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Comprehensive Implementation Plan

(CIP) – Template

According to the Application Form, the CIPs are documents that contain the description of

transferable good practices and describe future actions planned to ensure that benefits of the

exchange are not lost after the project ends, hence they guarantee the durability of project’s

results.

The CIPs will specify how each ‘region’ participating in the partnership will work to integrate the

lessons learnt from the cooperation into its local/regional policies.

Table of content

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2

II. RECAP OF THE LOCAL SCENARIO: “FUNCTIONAL SWOT” 4

III. PRIORITIES RESULTING FROM SWOT AND ACTIONS PLANNED: REGIONAL H4G AGENDA 14

IV. EXTERNAL GPS FOR REGIONAL AGENDA: LEARNING FROM OUTSIDE 27

V. RECOMMENDATIONS: HEALTH4GROWTH 2020 34

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I. Executive Summary This report aims to present an overview of the regional health system in Piemonte area.

Piemonte region is particularly suitable for the development of the health sector. In particular the high

and international level of scientific publications of the university, the presence of research centers of

excellence, infrastructure of international level, Incubators of the Universities (as for example 2i3T and

i3P), international large companies and growing SMEs or the implementation of strategic initiatives

(like bioPmed Cluster, the Project “Health City” or the Discovery Initiative of Bioindustry Park).

Despite this and the continuing difficulties in the economic situation, the Italian biotech/Life Sciences

industry showed a growth trend in 2011 (that year Italy still represented 15% of European biotech

companies and the Italian pharmaceutical market was the world’s sixth), reflecting a very surprising

feature that practically bucks the trend in the international scenario. At local level, innovation in the

companies is also fostered by the local European Enterprise Network office (EEN Alps) and the

Chamber of Commerce that – together with CEIP Piemonte – work a lot on internationalisation, tech

transfer, support for participation in EU projects, training and services dedicated to the local firms, in

particular SMEs. As main weaknesses, the limited access to international market and to finance,

together with the (small) average size of companies and the lack of expertise in the management of

(bio) innovation, represent the main barriers to the development of local companies.

In terms of priorities, as a result of the analyses undertaken during H4G project P11 has focused on

few topics that seemed to be critical for the health sector at regional level.

� The link between University and Industry through the development of focused initiatives to

support not only internships in companies but also the development of Industrial Phd courses i.e.

Phd courses organis1ed with and hosted by companies.

� the weak link between the marketing and the research phase through the analysis of impacts and

opportunities emerging from the implementation of living lab initiatives in health care

� a new inclusive collaboration between all the main actors and stakeholders (including hospitals) of

the healthcare domain that goes beyond the different specific technological domains.

In order to go in depth in CIP the partner has examined all the three priorities connected to the

implementation of three best practices able to implement them:

1 - Industrial PhD courses as University - industry links. The first priority looks at the relations

between Universities and companies that are mainly based on a traditional scheme: both Universities

and companies are following different goals and aim at strictly cooperating only in certain cases,

whereas R&D financing opportunities emerge, requiring collaborations and/or licensing of

technologies by universities and/or specific needs of companies, they are ready to work in order to

find a common interest.

2 - Living Lab initiatives in healthcare to better link marketing and research. The second priority

focuses on the development of innovations in life science and health care sector. So far it is frequently

based on a technology push approach. The health care sector has a complex web of users (doctors,

nurses, patients, administrative staff, and so on) and buyers at all levels, as diverse as the innovations

1 ASL stands for Azienda Sanitaria Locale (local health structure in the Italian Health National Organization)

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accommodated for the sector and the critical mass of which could be different. In our action, we

intend to target the patient’s necessities, trying to consider how feasible specific solutions are from

the health providers perspective. At the same time we bear in mind that the buyer is not always the

same person as the user in the life sciences sector (end-users may be the patients and on other way

the public bodies involved in the public health services).

3 - A new, more inclusive, cluster model. One of the weaknesses emerged in the State of Play Report

is the lack of sectorial (healthcare) network. Even if the cluster policy launched in 2009 by the regional

government is considered by the stakeholders the first positive initiative addressing this issue, more

can be done, especially with a wider and more inclusive perspective.

