Galway to Host Europe’s Most Promising Healthcare Entrepreneurs

Between April 16 and 20 the Wild Card: AT THE EDGE tournament in Galway will play host to thirty of Europe’s most promising healthcare entrepreneurs who will compete for €4 million in funding. Galway was chosen over other European cities to host the inaugural event which will be hosted in partnership with the Galway based companies BioInnovate and BioExcel.

EIT Health is behind the Wild Card event and has announced that the event will take place in several key locations across Galway including the Portershed co-working space, NUI Galway campus and the Salthill Hotel. As well as BioInnovate and BioExcel other innovators and companies from around Europe will help host the event including BioCat, Medical Valley and RISE.

Galway was chosen among a number of competing European cities given its position as a leading hub for innovation and healthcare research, driven by local world-class academia, expertise and talent, according to Jan-Philip Beck, CEO of EIT Health. He went on to say: “EIT Health is very excited to bring Wild Card to Galway for the AT THE EDGE tournament stage. AT THE EDGE is about pushing our shortlisted finalists to the limits of their abilities, to the edge of science, innovation and technology. Wild Card is looking for the biggest and brightest minds to help solve some of Europe’s most pressing healthcare challenges. By the end of the week, we are confident that we’ll have found some game-changing ideas that will really transform the face of European health.”

The thirty entrepreneurs are the shortlisted finalists for the EIT Health Wild Card initiative, an EU-sponsored competition seeking technological solutions to two of Europe’s most pressing healthcare challenges: data usage and antibiotic resistance.

The SMART HEALTH challenge sets entrepreneurs the task of building solutions that utilise artificial intelligence to quickly interpret large unstructured data sets, allowing healthcare professionals across the EU to improve patient care and provide more personalised healthcare solutions.

The FIGHT BACK challenge requires entrepreneurs to build innovative solutions that tackle the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, both in terms of raising awareness and enabling new processes and methodologies across EU healthcare.

The thirty entrepreneurs will be split into teams and set various tasks throughout the week. They will need to devise a concept for a game-changing product or solution, develop their idea and ultimately pitch their proposal to EIT Health’s very own Dragons.

The ultimate winners of Wild Card Projects will form two successful teams and will each receive €2 million in funding, access to mentorship, business and research support, and facilities and premises across Europe, over two years. As a medtech hub, Galway could be chosen as the final location for at least one of these teams to develop their end product.

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