Author: Chiara Davalli

After the summer break, on the basis of preliminary results of the mapping/analysis of the regional healthcare stakeholders and policy ecosystems as well as the innovation support ecosystems, territorial partners began to work on the preparation of the RRI policy experiments in the three pilot regions, with the aim to finalise CHERRIES methodology by the end of the year.

In each region, territorial partners arranged several initiatives aimed at kick staring CHERRIES activities at local level by involving different stakeholders and presenting the RRI-driven project approach in the healthcare sector. Through the active involvement of a broad range of actors CHERRIES aims at supporting regional actors:

1. in the definition of unmet needs and innovation demand in health,
2. in the co-creation of the innovative solutions meeting the identified needs/demand, and
3. in the decision making process concerning innovation policies of regional healthcare ecosystems in Europe.

In this framework, during October and November territorial partners arranged regional “Training workshops” aimed at engaging and preparing the local system of stakeholders for the experimental phase of the project. These events were designed in collaboration with K&I  as an itinerary of reflection and capacity building on RRI-based demand articulation, experimentation, and co-creation processes in health by involving key territorial multipliers and stakeholders of the Healthcare R&I ecosystem (providers, policymakers, payors, patients).

Training workshops were also aimed at initiating/fostering multi-stakeholder dialogues among different key territorial and societal actors in view of a possible establishment of a territorial coalition (community) on Responsible/Open Innovation in health which might provide sustainability to the process activated through CHERRIES pilots.

In each region the design of the training workshops was adapted accordingly to local stakeholders’ habits and territorial preconditions.

If you want to know more about the regional training events, stay tuned with Cherries Website https://www.cherries2020.eu, in the space devoted to the three regional ecosystems:

• Murcia: https://www.cherries2020.eu/ecosystems/murcia/
• Cyprus: https://www.cherries2020.eu/cyric-eubic-and-aretaeio-hospital-working-together-to-improve-responsible-healthcare-ecosystems-in-cyprus/
• Orebro: https://www.cherries2020.eu/ecosystems/orebro/

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Author: Claudia Colonnello, Knowledge and Innovation | @KnowledgeInnov

Territorial trends, drivers and impacts in intelligent cities, transport and energy – this is what the survey proposed by RRI2SCALE project is investigating.

If you are an expert in any of the below domains:

• Smart cities
• Smart transport
• Smart energy production and consumption
• Regional Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3)

please consider the opportunity to have your say.

The survey is conducted in two consecutive rounds. The first one takes place currently though this questionnaire, while the second will be sent to you on 23/11/2020.

During the second Delphi round, you will have the opportunity to revise your answers on the same questionnaire in the light of other participants’ views.

TAKE THE SURVEY NOW.

The survey will close on November 20th. For further info please contact Dr. Angelidou Margarita, mangelidou@qplan-intl.gr

CHERRIES territorial pilots kick started last week by launching the regional calls for needs.

The needs inventory is an important part of CHERRIES project as it determines the direction of the pilots that will be launched later on.

Do you see a need that needs to be met in the regional healthcare sector? Take your chance to influence and contribute in the project!
The CHERRIES project aims to find new, innovative solutions to meet health challenges through responsible and sustainable approaches.

The CHERRIES project takes a clear bottom-up perspective when developing new solutions to meet health challenges. This means that we call organizations as well as individuals and professionals who are directly or indirectly concerned by an issue to be involved in influencing. The opportunity to describe a need is therefore open to healthcare organizations, healthcare individuals and professionals and healthcare stakeholder organizations, private individuals, persons involved in civil society and officials within, for example, the municipality or region.

Each territory has adjusted the call to its peculiarities, therefore addressing different sub-sectors and target audiences. Look at each regional call and submit your need by November 30th

CHERRIES Cyprus

• Sector: eHealth
• Call Link: https://www.cyric.eu/cherries-call/call-for-needs/
• Contacts: Mr. Moyses Moyseos (EUBIC CyRIC): m.moyseos@cyric.eu |Mr. Stylianos Yiallouros (Aretaeion Private Hospital) : s.yiallouros@aretaeio.com

CHERRIES Murcia

• Sector: eHealth
• Call Link: https://www.imib.es/portal/noticia.jsf?subentrada_actual_web=14199 
• Contacts: Gorka Sanchez Nanclares (Servicio Murciano de Salud): gorka.sanchez@carm.es

CHERRIES Örebro

• Sector: Mental Health
• Call Link: https://bit.ly/2InnH55
• Contacts: Lena Uvhagen (Örebro län): lena.uvhagen@regionorebrolan.se

What happens next?