As concerning the External Good practices, the partner P11 has chosen to focus on three different

foreign GPs identified as a potential benchmark on our territory.

First of all, the Outsourced Faculty of Chemistry/Pharmacists, promoted by Outsourced Faculty of

Chemistry/Pharmacists developed by TEVA Pharmaceutical Ltd and the University of Debrecen. Our

learning from the consolidated experience during the Health4Growth project and from the chosen

Good Practice aims to strengthen the links between academia and industry, launching research careers

able to include high skilled researchers within business innovation.

Secondly, LiCaLab – Living & Care Lab, an approach that has been set in Turnhout (Belgium): we were

inspired by that to face the challenges connected with the second priority. LiCaLab (Living & Care Lab),

as explained in the good practice description and during the Thematic Workshop held in Turin on 23th

October 2013, is a real-life environment located in the heart of Turnhout for testing and validating

new products, services and processes.

Thirdly, the Cooperative Slimmer Leven 2020, the last Good Practice that we want to implement was

chosen because of the necessity to have an inclusive instrument that can build a connection between

the different sectors and actors of the regional Healthcare system.

In the final part of the document, Province of Turin has identified the main Policy recommendations.

First of all, the Regional government should create and coordinate a common round table among the

different actors connected to healthcare. Further, it should support innovative SME’s in healthcare

sector to test their innovation by clear and simplified procedures, harmonizing as much as possibile the

bureaucratic procedures and fostering SME interaction with Scientific Research centers.

In addition, we suggest boosting new models and product development (e.g. clinical trials) in order to

optimize their validation and implementation on the market. As matter of fact, fostering

entrepreneurship and training on bio-management and boosting new initiatives able to reduce brain

drain could significantly improve the current situation. In addition, another recommendation aims to

promote the exploitation of young university researchers in SME’s by supporting applied research

during PhD years. Consequently, Piemonte region should continue the clusters experience but

declining them by market-driven, multi-technological domains and following a quad-helix model,

whereas funds could be funnelled to enterprises whose research is aimed to find solutions to social

problems, ageing and health issues. Finally, the Piemonte Region should indicate “Smart Personalized

Health” as one of its Smart Specialization.

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II. Recap of the local scenario: “functional SWOT”

The aim of the State of Play Report was to give an overview of the regional health system, with a

focus on its main actors, strengths and weaknesses. In this chapter we will summarize the key

findings, underlining the main point of the SWOT analysis for what attains Piemonte Region -

ITALY.

In Italy the health service - which is conceived to be “universal” - is structured according to

different levels of responsibility and management: central, regional and local level.

At central level, with the Ministry of Health as main central institution, the State is responsible for

ensuring all citizens the right to health through a robust universal system of guarantees, named

the Essential Assistance Levels (LEA), and through the National Health Plan (PSN), which suggests

the health goals for the entire population. At regional level, the Italian Regions – and this is also

the case of Piemonte - have legal and administrative responsibility related to outpatient and

hospital care: they operate through a network of local health structure (ASL2) and hospitals (AO)

and they have to guarantee the health services’ activities, checking their quality and efficiency,

following up the goals of the PSN and providing their residents with services going beyond the LEA

(complementary or supplementary), financing them from their own resources.

Since the last decade, due to the Italian huge public debt, in Italy the key driver in health policy has

been cost-containment policy. Despite this and the continuing difficulties in the economic

situation, the Italian biotech/Life Sciences industry showed a growth trend in 2011 (that year Italy

still represented 15% of European biotech companies and the Italian pharmaceutical market was

the world’s sixth), reflecting a very surprising feature that practically bucks the trend in the

international scenario. This development is a strong index of the Italian life sciences industry's

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capacity of innovation, which even in an international context characterised by a little growth of

investments and doubtful forecasts, has shown itself able to forge ahead, and confidently project

itself towards the future. Another key factor is the excellent academic & research background

present in Italy, with a strong commitment towards education and training of biotech scientists &

technicians. A similar situation can be seen for the medical devices compartment even if – in this

case – a trend towards high specialisation and niche markets is ongoing, especially due to the

limited average size of Italian companies.

