Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU)

Overview

• Role: To translate health research and innovation into tangible benefits for patients and society, and ensure that Europe remains at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary, sustainable, patient-centric health research.
• Executive Director: Dr Niklas Blomberg
• Partners: The EU (represented by the European Commission, COCIR (medical imaging, radiotherapy, health ICT and electromedical industries); EFPIA (biopharmaceutical industry), EuropaBio (biotechnology industry); MedTech Europe (medical technology industry) and Vaccines Europe (vaccine industry).
• Established in: 2021
• Number of staff: 55
• Location: Brussels (Belgium)
• Website: IHI Joint Undertaking

Science is driving new developments that often span different sectors within the life science community. As a result, an increasing number of patients already use medical devices, digital technologies and e-health services alongside medicines as part of their healthcare. 

Looking to the future, it’s clear that new breakthroughs will increasingly involve cross-sector discoveries, such as medical device-drug combinations or AI diagnostics. Yet all too often, the industrial sectors involved in health research and care (pharmaceutical, digital, IT, medical devices, diagnostics, etc.) work in isolation. We urgently need an innovative, more integrated approach to health research and healthcare.

What it does

IHI aims to:

• turn health research and innovation into real benefits for patients and society
• deliver safe, effective health innovations that cover the entire spectrum of care – from prevention to diagnosis and treatment – particularly in areas where there’s an unmet public health need 
• make Europe’s health industries globally competitive.

It funds collaborative, cross-sector research projects that bring together all the parties involved in health research, including:

• universities
• health-related industries
• small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
• patient organisations
• regulatory bodies.

IHI builds on the successes and lessons learned through the Innovative Medicines Initiative, a partnership between the EU and the pharmaceutical industry. IMI demonstrated that a public-private partnership approach delivers results in areas where there is a lack of safe, effective treatments (e.g. dementia) and/or where the impact on public health is greatest (e.g. diabetes, antimicrobial resistance). 
 

Who benefits

• Patients can influence research into their conditions; in the longer term, they and society in general will benefit from faster access to better, safer medicines.
• Academic researchers and SMEs gain knowledge and access to research funding.
• Larger companies gain knowledge and tools to improve their R&D activities.
• All project participants benefit from the expertise of other partners and the opportunity to translate scientific discoveries into useful tools and resources that will ultimately help improve healthcare.

Further information

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