All needs reported via the form will be analysed and assessed. The assessment team will look, among other things, at the importance of the need, whether it affects many people, and whether it is possible to develop solutions and carry out a pilot project within the framework of the CHERRIES.

Any needs reported will help us increase our understanding of this issue, so even if the very need you report if not is the subject of a pilot project, it is valuable information for us in other work outside of this project!

Murcia, 4 November 2020

CHERRIES Murcia organised the second regional info-session where our partners from Ticbiomed,  Servicio Murciano de Salud and the Region of Murcia presented (20201104_Agenda day 2 vs02):

1. How to identify a need in the healthcare sector
2. How to propose a need in the framework of CHERRIES programme- the regional call for needs will be launched shortly and will remain open until November 30th, 2020

CHERRIES regional calls for needs are the first step of our RRI and demand- oriented approach to inform and shape regional innovation policies and strategies (eg. smart specialisation) to better meet the current challenges healthcare innovation ecosystems are facing today in Europe.

Download here all presentations and watch the recording of the whole session:

• Presentations: 20201104_Presentacion day 2 vs02
• Video: https://youtu.be/4mlqXeESI-c 

If you missed the kick-off session in Murcia, you can check the recordings and the presentations here. 

Do not miss the launch of the call for needs in Murcia and register for CHERRIES Newsletter.

On 3 and 4 November 2020, our partner EBN – European BIC Network held its annual congress, this year dedicated to “Regional Ecosystems Shaping European Innovation”, which gathered online more than 510 participants.

During the first day key note speakers and panelists focussed on regional ecosystems and the role intermediaries can play in boost innovation processes in and across territories. The second day “innovation mission-driven approaches” guided the conversations with key note speakers and panelists. On this second day, CHERRIES inspired and promoted a workshop dedicated to “Mission -driven Health Ecosystems. From abstract Responsible, Research and Innovation practices to concrete business action”.

Moderated by Moyses Moyseos Μωυσής Μωυσέως from CyRIC (Cyprus) the panel provided very interesting insights and reflections on how the sector is going through this transition phase caracterised by pressing societal challenges (aging society, COVID-19, increasing costs of the sector) which are somehow accelerating the transition towards more sustainable innovation approaches.
Lydia Montandon (Atos Spain), Magda Krakowiak (EIT Health) John Rigby  (University of Manchester and CHERRIES Advisory Board Member) discussed challenges and opportunities of the digitalization of the sector, the need for new “rules of the game” (procurement should go beyond the technology itself and involve the processes that lead to those new technologies), the role different societal actors have in the health ecosystems and the consequent question on liability in such a changing system.
Complexity is definitely a keyword when speaking about innovation in the health sector, Responsible and Value Driven Innovation approaches can definitely help in managing such complexity and intermediaries such as EU|BICs can play a role in there.

Panelists then engaged in a networking session with Congress participants, where Covadonga Rayon from CEEI Murcia (Spain) also presented its experience and highlighted the importance of a cultural shift towards a more participated and inclusive healthcare system – where everybody is called to action, patients, practitioners, policy makers, entrepreneurs and intermediaries.

Last September and October 2020, we organised a series of four webinars aimed to discuss different aspects of responsible healthcare innovation covering dimensions that are central for the CHERRIES project. In a format designed by EBN, theoretical and practical perspectives were combined in order to provide well-grounded yet practical information to our diverse set of stakeholders and to discuss how to address these sectoral facets in the context of a complex system like healthcare one.

We asked CHERRIES coordinator, Stefan Philipp (ZSI), to comment the whole series highlighting main outcomes and key reflections that will be further explored during CHERRIES territorial experiments. Below his highlights and take home messages.

The health sector is facing several challenges that are pushing for significant changes: aging population, increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, comorbidities, access to healthcare services in COVID-19 era, just to mention a few. At the same time, healthcare provision systems are facing constant pressure to reduce costs while improving quality. Thus, healthcare decision-makers increasingly recognise the potential of innovation to help respond to the challenges they face and to support high quality, safe, and effective care.

Therefore, the first webinar with the speakers Wouter Boon (University of Utrecht) and Myriam Martin (ticbiomed) focused on role of need in open and user-led innovation approaches in healthcare. Questions were revolving around need identification between actors with different perspectives and the implementation of innovation cultures in and between organisations.