At regional level, Piemonte is an area presenting a quite-established specific tradition and

historical production related to health care. On the other hand, it is certainly relevant its strong

industrial and technological vocation, in the framework of which – especially in recent years - the

health sector has been able to grow and take on a gradually increasing weight both in terms of

employees, both in terms of wealth generated. In 2013 Piemonte confirmed to be the 2nd

Italian

region in terms of biotech companies and, among the firms, approximately 300 work in the life

sciences and medtech sectors (including related services) with around 7.000 people employed. In

general, our regional area has some features that make it particularly suitable for developing the

health sector, e.g. the high and international level of scientific publications of the university, the

presence of research centers of excellence, infrastructure of international level, Incubators of the

Universities (as for example 2i3T and i3P), international large companies and growing SMEs or the

implementation of strategic initiatives (like bioPmed Cluster, the Project “Health City” or the

Discovery Initiative of Bioindustry Park).

At political level the regional government, within a legislative framework for research and

innovation laid down by the regional law 4/2006 and another one (regional law 34/2004) focusing

on competitiveness, business activity and employment, decided with the Three Years Research

Plan to invest in innovation and research, selecting priority sectors to pour into with specific calls

for proposal (divided into “science push” and “technology pull” sectors, including among others

life sciences, biotechnology, nanotechnology and the processes of advanced production), and in

competitiveness, with specific measures like industrial districts and technology platforms (with one

of them dedicated to advanced health services).

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Another important instrument is the cluster policy that has been launched in 2009, with the

creation of 12 sector-specific innovation clusters: designed to operate on a whole regional context

and characterized by an application-driven approach, they are focused on SMEs and support small-

medium size R&D projects and high value-added innovative services. As mentioned before, one of

them (bioPmed) is dedicated to life sciences and healthcare and it represent the most important

regional aggregation of – more than 80 - companies, R&D centres, Universities and players in the

field of healthcare. The cluster is managed by Bioindustry Park Silvano Fumero, a life sciences

specialised Science Park that, since its inception in 1998, acted as local system integrator for the

development of life sciences in the region. It hosts large companies and SMEs, R&D centres and

pilot plants (Bracco), offers services (ABLE Biosciences) and an incubator (Discovery) and related

services. ). As another example of MNE companies located in Piemonte, there is Sorin SPA, a

company active in the health sector from the 70s, that develops and manufactures medical

devices and is a global leader in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Currently, the regional

government is defining, in cooperation with all the other interested regional stakeholders, its

Smart Specialisation Strategy which is intended to outline the path to pursue for the regional and

local policies concerning research and innovation during the Programming Period 2014-2020.

An essential actor of the local context is the University System (University of Torino, Turin

Polytechnic and University of Eastern Piemonte) which represent the core of science, research and

education at regional level. The quality of the system is top at Italian national level, while – on an

average - it is good compared to EU counterparts and very good for medical sciences and related

domains, also thanks to the presence of high quality competence centres, as CEIP - Centre of

Excellence in Pre-clinical Imaging - and some National Research Council departments.

The University environment represents the main generator of Innovation and it can be exploited

through many ways: creation of a new company (a set of incubators is present - one in each

university - providing space, support and services), tech transfer or collaboration with an existing

company (a set of TTOs is also present, contributing the university system to remain in touch with

the local industry). One of them, 2i3T – the Business Incubator and Technology Transfer process at

the University of Torino -, aims to develop the local economy acknowledging and transferring the

results of scientific and academic research. 2i3T is a bridging institution, that facilitates Knowledge

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Transfer from University research and National and International market and industries. 2i3T has a

strong synergy with the Molecular Biotechnology Center (MBC), excellent research center of the

University of Turin equipped with labs and expertise, strongly focused on healthcare topics), tech

transfer or collaboration with an existing company in the health sector, accounting currently for

the 44% of the total start up launched (38 start-ups in 5 years). At the MBC several research

streams have performed at top level into the biomedical field, pursuing frontier translational

projects in the health sector with the training of high-skilled people involved.

At local level, innovation in the companies is also fostered by the local European Enterprise

Network office (EEN Alps) and the Chamber of Commerce that – together with CEIP Piemonte –

work a lot on internationalisation, tech transfer, support for participation in EU projects, training

and services dedicated to the local firms, in particular SMEs.

