare innovations to plan their work in a way that maximizes the chances for success by using CIMIT’s Healthcare Innovation Cycle framework. It is composed of a series of Deliverables grouped by maturity (10 “Innovation Maturity Levels”) and topic areas (4 Domains), creating 40 Cells. Each Cell is divided into segments that represent a Deliverable. This tool was prepared for four types of solutions: health tech, med-tech, digital medicine, and biomarker diagnostic.
Part of interest: The entire document.
Target groups: RPOs, Innovation Business, Providers, Start-ups
The resource contains the tools of technology readiness level (TRL) and of the Market readiness level (MRL). The corresponding efforts made to set up and test a technological product has to be made for supporting the process to bring those products to market, providing an organic sustainable plan and an exploitation strategy. This support includes business strategy, business modelling, marketing, sales, after-sales support, service desks, IT service management systems, supply chain management, staff training and education, business change, and transition. TLR and MRL might be very useful in the process of the market access of a product.
Part of interest: Part of interest: The entire document.
Target groups: RPOs, Business Innovation