EIT Health Ireland-UK partners with Dundalk Institute of Technology

EIT Health Ireland-UK, a Co-location Centre of EIT Health, which is part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, a body of the European Union, has announced that Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) has joined as a Network Partner. EIT Health is Europe’s largest health innovation network made up of 150 world-class partner organisations.

EIT Health connects Partner academic institutions with start-ups, hospitals, pharmaceutical and medtech companies, government agencies, investors, and research bodies, to develop new ideas and inventions to advance health systems for the benefit of patients in Europe. Since 2016, 113 new healthcare products and services have been launched to market with the support of EIT Health.The diverse international network helps higher education institutes build visibility and forge relationships with key stakeholders across Europe, as well as gain first-hand knowledge of upcoming collaboration opportunities with top-tier innovation partners.

Located in the North-East of Ireland, DkIT leads several ongoing health-focused initiatives. Its Connected Health and Wellbeing Cluster merges the latest technologies in e-health, m-health and telehealth, with established healthcare solutions. The Enterprise Ireland-funded cluster encourages and facilitates increased collaboration between industry, academia, healthcare providers, an approach that aligns with EIT Health’s mission of connecting innovators across the ‘knowledge triangle.’. DkIT also hosts a number of health-related R&D centres including Netwell CASALA who support active and healthy ageing initiatives, and the Regulated Software Research Centre who lead a number of initiatives on Medical Device regulations.

Additionally dConnect is Ireland’s first dedicated digital health innovation hub, committed to driving collaboration in the burgeoning sector of digital health. Based out of DkIT, dConnect helps digital health innovators to address challenges through business mentoring, training, consultancy and networking opportunities.

“DkIT plays an essential role in advancing the development of digital health solutions as part of the emerging digital health cluster on Ireland’s East coast. A valued addition to our network, DkIT now has the opportunity to grow its human capital, enhance the talent pipeline and meet high-end skills needs through unrivalled access to international researchers and innovators,” said Graham Armitage, Managing Director at EIT Health Ireland & UK.

“DkIT has already successfully delivered EIT Health’s i-Days (Innovation Days) student programme. These activities help our academic partners enhance entrepreneurial and innovation capacity so that learners can easily transition between academic and industry environments. We look forward to further collaboration with the DkIT team.”

Aidan Browne, Head of Innovation & Business Development – DkIT, added “As a key player in the regional innovation ecosystem, this engagement with EIT Health is a catalyst for DKIT to drive and further develop a collaborative ecosystem in the region, increasing the focus on connected health and wellbeing that are specific areas of strength and emerging potential. The prospect for specificity of engagement across the distinct cluster we are developing will drive a more market-driven perspective, increasing the potential for greater outputs and longer-term outlooks. We are looking forward to developing this relationship and working with the EIT Health team as a value-added dimension to our work.”

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