A key part of our State of Play Report is the section dedicated to the interviews that have been

performed involving 15 local stakeholders (from the regional government to the Chamber of

commerce, from the University centres to the local healthcare cluster). Results show us that in

Piemonte the general quality of science and related technologies is considered good (more than

the 1,8% of GDP is earmarked to R&D expenditure, which puts the region in first place among the

Italian ones for innovation capability) and that the healthcare equipment and services are

considered the most important area for the development of the sector.

In particular some of them are involved in the educational field and are linked with the Academia:

2i3T (as incubator of the University, specialised in life sciences) and Bioindustry Park (the most

important scientific park in the northern part of Italy).

At the opposite, as weaknesses, the limited access to international market and to finance,

together with the (small) average size of companies and the lack of expertise in the management

of (bio) innovation, represent the main barriers to the development of local companies.

Furthermore, a setback for enterprises operating into the life sciences is the national regulatory

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burden upon them and the duration of administrative procedures faced by the companies for

many of their activities (trials, patents, etc.).

The SWOT analysis from our State of Play Report shows the following main Strengths and

Weaknesses:

Strengths Weaknesses

- Good quality of the regional healthcare

system

- Good quality of science and related

technologies

- Focus on new and emerging markets and

sectors (as life science and biotech)

- Skilled labour force in healthcare related

sectors

- Presence of intermediated organisation and

facilitator (as the life science cluster

bioPmed)

- Private investments on R&D as a percentage

of GDP higher than the average in Italy

- Excellent scientific research centers and

business facilitators (as MBC, Bioindustry

Park and 2i3T)

- Good Network of hospitals

- Growth of health care related markets

(cosmetics, “natural foods”, etc) and

presence of a strong agro-food sector

- Interest of public administrations

- Lack of sectorial network (bioPmed cluster

is the first and only initiative)

- Limited access to finance and lack of risk

capital

- Regulatory burden and administrative

length

- Limited internationalization

- Lack of sectorial management expertise

- Small average size of companies

- Labour market rigidity

- Pressure on cost of health

- Returns of “old” diseases” (E.g.TBC) that

impact on the actual health care system

- Not efficient TT system

- Quality of services

And the following main Opportunities and Threats:

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Opportunities Threats

- Wide range of networking and collaboration

opportunities

- Geographic positioning

- Emerging of new approaches (e.g.

personalized medicine, lifelong

management of diseases, e-health, etc)

- Public funding at EU level (Horizon 2020 and

COSME)

- Availability of expertise in complementary

areas (ICT, chemical, mechatronics, new

materials, etc.)

- International orientation

- Aged society (from companies point of

view)

- Smart specialisation approach

- Touristic attractions related to health

- Collaborative projects

- Participation in European projects

- Potentialities offered by the ICT revolution

- Open innovation

- Aged society (from public authority point of

view)

- Brain drain

- Strong international competition on

products

- Policy issues and governance of the local

system

- World economic crisis

- Competition between territories

- Emerging of new diseases

- Public spending cuts for healthcare

The problems that the territory is facing are largely similar to the problems that other territories in

Europe are facing: aged society, pressure on health care costs, emerging of old and new diseases,

lack of funds for research and innovation, etc.

As to ageing society, the phenomenon may be considered a challenge for the public authorities

and society (increasing health care and social security costs) and an opportunity for enterprises

operating in the life sciences (more potential customers). Combining the Opportunities and the

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Threats with the local Strengths and Weaknesses we obtain the following functional SWOT

analysis with 13 priorities, to be intended as expectations and intentions for a future and

improved scenario of the healthcare business environment in Piemonte:

Opportunities Strengths - Opportunities

Strategies

Weaknesses - Opportunities

Strategies

- Wide range of networking and

collaboration opportunities,

including Collaborative projects

- Emerging of new approaches

(e.g. personalized medicine,

lifelong management of

diseases, e-health, etc)

- Availability of expertise in

complementary areas (ICT,

chemical, mechatronics, new

materials, etc.)

