Anyone who wants advice or more information in relation to applying for funding under any of the health themes in Horizon 2020 should contact Kay Duggan Walls, HRB National Contact Point for Health (t 01 2345187 e kdugganwalls@hrb.ie). She is well versed in how to prepare your application and how to make it successful.

To date, Ireland has secured €424 million through Horizon 2020. This represents 2.4% of the total available budget to date. This is ahead of the initial national target of 1.5% over the lifetime of the programme.

The success of Irish academic researchers, companies and research organisations to date was recognised recently at ‘Ireland’s Champions of EU Research’ event hosted by Enterprise Ireland. Some of the successful projects in health are highlighted below.

As well as recognising the immense contribution of the award winners and all project leaders from Ireland to the national success in securing Horizon 2020 funding, the event also focused on how to maximise participation in the final period 2018-2020.

Some of Ireland’s Champions of EU Research in health were:

Mr Des O’Leary, OncoMark Ltd. OncoMark is a spin-out company from University College Dublin, and is developing a new prognostic assay for early stage breast cancer. The OncoMasTR project will help clinicians to decide which patients should receive chemotherapy for early stage breast cancer. 

OncoMark’s plans to release its diagnostic test in 2018 have been bolstered by the company’s latest investment round.

This was the highest scoring Irish project in the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument. The company also ranked first for its Health Pitch at the European Commission’s Innovation Summit.

Mr Gal Weiss, IBM Ireland Ltd. IBM Ireland is one of the European Commission’s Top 50 Companies in Horizon 2020. IBM Ireland has had 18 projects approved with funding of approximately €11 million. Projects span the areas of Information and Communication Technologies with applications in Internet of Things, Health, Energy and Security.

Ms Julie-Ann Walkden, Business Services Organisation, Health and Social Care Northern Ireland  The goal of the Northern Ireland-led project, ‘Mobile Assistance for Groups and Individuals in the Community’ (MAGIC) is to develop new, innovative technology based solutions that improve physical function and personal independence within the first six months following the onset of stroke. This pre-commercial procurement project is the only one of its kind on the Island of Ireland. 

The project will run for 52 months, concluding in September 2019, and will involve a three-phase pre-commercial procurement competition. In Phase 1 up to seven suppliers will be awarded funding for solution development; in Phase 2 up to four of these suppliers will receive funding for prototype development; and in Phase 3 up to three suppliers will be funded to implement and trial their solutions in Northern Ireland and Italy.

Dr Michaela Black, Ulster University.  The MIDAS project, Meaningful Integration of Data, Analytics and Services, is a partnership involving health authorities in five EU countries and the U.S. along with big data experts from research institutions, multinational corporations and small to medium enterprises. The Ulster University led project will develop a pioneering digital platform for healthcare policy makers. This will allow these decision-makers to tap into unstructured and unconnected healthcare data to better inform policy, reduce costs and improve health and wellbeing of the population.

The project will investigate how to connect patient data from European health authorities with individual data collected from apps, sensors and social media. In compliance with the highest standards of data protection and ethics, the data will be analysed on the MIDAS platform. This will provide a tool for policy makers to benchmark, simulate and forecast outcomes of healthcare policy decisions. DCU and IBM Ireland are partners in the project.

Further information about EU funding opportunities can be found at the HRB website at:

http://www.hrb.ie/research-strategy-funding/external-relations/eu-funding-opportunities/horizon-2020/