Science Meets Regions

Science Meets Regions started in 2016 as a complementary initiative to the annual “Science meets Parliaments” event in the European Parliament. It was endorsed by the European Parliament and carried out by the Commission’s Joint Research Centre with the support of the Committee of the Regions.

The programme aims to foster evidence-informed policymaking both at the local and the regional levels by facilitating the dialogue between policymakers and scientists, as well as businesses and citizens, on locally relevant policy issues. 

Vanguard Initiative Innovation Networking Initiative ​​

Accelerating Digital Transition in Health

The Vanguard Initiative Innovation Networking Initiative (VI INI) is a series of 5 events that will focus on the acceleration of the digital transition in health, as it is essential to reduce the burden of traditional healthcare services and to assure the interoperability of medical data. 

The VI INI aims at outlining collaboration methods as well as know-how transfer techniques and thereby accelerating the process of digital transformation in the domain. One essential objective is to engage stakeholders within a European value chain network of digitalised healthcare services and products. 

Networking initiatives are an effective instrument to pursue innovation and create opportunities to stimulate territorial and societal renewal, which is the main objective of ‘The Vanguard Initiative: New Growth through Smart Specialisation’.

East Netherlands, Lower Austria, and North East Romania will organise a series of interactive international conferences with dedicated workshops on smart health, where the quadruplehelix partners will be brought together at the regional level, with the following aims:

  • Developing solutions together with researchers and social actors to issues defined by the administration in the field of Smart Health.    

  • Engaging stakeholders within a European value chain network of digitalized healthcare services and products.   

  • Outlining collaboration methods and know-how transfer techniques, and thereby accelerating the process of digital transformation in the domain. 

  • Facilitating cooperation between local authorities and the interested parties at the regional level, but also the collaboration between regional ecosystems at the EU level. 

  • Results of the workshops will feed back into administration processes that support the connection of digital and health activities at the regional level.