- Smart Specialisation approach

- Geographic positioning

Public funding at EU level

(Horizon 2020 and COSME)

Reinforcement of a multi-

sectorial clustering action

based on a quadruple

helix model

New networking action

based on a personalized

healthcare approach

Stimulate R&D and

exploitation of scientific

results

Fostering

entrepreneurship and

contamination between

industry academia

Support for the development

and positioning of new global

solution-based products and

services

Support to the growth of new

innovative start-ups with a

public procurement approach

Threats Strengths – Threats

Strategies

Weaknesses – Threats

Strategies

- Aged society -

- New industrial policy

-

- Re-thinking of health care

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- Emerging of old and new

diseases

- Brain drain

- Strong international

competition on products

- Policy issues and governance of

the local system

-

- Public spending cuts for

healthcare

-

supporting the sector,

recognizing its

strengths and impacts

both on the citizens

and on regional

budgets

-

- Monitoring system for

health diseases

-

- Regional focus on the

European Active

Ageing Society

initiative

-

- Scientific Research

centers and

implement a liason

with the Industry and

the market

system based on a

Personalized healthcare

-

- Actions to maintain talents

and attract talents from

abroad

-

- Focused training course on

bio-management

Regions and territories do not have all the resources to face such problems alone. They need

coherent national/European actions but, at the same time, they have to re-think their policy and

implement a partnership based approach with other territories, in order to be able to cope with all

the health care needs of the population. In order to overcome some of these threats, and to

overpass the weaknesses that Piemonte Region is facing and exploit external opportunities, we

have decided - together with the local stakeholders - to focus on three main actions to implement,

drawing on what we have learned from three good practices contributed by the other partners of

the project: Cooperative Slimmer Leven 2020 (an Innovation Network for Active and Healthy

Ageing), LiCaLab – Living&Care Lab (a real-life environment for testing and validating new

products, concepts and processes in living and healthcare) and Outsourced Faculty of TEVA

Pharma (a market oriented approach for education).

These three actions address the 13 priorities indicated in the previous table in a coherent way:

each single actions design a strategy that will implement in our territory an external Good Practice

that will target on one or more of the identified priorities.

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In the next chapter, we will explain the connection between the local scenario just described and

the actions that we would like to implement. Before doing that, it is expedient that a clarification

is done in regards with one of the weaknesses highlighted in the SWOT analysis: limited access to

finance and lack of risk capital. In Europe this is an across-the-board issue, deeply affecting SMEs

capability of innovation and business, and for this reason the “Health 4 Growth” project has been

handling it with a specific thematic area and focusing on venture capital and other innovating

funding scheme. In Italy, including our region, this shortcoming is particularly severe as the annual

report for the Italian biotechnology industry has shown. According to its figures, in 2013 the

capital venture raised in Italy for biotech companies was less than € 25 million (UK, Germany and

France collected respectively € 190, € 180 and € 110 million) and the number of financings was

much lower than in little countries (in terms of population and enterprises operating in the

biotech sector) like Denmark, Sweden or Austria. A similar situation would suggest that policies

and initiatives concerning the life sciences address this problem. As for the Comprehensive

Implementation Plan here at issue, any of the strategies identified in the functional SWOT analysis

refer directly to access to finance for SMEs. Two main reasons can explain this, which are:

complexity on finding proper good practices related to the access to finance, proposed by other

partners and transferability to our local context; lack of adequate powers and policies tools for our

regional and local authorities to address this matter (considering also the cost-containment rules

to comply with). However, our implementation plan and policies recommendations take into

account the lessons learnt from the exchange of experiences within the project partnership and

stressed during the Interregional Integration Masterclass, held in Coimbra on 11st and 12nd

December 2013: capital investment decisions need to address the move from acute illness treatment

to prevention; many times R&D and innovation funding schemes, e.g. crowdfunding, are not

suitable for health related ventures (in terms of timing and continuation); various different finance

providers often can syndicate. As shown in a more detailed way in the following sections, the

actions to undertake embrace some of the above mentioned aspects (it is the case of the action

which try to adapt the LiCaLab good practice to our context and aim for prevention more than

patient treatment) and one of the external good practice selected, the Outsourced Faculty of TEVA

Pharma, can be considered as an innovative funding scheme (although not directed to SMEs).

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A further meeting with local Stakeholder Platform, highlighted the needs of a better infrastructural

organization to permit the exchange of information about each patient.

