Events
EIT Health 2018 MatchMaking Event in Naples
A MatchMaking event organized by EIT Health, a Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) established by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) - created in 2008 to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across Europe - was held in Naples on 26 and 27 February, bringing together more than 300 participants, scientists, academics and business representatives with the aim of creating synergies, promoting contact between the various entities and encouraging the creation of partnerships and consortia to develop projects by increasing the number of high-quality applications submitted for financing.
The event included small-sized B2B (business-to-business) meetings, round table sessions, brainstorming sessions and sessions for the use of design thinking tools (Fig. 1) organised in teams and addressing key challenges in health and innovation.
The University of Lisbon and the North Lisbon Hospital Centre were represented by Professor Isabel Rocha (Fig. 2), vice-rector of the University of Lisbon, chair of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Office (GIE) and professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (FMUL), and the FMUL was represented by Sónia Teixeira, from the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Office (GIE).
The lively and positive atmosphere of the event encouraged communication between academic and business representatives, making it possible for the participants to get in touch with people from different countries, thus enriching their partnership portfolio. The strategy of the organisation of creating small, quick meetings made it possible for the participants to engage in a greater number of informal conversations with more people, focusing on the following goals: fostering new relationships between people from different countries, coordinating ideas and understanding how different strategies are used to address similar themes and challenges in different countries, in order to create differentiated projects with value propositions.
At the end, in the closing session (Fig. 3), there was a reflection on the positive impact of the event on the partners, which will hopefully result in stronger partnerships and in the submission of more innovative projects with a higher quality to funding programs. There was also room for clarifications and suggestions: there was an emphasis on the idea that this event should be held more often, a fact that undoubtedly shows just how useful the participation in this type of initiatives is for all the entities involved. Indeed, personal contact in a dedicated space without the usual technological barriers of everyday life is essential and vital for strengthening human relationships, as well as for ensuring the sustainable development of projects in the field of health, which will be of benefit to everyone.
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The event included small-sized B2B (business-to-business) meetings, round table sessions, brainstorming sessions and sessions for the use of design thinking tools (Fig. 1) organised in teams and addressing key challenges in health and innovation.
The University of Lisbon and the North Lisbon Hospital Centre were represented by Professor Isabel Rocha (Fig. 2), vice-rector of the University of Lisbon, chair of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Office (GIE) and professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (FMUL), and the FMUL was represented by Sónia Teixeira, from the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Office (GIE).
The lively and positive atmosphere of the event encouraged communication between academic and business representatives, making it possible for the participants to get in touch with people from different countries, thus enriching their partnership portfolio. The strategy of the organisation of creating small, quick meetings made it possible for the participants to engage in a greater number of informal conversations with more people, focusing on the following goals: fostering new relationships between people from different countries, coordinating ideas and understanding how different strategies are used to address similar themes and challenges in different countries, in order to create differentiated projects with value propositions.
At the end, in the closing session (Fig. 3), there was a reflection on the positive impact of the event on the partners, which will hopefully result in stronger partnerships and in the submission of more innovative projects with a higher quality to funding programs. There was also room for clarifications and suggestions: there was an emphasis on the idea that this event should be held more often, a fact that undoubtedly shows just how useful the participation in this type of initiatives is for all the entities involved. Indeed, personal contact in a dedicated space without the usual technological barriers of everyday life is essential and vital for strengthening human relationships, as well as for ensuring the sustainable development of projects in the field of health, which will be of benefit to everyone.
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