In the second webinar, Rosina Malagrida (Head of the Living Lab for Health at IrsiCaixa) and Barbara Kieslinger (ZSI) explored how RRI and maker approaches contribute to manage the complexity that innovation in the healthcare are facing. The main points stressed were that RRI and co-design help to create real impact with and for society, moving from an organisational perspective to a community one.

During the third webinar, with the speakers John Rigby (University of Manchester; Bibliometica) and Samuli Kauppinen (Oulu University Hospital), questions of demand-side policy and public procurement of innovation have been discussed with insights from the Manchester area and the development of  a new procurement programme at the Oulu University Hospital.

The fourth and final webinar, focused on regional innovation policy and eco-system approaches in the context of European cohesion and healthcare policy with inputs from Gaston Heimeriks (Leiden and Utrecht University) and Anett Ruszanov (ERRIN). Questions of governance and the importance of networks, both within and beyond the regional boarders, have been discussed in the context of the regional potential to specialise in specific sectoral niches and technologies.

Reflecting the eight inputs and subsequent discussions, two themes emerge as shared experience.

First, the complexity of the sector that makes it impossible for a single actor or organisation to have a comprehensive overview of all processes running in parallel within a healthcare (innovation) system – John Rigby even described the sector as a jungle rather than a system. This complexity is necessarily leading to distributed governance structures that pose the risk of silos and poor alignment between system elements.

In direct connection to that, the second theme has been the importance of communication. The distributed knowledge about the sector’s needs implies that agency – understood as the ability to act within the system – must be understood as a collective effort. The constant enhancement and adaption needed to support high quality, safe, and effective care thus is depending of communication processes. These communication processes include patient – general practitioner, general practitioner – specialist, specialist – hospital management, hospital management – innovative SME relationships and many more communication processes that contribute to effectively translating needs to innovative solutions that are well aligned with organisational and technological requirements as well as with societal expectations.

In the CHERRIES project, we aim to support regional ecosystems with these alignments and will work to support communication processes within and between regions. We recently published the call for needs aiming at regional eco-systems to reflect, identify and communicate issues within or connected to the healthcare system that are affecting either the healthcare service delivery quality, or creating avoidable costs within the healthcare system, or both things at once. Subsequently, we will develop solutions aiming to solve selected needs in co-creation processes – thereby to work towards opening of communication processes and alignment of innovative solutions with specific requirements in a complex system.

Murcia, 28 October 2020

Last week CHERRIES kicked off its regional activities with the first info-workshop in Murcia: “Cómo me puedo beneficiar de CHERRIES” (20201028_Agenda day 1).

Download here all presentations and watch the recording of the whole session:

• Presentations: 20201028_Presentacion day 1
• Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BMeNELK7MY

Do not miss the next session organised by our partners in Murcia on November 4th.

Discover CHERRIES call for needs, the first step of our RRI and demand- oriented approach to inform and shape regional innovation policies and strategies (eg. smart specialisation) to better meet the current challenges healthcare innovation ecosystems are facing in Europe

The RRI-based open-innovation experiments (Labs) are conducted in three European regions – in Murcia (ES), Örebro (SE) and the Republic of Cyprus (CY). The regional eco-systems will identify, co-create and implement innovative solutions addressing the sectors’ needs.

How does RRI (Responsible Research and Innovation) fit into Regional Innovation Smart Specialisation Strategies (RIS3)? How can European Regions leverage their diversities to boost innovation?

This question opened the 4th and last episode of CHERRIES webinar dedicated to “Regional innovation ecosystems for healthcare”, which took place on October 13th 2020, and saw Dr. Gaston Heimeriks (CWTS, Leiden University| Copernicus Institute, Utrecht University) and Anett Ruszanov (ERRIN) on stage.

Gaston Heimeriks opened its presentation with a reflection on how regions can shape not only smart innovation strategies, but also inclusive and sustainable – in other words, responsible smart specialisation innovation strategies. He then presented the role regional stakeholders play in enabling such a responsible approach: mapping regional policies and regional actors is a key starting point to shape regional innovation policies that can better address today societal challenges.

Anett Ruszanov then dived into the role regional ecosystems play in/for the healthcare sector. Diversity is a must at subnational levels, such as the regional one. Each region presents its own innovation ecosystem, with its model and processes. Anett spoke about the dynamism of innovation ecosystems that are in constant evolution and presented how different regions present different approaches to meet societal needs.

The session was closed by CHERRIES coordinator, Stefan Philipp (ZSI) who made some considerations on the main outcomes of the whole CHERRIES webinar series.

