€6m in funding awarded to pioneering health companies

EIT Health has announced almost €6 million of funding has been awarded to pioneering companies from across Europe that are directly addressing a range of health challenges.

The pan-European EIT Health Headstart programme awards companies across Europe and showcases EIT Health’s commitment to improving lives of European citizens on a local level.

A total of 120 early stage healthcare companies and SMEs from 14 European countries have received a grant this year for their innovations and impact.

The new health solutions seek to critically improve the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of conditions including malaria, heart disease, Parkinson’s, visual impairment, obesity, vaginal dryness and more. 

The EIT Health Headstart supports emerging companies and SMEs to develop new products and services and fast-track their products to market. The regional EIT Health managers will actively support these companies in preparing project plans to shorten their product timelines and connect to other European partners such as mentors, living labs and talent. Companies also receive up to €50,000 in financial support for these projects.

Over a one-year period companies will implement their project plans and access both their local EIT Health resources as well as tap into the opportunities from EIT Health networks in UK and Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Spain and Scandinavia.

Salvatore Demelas, project manager for the EIT Health Headstart Programme, said: “The quality of submissions across all the local offices was outstanding this year and it’s clear to see Europe’s brightest health innovators are disseminated widely across the continent and not confined to a handful of regions. It is hugely exciting that we are able to support a wide expanse of healthcare challenges with the funding, from innovations using the latest in health technology to find solutions that are cost-effective, time-effective and often completely new to the market.”

Applications for the 2020 Headstart Programme are now open.