DIGIHealth UASHome Incubators Boost Programme

<< Background >>When applying for this proposal, the whole world was facing a very special challenge: The COVID-19 pandemic. In Europe, the healthcare system, which was already struggling with the rise of chronic diseases, ageing population and the increasing problem of finding sufficient healthcare professionals, was additionally challenged by an unprecedent situation. In this phase, the already growing digitalization dynamics brought solutions for several sectors. It also gave the opportunity to put a focus on how digitalization can help to overcome challenges in the healthcare system in Europe. However, the successful implementation of digital healthcare solutions has its own set of rules regarding interdisciplinarity, legal and business aspects and regional characteristics. Therefore, regional drivers are needed to bring together relevant stakeholders, provide services and offer trainings. UASs can be those drivers: They are locally and regionally connected, are focusing on applied education and research and aim to directly have an impact on the region in which they are located in. UASs are increasingly focusing on entrepreneurial mindset and training to support the smooth transition from research outcome and results to impactful innovation.<< Objectives >>The main objective of the project was to strengthen the capacity of regional Universities of Applied Sciences to become “home-bases” for innovation and entrepreneurship centers for Digital Health. To achieve this overall objective, the following sub-objectives were identified: 1) investigate the status-quo of UAShome-based incubation processes, 2) set-up a peer-learning community, 3) improve the value creation from both student and academic entrepreneurship activities, 4) showcase results of the project. A boost training programme was developed based on the results of the investigation phase and tested throughout the project phase. The training programme was supported by train-the-trainer information and materials. This programme was designed in a way so that it can be implemented by UASs, their incubation or startup programmes and centers or other institutions who want to drive innovation in digital healthcare. Therefore, this project aimed to provide a concept for expanding their training offers on entrepreneurial training. In addition to that, a peer-learning community supported the building of a digital health innovation network in the regions of the participating partner and beyond.<< Implementation >>The activities implemented in our project can be summed up in the four main pillars of the project: 1) research, 2) community, 3) training, 4) promotion. Within the research activities, the academic project partners scanned the regional challenges within the (regional) healthcare sector and mapped their assets related with support innovation processes and entrepreneurial activities as well as activities in the (digital) healthcare sector. A desk & literature review supported the analysis of the trends in the digital healthcare sector. Through expert interviews with researchers and incubation staff as well as startup representatives, a skill gaps analysis was done. The collection of good practices cases for incubation support mechanisms at UASs gave an overview about the status quo. Within the community activities, the set-up of a peer-learning community on LinkedIn, various community events and the dissemination of blogs and ezines were implemented. The core activity in the training activities, was the development and the testing of a digihealth boost training programme and supporting train-the-trainer offers. Last but not least, the promotion of the project and its results were mainly implemented via different activities.<< Results >>The core outputs of this project were the boost training programme and the online peer-learning community. With different methods (e.g. expert interview, desk research, literature review), several reports were produced as basis for development of the training programme. Those reports included 1x literature review (published), 3x regional challenge scanning reports (published), 4x asset mapping reports (internal use), 1x good practice report (internal use) and one 1x home synthesis report (published). The results of the research phase showed that successful digital innovations need an interdisciplinary approach bringing together experts with technical, business and legal expertise. Furthermore, they shall also have competencies in understanding the other field of expertise. That’s why the project team had decided to choose the design-thinking approach as guiding methodology for the training programme. A detailed boost training concept paper as well as a facilitator guide supported the implementation of this training programme at UASs. The training programme concept was supported by a GAP methodology description and a hackathon handbook. The testing phase of the training programme was summed up in the implementation report.