French Health Development Agency looking for partners for a pilot project (INTERREG NWE - call 4) on the reuse of medical assistive device and technology for seniors and people with loss of autonomy.

Short summary Northern French Health Development Agency dedicated to tech transfer and business development in life sciences sector is looking for partners involved in the field of social care, medical aids, recycling, or circular economy for a pilot project (INTERREG NWE) on the reuse of medical assistive device and technology for seniors and people with loss of autonomy. The agency is the coordinator.

Full description The development agency is dedicated to tech transfer and business development in life sciences sector in Northern France. For over than 20 years, it has been working to promote the growth of the health-nutrition and healthy ageing sector through innovation and development. As an economic development agency, our mission is to promote research, stimulate business creation, support and promote the region on the international scene, and to promote the regional health sector and innovation. The agency runs four incubators dedicated to help the creation and development of startups in the health, foodtech, silver economy, sports and well-being. The project Health Go Green aims to provide solutions to the SO3. Circular Economy of the Interreg North West Europe (call 4). The call is expected to be published in november/december 2023 with a deadline in March 2024. EoI can be sent unitil January 2024. The WHO (2019) recently estimated that over one billion people require one or more assistive technologies (ATs) including durable medical equipment (i.e., medical beds, hearing aids, wheelchairs, communication aids, walking aids, special computer keyboards, speech generating devices, etc.) which are an essential support to elderly or people with disabilities’ daily living, social participation, and quality of life. This number is expected to increase to over two billion by 2050 due to the ever-increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases associated with an ageing population. The project aims to develop and test a sustainable, relevant, and efficient pilot action in key regions on a circular economy model for the collection and redistribution of reprocessed Assistive Technology in the medico-social sector. The circular economy model is influencing many industries but healthcare, being highly regulated, is lagging behind. ATs would be collected, reprocessed, and then redistributed to people with disabilities or loss of autonomy beneficiaries, who have a loss of autonomy (temporary or long-lasting) or a disability and who require equipment that they cannot access. By "Assistive technology", we mean all the aids that will allow seniors to age in good health at home (hearing aids, wheelchairs, walkers, etc.). The activities carried out in the project will focus on developing networks and methods to collect, reprocess and redistribute assistive technologies in key regions to support a circular economy model in the medical sector. This will give a second life to medical equipment on a regional scale. The activities will focus on: 1) developing the chain of collection-packaging-redistribution, 2) working on the reimbursement model and 3) Improving the regulatory level, so that it ticks the boxes of the European regulations. Specific sets of indicators will be put in place in collaboration with the partnership (such as the numbers of AT’s collected, the numbers of partnership built, etc.)

Contact / source: NEXT EEN Widgets (europa.eu)