If you missed the session you can watch the recordings here.

You can also download the presentations here:

• Cherries_eu_webinar series_EP4
• Innovation ecosystems in healthcare_ERRIN
• Responsible Regional research -CHERRIES webinar version_CWTS

Don’t forget to subscribe our newsletter and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn (@CHERRIES_eu) to check latest updates from our community!

The third episode of CHERRIES webinar series -held last October 6th- tackled the topic of innovation procurement in the healthcare sector.

The first two episodes set the scene on demand-driven innovation policies and responsible healthcare ecosystems and in both occasions a question raised up: the innovation frameworks are changing towards more responsible and sustainable approaches, but are rules ready enough to support this cultural change? Is the regulatory framework advanced enough to cope with the complexity of the health sector?

Dr. John Rigby and Samuli Kauppinen debated these questions in their speeches.

Dr. Rigby stated that “innovation is a conversation” where different actors need to interact and exchange. In other words, procurement serves and articulates the demand side of the innovation chain and therefore greater connectivity among health stakeholders is needed.

He then brought some concrete examples from the UK context, with a focus on the Health Innovation Manchester experience.

Samuli Kauppinen spoke about the public procurement of co-created innovative solutions, and he built his speech around the current experience of Procurement of Innovation in the Northern Ostrobothnia Hospital District. He presented how the InDemand project kick started some reflections on how to support the adoption of solutions resulted from co-creation approaches, and the implications from a procurer’s perspective. Samuli presented the process the Hospital has designed and the plans for its actual implementation.

If you missed the live session, you can still watch the recordings here.

You can also download speakers’ presentations:

CHERRIES webinar 3_John Rigby_UoManchester

CHERRIES webinar 3_SamuliKauppinen_NOHD

Cherries_eu_webinar series_EP3

Is the RRI framework advanced enough to manage the complexity of healthcare innovation ecosystems?

This question kick started the second episode of CHERRIES webinar series “Exploring Responsible Healthcare Ecosystems”. Held on September 29, this session focussed on RRI practices in healthcare and saw two experts on our “virtual stage”: 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, Austria.

Two totally different approaches were presented during the webinar.

Rosina Malagrida spoke about the complexity that characterizes the healthcare sector and the need for a new problem solving approach where different stakeholders of the ecosystem are involved throughout the whole innovation chain, from challenge definition to solution implementation. In this context, RRI can help regional actors to act at ecosystemic level, rather than project level to generate a real impact with and for society, moving from an organisational perspective to a community one.

Rosina presented how linear thinking is not enough to embrace such a complexity, while systemic thinking can help identifying root causes and mapping interconnections. She also elaborated on the role intermediaries should play in establishing a dialogue between society and the R&I community.

Download here Rosina Malagrida’s presentation: 01_RRI_Cherries_Webinar_Sept2020_Malagrida

Barbara Kieslinger presented the Careables.org platform, a mixed community of people and organisations committed to the co-design and making of open, personalised healthcare for everyone, born from the EU-funded collaborative H2020 project Made4You.

She presented how Careabes.org embedded key dimensions of the RRI framework in its methodology and practices, and the result is a set of “responsible making principles”:

1. Make things that make sense: Create solutions that answer to real personal problems or needs.
2. Co-design with others: Make space for diverse skills, competences, knowledge, and experiences to merge and come to new and meaningful solutions.
3. Empower people: Teach others so that everyone can become more technologically literate and see the potentials.
4. Share How You Make: Openly document the making of the project enabling its replication and choose the most appropriate licenses for your project.
5. Be aware of limits: Consider any gaps of knowledge when you design for health and care, ask the people you design for and clinicians for support and feedback and follow quality and safety standards.

Barbara then elaborated on the legal and ethical aspects that influence the work makers do when developing healthcare and medical solutions/devices.

Download here Barbara Kieslinger’s presentation: 02_Cherries_Webinar_Sept2020_Kieslinger

This is in a nutshell what was discussed during the 2nd episode of CHERRIES webinar series “Exploring Responsible Healthcare Ecosystems”.

You can watch the full episode here

If you want to know more about CHERRIES and our webinar series download this presentation: Cherries_eu_webinar series_EP2

Next Episode is on October 6th at 14.30 CET, don’t miss it!

Episode 3. The role of procurement in healthcare innovation
With Dr. John Rigby (University of Manchester | Bibliometrica Ltd.) and Samuli Kauppinen (Oulu University Hospital)