As said before, in our landscape a lot of excellence centres stand out (i.e. Candiolo Cancer

Research Centre) and the administrative skills in the Public Authorities allow the use of database in

the health field.

New experiences and projects may be funded by the National Governement (Aree Interne Project

– Improvement of quality and quantity of health (telemedicine, first aid services, etc)

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III. Priorities resulting from SWOT and actions planned:

regional H4G agenda

The local scenario described in the previous chapter and the final SWOT analysis highlight the

strengths, the opportunities but also the weaknesses and the threats that our region has to deal

with. In order to explain the connection between them and the actions chosen between the

external good practices, we have to summarize the development path of a new solution in the

health sector and to highlight the weaknesses on which these good practices can have a positive

impact. In fact, in such an innovation-led sector like healthcare, if we consider the process of

product (or service) creation and its introduction into the market, we can recognise the value

chain of companies, the problems they come up against and the external factors influencing

(positively and adversely) their competitive advantage and activities.

In general, the main four steps of a new healthcare solution development path are: Research,

Development, Testing and Marketing. Although during the whole process a network of actors is

anyway implicated (a not fixed network for all the steps, it should be said), each phase has a main

actor: university for Research, start-ups and young companies for Development, bigger companies

and hospitals for clinical trials and testing and end-users for Marketing. Differences exist between

the specific sector (medical device, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, services etc.) but the main

points and the parties involved are similar.

The system that results from the interaction of different actors is quite complex, global in its

development and able to support both the increase in know-how and growth and deliver solutions

to societal challenges.

Taking into account this complexity of interactions and the regional needs mentioned in the

previous section, strengthening our local stakeholders network is a precondition for all the

strategies targeted by our priorities and the recommendations addressed to our policymakers.

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This aspect could be better clarified by taking a look at the networking system of stakeholders, as

shown in the figure below:

The web of interactions among actors involved into the Life sciences sector of Piemonte should be

structured (and for some of its components the whole dynamic framework shown in the figure, as

the connections among companies thanks to the bioPmed cluster and 2i3T business incubator, is

already a fact) according to the innovative ecosystem approach which is holistic and

interdisciplinary, with the potential to encompass all the determinants of innovation. It differs

from earlier analytical approaches in assuming that innovation relies primarily on interactions

between companies, institutions and people and tracking the linkages between industry,

government and academia in the development of technological and organisational innovations.

The patient, being the final users both for local health structures (ASL) and companies, is at the

centre of the whole ecosystem. His needs and expectations require to be addressed by the public

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authorities (regional ones in first place) which play a crucial role by means of coordination of the

stakeholders network and policymaking as well (based on information delivered by the patient

and other stakeholders). The main recipient of their regulatory power are all the health providers

(ASL, NHS), committed to providing healthcare to patients and collecting data and information on

their necessities (in compliance with privacy regulations) in way of giving public authorities the

right point of view to undertake and carry out appropriate policies.

The policy makers (public authorities) are in charge with the outlining the regulatory framework

and facilitating the research fields in the health sector, easing the matching between SMEs and

market. In this way it is essential to investigate the possibilities of SMEs to access to public

procurement more easily and being the ways to help them on international markets.

In line with the living lab approach the patients contribute to the experimentation and evaluation

activities of medical devices, carried out by the companies and research centres.

These two actors just mentioned cooperate (sharing information, competences and facilities)

without intermediaries or by taking advantages of TT organisations. Information about patients

should be shared between companies, research centres and ASL. A good and practical example of

this advocated collaboration might be local registers of pathologies: provided by the local ASL,

they could be an useful starting tool for research centres and companies.

In the Piemonte system, this process shows in general an insufficient Academia-Industry-Regional

Government-End Users collaboration, that generally are able to create a triple or quadruple helix

model. So we try to Highligh some weak points that can however be overcome with specific

actions, exploiting the strengths and the opportunities illustrated with the SWOT analysis and

addressing specific strategies which interact within a priority of intervention. The healthcare

system in Piemonte still remains a little bit detached but in asymmetric way as some connections

are well established (e.g. among the companies involved into the bioPmed cluster and the

Chamber of commerce) but other ones are less intense. In general there is still a gap between the

industry related players and the University related players, which tend to continue to work in their

“comfort zone” (academia-academia or industry-industry). A deeper involvement of final users

and healthcare providers is necessary too. A fruitful co-development dynamics (e.g. through

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innovative public procurement) should be encouraged and will be one of the main interests of this

Comprehensive Implementation Plan. Starting from an integrated approach on connecting

research and technology transfer, we aim at pursuing a common effort into different backgrounds

of the health sector, able to foster economic growth through innovative and business

performance, based on the Human Capital enhancement.

