To address the low start-up survival rate and the lack of funding in “modest” and “moderate” innovation ecosystems within Europe – namely in Central and Eastern European countries - the consortium (led by EIT Health in collaboration with InnoStars, Civitta and other entities, as well as an advisory board including the EIF) will use their individual expertise to implement activities that build critical mass on both the investor and venture-building front. Given the investment challenges in early-stage ventures, the Project will seek to collaborate with local start-up support organizations to provide capacity building initiatives as well as to derisk local innovators to set the foundations for modest and moderate regions to become sustainable and competitive with more dynamic regions within the European ecosystem. The project will be structured around the impact pathway methodology (scoping, engaging and implementing). The specific objectives are: 1) to build robust and sustainable early-stage investment ecosystems and increase critical mass; 2) to increase venture investments through a) cultivating life sciences local investment and b) attracting foreign investors into the local innovation ecosystem; 3) to provide de-risking and investment readiness support for Dealflow exchange to increase syndication, and 4) to disseminate and implement project outcomes, create European foundation to address fragmentation in EU market and support cross-border investments In addition to said objectives, as well as the expected outcomes set out in the call, the Project will aim to impact wider European goals, including furthering the European Innovation Agenda, increasing investment competitiveness, start-up as wells as job creation, knowledge transfer, and widening European outreach. Furthermore, project results are expected to be applicable to other regions and non-health related industries and scope a Pan-European funding initiative for health tech ventures rich in assets.

The mission of the EIT Community Strategic Synergies (EIT CSS) is to facilitate and foster collaboration across EIT Community in key thematic areas identified in the EIT SIA 2021-207 and EU policy priorities. By bringing together and promoting cooperation across the different KICs involved, the EIT SCC elevates the EIT Community’s visibility and impact in key areas to drive a systemic change in Europe. By gathering EIT Community’s answers to strategic challenges in one cluster, the EIT CSS creates links between programs that would otherwise never meet, it increases scalability of actions and results, it improves efficiency in terms of management and implementation of processes, and attract new sources of fundings. The EIT CSS builds on the diverse expertise and knowledge of the KICs involved and, inspired by the holocaracy management framework yet aligned with EIT’s recommendations, it positions itself as unique community to address some of today’s most pressing challenges for Europe in four areas: : 1. Artificial Intelligence: by providing solutions for a human-centric implementation of AI that can best address its societal, business, environmental and regulatory challenges but also contributing to the ambitious Deep Tech Talent Initiative (DTTI) initiave; 2. New European Bauhaus (NEB)by supporting community-based capacity building initiatives and start-ups to accelerate the shift towards a more sustainable, inclusive, and beautiful Europe and contributing therefore to the Green Deal; 3. Women Entrepreneurship: by promoting a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem, mainstreaming business opportunities and increased the share of women-led innovation in the market; 4. Circular Economy: facilitating the shift from a linear to a circular economy model by connecting and engaging the different stakeholders of the innovation ecosystem.

Based on a detailed analysis of the situation of UA Innovation Ecosystem after Russian invasion, partners (6 Ukrainian partners and 11 partners from 11 other EU member States with an extensive outreach capacity spanning across key EU and global markets) have put together a proposal aimed at providing support to counteract the harm done to Ukrainian startups and deep tech SMEs in the short term, building a framework that supports the Ukrainian Government’s goal of becoming a ‘start-up nation’, and increasing the role of innovators and the deep tech industry in driving growth. This will be achieved through a comprehensive portfolio of support services that combine cascade funding (10k-25k-50k grants), access to finance actions (connecting to public funds and private investors, training on EIC, EIT and other cascading opportunities etc.), deep-tech-focused incubation and acceleration programmes, and market access initiatives (targeting 10+ countries, soft landing in 10 key sectors/verticals, and working spaces in 50+ locations across Europe). Pan-European integration – which brings UA innovation closer to investors, accelerators, potential buyers, innovation agencies and peers - will also be a key component of this project. The Consortium is led by FBA (PL-based and leader of FSTP management) with key support from USF, Ukraine’s public agency to support SMEs, which will invest its own resources and guarantee synergies with UA. Other partners key to guarantee services delivery and wide impact are: EITH (KICs), PNP (investors), LXI (EU innovation stakeholders), CORKBIC (BIC network), IHS (Impact Hub Network), IOP (EEN in UA). Circa 1,000 innovators, start-ups and deep tech SMEs located in UA or created by Ukrainian citizens in other EU countries after 24.02.2022 will benefit from said support, with at least 400 expected to gain a mix of financial and non-financial support, and many others expected to access non-financial support while seeking other sources of funding.

EP PerMed is a new European Partnership dedicated to Personalised Medicine (PM). It supports PM-related R&I, but also facilitates and accelerates all steps so that PM achievements successfully pass through the full value continuum to be implemented in sustainable health systems for the benefit of people and societies. The partnership will foster demonstration projects and promote successes and lessons learned to demonstrate evidence of PM implementation. EP PerMed activities cover overarching aspects, like patient involvement, exchange with medical societies, infrastructures and international and regional collaboration. The project portfolios of EP PerMed and ERA PerMed (ERA-Net co-fund on PM) and others are supported to become successful innovations in healthcare practice. EP PerMed will be the global PM-platform for scientific and strategic dialogue and alignment, resulting in public documents and publications. Accordingly, it will inform the public, patients, healthcare providers or payers about the latest PM options and engage them. The Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for Personalised Medicine (SRIA for PM, 2023), developed by EP PerMed partners, is the basis for the partnership's structure and a wide range of its activities. All steps of the SRIA development were strongly support by numerous PM-experts, stakeholders and the European Commission (EC). Thus, the EP PerMed annual Joint Transnational Calls (JTCs) and other funding and activities, events and tools will be in line with the SRIA and outputs will feed into a SRIA update in the coming years. The partnership builds on several developments, initiatives and projects such as ERA PerMed, ICPerMed and its supporting projects (“ICPerMed Family”) funded by the EC. In parallel, it reaches out to the 1+Million Genomes Initiative, other European Partnerships in the Health Cluster and infrastructures like the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI).