ITECH · Roadmap for Research and Innovation in Health Technology

Research and innovation in Health Technologies continuously deliver new products, devices and services. The “idea to market” process is complex due to multiple actors, institutional bodies and operators. The ITECH project aims at defining a strategy plan in Health Technologies to contribute to the Horizon 2020 Common EU Strategic Framework for Research and Innovation. The Support Action will gather EU and national networks or experts, representative of researchers, physicians, companies and health organizations. The key issue is: “What is the best strategy to optimize research & innovation and translate research into successful Health Technology products and services?” ITECH is an opportunity for identifying throughout Europe gaps and barriers currently existing at all stages of the “idea to market” process and to propose a strategy to accelerate and support this process.The objectives are:1: To map existing national and European instruments supporting research & innovation and the “idea-to-market” strategy; identify the similarities and dissimilarities between countries2: To build and validate a model describing the phases of maturation of innovation3: To identify, from this model, gaps and barriers currently existing at all stages4: To propose solutions to overcome the identified gaps and barriers5: To find the best schemes for promoting synergies and collaborations with existing actions6: To road map the areas where European research and industry can take a worldwide leadership role7: To disseminate the outcomes of the project to all actors involved in the process “idea-to-market”.The ultimate goal is therefore to build a perennial network of referents in Healthcare Technologies integrating the experience of 27 European contact nodes and to propose to decision makers a strategy plan for the Development of Healthcare Technologies in Europe.