In particular, we decided - together with the local Stakeholders - that our effort should focus on

three priorities:

1- the link between University and Industry through the development of focused initiatives

to support not only internships in companies but also the development of Industrial Phd

courses as for example PhD courses organised with and hosted by companies.

2- the weak link between the marketing and the research phase through the analysis of

impacts and opportunities emerging from the implementation of living lab initiatives in

health care

3- a new inclusive collaboration between all the main actors and stakeholders (including

hospitals) of the healthcare domain that goes beyond the different specific technological

domains.

As for the Regional Stakeholders Platform previously mentioned in this section, the three priorities

we are about to describe share the same network of actors; but each priorities gives more

prominence to some of them, as it will be shown in their specific descriptions.

Here following an in-depth explanation of these three priorities:

1 - Industrial PhD courses as University - industry links. The relations between Universities and

companies are mainly based on a traditional scheme: both Universities and companies are

following different goals and aim at strictly cooperating only in certain cases, whereas R&D

financing opportunities emerge, requiring collaborations and/or licensing of technologies by

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universities and/or specific needs of companies, they are ready to work in order to find a common

interest. On the other hand the internal dynamics of the sector would require a more strategic

collaboration attitude. The synergies between universities and companies are at the basis of the

development of innovative companies through the start-up creation and a focused and

strategically interpreted technology transfer activity. In order to achieve those results it seems

necessary to align the “culture" and the attitude of both actors. In such perspective the capability

and the ability to develop training paths where universities and companies are working together

seems to represent an effective approach and so, the development of high-level training schemes

in companies at PhD level, matching industrial needs, emerges as a quite interesting scenario. The

current internship schemes could offer to students the possibility to enter in contact with the

industrial world during their training path as integral part of their curriculum and - from a different

side - PhD industrial course could be part of a more complex initiative to boost technology transfer

and increase employability of scientists.

The interconnection between academia and industry is a matter addressed by the policies

adopted in Piemonte in relation to research, innovation and entrepreneurship. First of all, the

Piemonte Region, with the law n.04/2006, has undertaken on organizing, supporting and creating

a regional system for research and some of the overall objectives are promoting the interactions

among local stakeholders (creation of a network embracing the productive system and research

centres), fostering initiatives capable to link research, tech transfer and higher education. In order

to boost the regional competitiveness a “Plan for competitiveness 2011-2015”, regarding

innovation and entrepreneurship, has been launched within the ERDF Operating Programme 2007-

2013. It has been supporting different measures and actions, from the Technology platforms and

Innovation hubs to the Living labs and the use of public procurement as an instrument to stimulate

innovation. The proposed pilot action is complementary to the goals targeted by the Smart

Specialization Strategy for the Piemonte region (defining the main guidelines for the EU Strategy

2020 in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship) related to advanced training for Phd students

in local companies. The policy recommendations, provided in the section V of this CIP, could be

useful to bring this practice to a deeper attention of the regional policymakers. Furthermore, the

19

feasibility study should be a proper way for entrepreneurship policies to take better into account

the needs of local enterprises.

Expected results: Through the performance of the identified GP and its adaptation to the local

territory, we look at implementing this plan at different levels with an integrated approach (top

down and bottom-up), involving a general policy level and - at the same time - taking into account

all the stakeholders identified during the H4G project, in order to ensure a wide participation.

In line with the consolidated experience during the Health4Growth project, this practice aims to

strengthen the links between academia and industry, launching research careers able to include

high skilled researchers within business innovation.

The expected results are the design of the courses to implement the soft skills of PhDs and

planning a training period in the industry during the courses for PhD students according to the

Italian labour law.

2 - Living Lab initiatives in healthcare to better link marketing and research. The development of

innovations in life science and health care sector is frequently based on a technology push

approach.

