North Region creates platform to define innovation strategies in health
Over 30 institutions from the Northern region in the field of Health, including research institutes, academic clinical centres, hospitals, companies and regional authorities, will meet at Espaço Vita, in Braga, on 3 March, to define innovation strategies and identify funding priorities. The launch session of the Regional Platform for Smart Specialisation (PREI) in the field of Life Sciences and Health, called Bridges4Health, is a mobilising moment for the entire ecosystem that will determine the direction of innovation, investment and competitiveness in the Northern Region in the coming decades.
Co-funded by the European Union through the NORTE 2030 Regional Programme and Portugal 2030, the Bridges4Health project is coordinated by the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health at the University of Porto (i3S) and the Academic Clinical Centre of Braga (2CA-Braga), in collaboration with the Applied Biomolecular Sciences Unit (UCIBIO) of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Porto and the Centre for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry (CBQF) of the Catholic University of Porto. It aims to support CCDR-Norte in the process of entrepreneurial discovery in the field of Life and Health Sciences.
Bridges4Health will build on the scientific and technological potential already in place, the dynamics of the industrial fabric and the leading health units in the North region, and work in four strategic areas: Precision Medicine, Clinical Research, Biomedical Devices and Technologies, and Microbiome and Health.
The aim is to build stronger bridges between partners in these four areas and to design joint projects that accelerate the exploitation of knowledge and transform discoveries into products, services, and solutions capable of responding to current challenges.
According to i3S director Claudio Sunkel, the Bridges4Health project "was created to unite the regional Life Sciences and Health ecosystem in a common ambition: to transform knowledge into real impact on people's lives, through new products, services and solutions, and on the competitiveness of the Northern Region of Portugal."
Jorge Pedrosa, director of 2CA-Braga, adds that the ambition of this project is to "stimulate entrepreneurship, industrial transition and international cooperation to position the Northern Region as a centre of excellence and reference in Life and Health Sciences at national and European level".
Registration is open until 25 February 2026, via the form: https://lnkd.in/eBvJE7n3
