EHTEL is pleased to hear of the launch of a new European executive agency with its focus on both health and digital. Called the new Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA), it has a challenging ambition.
HaDEA’s role will be to help rebuild a post-COVID-19 Europe which, at its heart, will be greener, more digital, and more resilient towards future challenges.
Matthew Hudson, the Interim Director of HaDEA, features in a brief 90-second video where he outlines HaDEA’s key messages.
The agency’s chief responsibility is in management. It will administer all six of the health and digital-related themes at the forefront of Europe’s attention.
Besides the focus on food/nutrition, several useful digital health topics are clear:
- The EU4Health programme.
- Digital Europe.
- The Connecting Europe Facility.
- Horizon Europe.
- The continuing health part of the Horizon 2020 (H2020) programme.
EU4Health: This is the fourth EU health programme. It will run from 2021-2027. It is the European Union’s ambitious health response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the various health challenges facing the continent. Digital will play an important role in it.
Digital Europe: This is a new initiative, likely to be of keen interest to innovators, living labs, and entrepreneurs. Data-related technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning are on the horizon too.
The Connecting Europe Facility: This continues to be of importance to people working on the digital side of infrastructures. There will be much to follow in the next phase.
Horizon Europe: This programme covers lots of exciting destinations for improving health and care in Europe. They range from staying healthy in a rapidly changing world to a focus on developing innovative, sustainable and globally competitive industries that are supporting health and care. Among the important technological tools is artificial intelligence. EHTEL is currently exploring with its members the opportunities that this new programme can bring.
H2020 continues: Europe is in the final stages of the work done in the H2020 work programme. Many exciting projects are at ground-breaking stages of development. Much new work is being done around data, digital, and spaces/platforms in fields as diverse as integrated care and pharmaco-vigilance.
Many opportunities to submit many calls for proposals and tenders that will help Europe and Europeans to recover from the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic will be upcoming shortly. HaDEA’s aims and endeavours are surely initiatives that the EHTEL community will want to follow closely.
EHTEL looks forward to the opportunities that can be brought to the field by this new agency and its work. It plans to liaise with the agency in as pro-active a way as it has connected in the past with the relevant health and digital-related parts of the European Commission.
Meanwhile, for more info, visit the HaDEA webpage.