Public funds are under pressure all over Europe, but cities should provide the same or even higher levels of public services (especially in case of health & social care, due to the aging society). This requires a change in public service delivery, resulting in more efficient systems. CE is therefore preparing roadmaps, which set the key objectives and framework for implementing the required change in public service provision. One of these roadmaps cover the topics health&well-being. The Roadmap Health will be finalised and adopted by the end of 2015. Its keywords will be “innovation within our quadruple helix, using a living lab environment for testing and implementation of care and well-being related solutions”. The roadmap will deal with several subjects, covering the full range of local public services which contribute to healthier and better quality life of citizens (incl. health, sports, housing, public spaces, etc.). For each subject an implementation plan will be developed during 2016-7, defining the necessary concrete measures and actions. A key subject is "Strengthening our Social Basis" which sets an overall framework for the envisaged change in public service delivery. The implementation plan for this subject will define actions, on how to use the existing social basis and networks among citizens to better exploit the opportunities arising from innovation in health&well-being through a living lab approach, thus better aligning technological and social innovation. 

The Strategy aims to maximise investment opportunities and tackle barriers of growth in LCR with the help of EU funding. It sets 5 priority areas, one of them being the “Innovation Economy”: this portfolio supports translating LCR’s strengths in specific sectors, incl. Life Sciences, Healthcare&Bio-Medical into innovation, growth and employment opportunities. Measures will seek to create a strong and effective innovation eco-system, e.g. by increasing access to open innovation for universities and private companies, and to accelerate commercialisation of R&D by suitable facilities and finance environment. Planned interventions include the development of open access user-test facilities, R&D centres/business interfaces, facilities to support collaborative research, commercialisation, focusing also on health innovation. Financial incentives, e.g. innovation vouchers and innovative public procurement are also envisaged.

Since the amount of EU funds from which LCR will presumably benefit is quite limited compared to previous years’ allocation (ca. €222 million), it is crucial, that it’s used effictively and efficiently, maximizing impact and ensuring complimentarity with other funds. Considering that the well-being of an ageing society forms a key social challenge, while LCR has significant strengths in innovation & technology related to health, exploiting them with targeted measures based on best European practices can increase the achievable positive outcomes of the Strategy. 

GINOP is the largest national SF programme of Hungary, allocating more than 8 billion Euro for improving the country’s competitiveness. It mainly targets less developed regions, but applying the relevant flexibility rules, also partly addresses Central-Hungary. It creates synergies and complementarities among all other SF programmes of Hungary, incl. the Competitive Central-Hungary regional OP. Priority Axis (PA) 2 is dedicated to improving research, technology and innovation via 1) strengthening R&I capacities and improving connectivity with international networks to increase participation in H2020 programme; 2) increasing R&I activity in businesses; and 3) improving strategic R&I networks and cooperation among innovative SMEs and research institutions. PA8 complements these measures with financial instruments to be made available to SMEs. Innovation support under PA2 and PA8 specifically targets smart specialisation sectors identified by the national S3, incl. the priority “Healthy society and wellbeing”, which promotes the widespread use of advanced health industry technologies in order to maintain and improve the general health condition of the society. GINOP is identified as the key source for funding innovation in smart specialisation sectors, therefore it has to pay high attention to the specific characteristics of innovation systems in different fields. Health-Inno-ExPo supports GINOP in identifying the most efficient measures needed to address innovation in health.

Norte 2020 is comprised of an integrated set of priorities and funding instruments addressing the main challenges and opportunities of Portugal’s Norte region. From a budget of ca. 3.4 M€ 11,9% is allocated to Priority Axis 1, which aims at strengthening research, technological development&innovation. Experience of the 2007-2013 period showed significant challenges regarding the integration of results of R&D projects into actual business practices and implementation on the market. Norte 2020 thus applies new instruments, i.e. Collaborative Projects, Demonstration Projects and Mobilization Projects, which support the development of new products and services, the valorization of results from previous R&D projects, their demonstration in real life conditions, incl. setting up of pilot lines. Health is a key smart specialization sector to be targeted, with huge potential for interaction among different actors, cross fertilization and further valorization. Mobilization projects provide a new instrument for large-scale R&D&I collaborations involving players of the health innovation ecosystem, to reach effective knowledge transfer and commercialization of R&D results. They can also increase complementarities between EU and national/regional funding sources. Due to the novelty of this measure and the challenges of exploiting synergies among different policy instruments, the exchange of experience within Health-Inno-ExPo can strongly contribute to more efficient implementation.