EUR 1.6 Billion for Healthy Ageing

LUENEBURG, Germany and DUBLIN, April 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Leuphana University Lueneburg will apply for an EU Innovation Project, with an investment volume of up to EUR 1.6 billion - Big Data revolution in Healthcare through focused European collaboration in the most promising application areas - Strong partnerships with the University Medical Center Goettingen and the University of Zurich as well as the Republic of Malta, Sclavo Vaccines Association of Italy and ICHOM, among others.

The University of Lueneburg, Germany, continues to exert great strides in the field of research-based innovation and business development. It intends to forge close collaboration with the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a European Union (EU) institution. This will address the challenges and opportunities of progressive ageing of the population, due to increasing life expectancy in Europe: a girl born in Germany today is expected to live a life of 102 years. A large-scale EU project to promote knowledge-based innovation, entitled "Healthy Living and Active Ageing," will unlock the economic growth potential of demographic change and allow people to lead an active life well into old age. Up to EUR 400 million will be provided by the EU for this purpose starting in 2014, an additional EUR 1.200 million will be invested through complementary financing. With these funds, the consortium aims to build a market with a primary turnover of EUR 210 billion over seven years.

"We are at the beginning of a revolution in health care, in which all stakeholders in the health care system are competing to improve the results that matter most to patients", says Harvard University's Michael Porter, co-founder of ICHOM, which is a partner in the competition. "The enormous value to European societies will primarily be unlocked through the efficient and effective use of 'Big Data' to boost innovation in education, research and business in Europe. To jointly pursue this objective, a select group of highly respected partners have teamed up." adds Holm Keller, Executive Vice President at Leuphana University and in charge for the project.  

The Leuphana-lead international consortium consists of the Republic of Malta with its relevant national agencies, ICHOM (International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement) and its shareholders Karolinska Institutet and Boston Consulting Group, among others, Sclavo Vaccines Association of Italy with the Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health and its European network of research institutions, the University Medical Center of Goettingen as well as the University of Zurich's Research Priority Program URPP Dynamics of Healthy Aging, the Coburg Geriatric Clinic and the BioCon Valley network for life sciences with its Northern European partner-network ScanBalt.  

The Honourable Dr. Joseph Muscat, Prime Minister of Malta, states that "the Maltese government fully supports this Knowledge and Innovation Community initiative which is being spearheaded by Leuphana University, having as its local coordinating entity the Malta Council for Science and Technology".

The project will be unveiled by the partners on April 29th, on the occasion of an EIT conference in Dublin, Ireland.

For more information and details click here: http://kic.leuphana.com

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SOURCE Leuphana University Lueneburg