The health care sector has a complex web of users (doctors, nurses, patients, administrative staff,

...) and buyers at all levels, as diverse as the innovations accommodated for the sector and the

critical mass of which could be different. In our action for the second priority, we intend to target

the patient’s necessities, trying to consider how feasible specific solutions are from the health

providers’ perspective. At the same time we bear in mind that the buyer is not always the same

person as the user in the life sciences sector (end-users may be the patients and on other way the

public bodies involved in the public health services).

The “patient experience” is at the core of the choice by a user and an integral part of the product

that is under development. This is particularly important if linked to the development of the

personalised health care paradigm. A similar paradigm entirely meets the “patient experience”

approach and what has been repeatedly pointed out at the Interregional Integration Masterclass

20

in Coimbra by the “Human Capital” and “Regulatory Framework & Business Infrastructure” teams:

put the patient at the centre of the innovation system, providing this way more effective solutions

and pursuing a more market-oriented model of development.

The personalized medicine in this way has a revolutionary nature; is not limited to newly evolved

diagnostic techniques based on the genetic or physiological characteristics of the individual. In fact

the personalised medicine is a new global vision of healthcare encompassing prevention,

diagnosis, treatment and monitoring, where the person is considered as a whole and not just for

her/his single health problem. With this new, wider perspective, we can talk about a new

personalised healthcare paradigm that covers all human health aspects. This new holistic

paradigm of health is also defined as “P4 medicine”3.

A path towards P4 medicine must be “paved” with a solid and extensive knowledge management

infrastructure that contains individual patient information. It will be provided by strategic

partnerships involving all stakeholders, including universities and TTOs but also hospitals and

general practitioners associated with patient-centered care. In this perspective a knowledge

3Personalised, Predictive, Preventive, Participatory

21

management infrastructure requires a supporting institutional and business infrastructure

engaging national/local authorities, incubators and chambers of commerce in order to adapt laws,

policies and initiative to the structural socio-economic conditions of a territory and health sector

specific features.

A living lab represents a user-centred research methodology for conceiving, prototyping,

validating and improving complex solutions in multiple and evolving real life contexts to be

considered as platforms that bring together various stakeholders (starting from final users) at the

earlier stage of the innovation process in order to design and experiment breakthrough concepts

and potential value leading to breakthrough innovations. But the term "living lab" or "living

laboratory" is also used for representing residential home facilities where the behaviour of people

living in this house is observed and usage patterns are collected by researchers and companies

that are designing and investigating new technologies.

In this type of living lab, which our action should be based on, users/patients are more observed

subjects than involved in the co-creation of ideas and their unacknowledged needs are taken into

account (there is often a gap between what people say they do and what they actually do in real

life). This way fixed costs can be partially reduced (specific laboratories are not needed and a

smaller number of staff members is engaged into the testing and evaluation phases) and

disadvantaged territories can benefit from these type of initiatives.

In Piemonte, the core location, asTurin and the other urban areas of the region, could take

advantage of advanced infrastructures and positive socio-economic conditions. But they are

counterweighted by the presence of marginal territories which suffer from severe and permanent

natural and/or demographic handicaps insomuch as showing lower level of socio-economic

development and difficulties on accessing the main infrastructural networks (especially the IT-

related ones like broadband connection), hindering this way business development and people

mobility. These areas, which are located in most of the mountain territories and some hills of the

southern part of the region, risk falling into a vicious cycle of ageing and decreasing population,

services cutting, weakening of the business structure. As for the topic at issue (link between the

marketing and the research phases of the innovation process in the healthcare sector), adopting a

living lab approach as above described could fit the features of these marginal area since the

22

experimentation and evaluation activities would involve patients directly at their houses so that

they don’t have to move to a located laboratory. The ageing and desertification (also known as

empty regions)4 phenomenons, shared with most of the other European regions and developed

countries, are particularly remarkable here in Piemonte since the old-age index 5. is largely the

highest one in Italy. Access to medical assistance, as well as prevention measures, early diagnosis

and pathology identification and adequate social services are an essential part of social stability

and a prerequisite for healthy ageing. Consideration of ways in which to improve the systems in

order to prevent certain illnesses connected with old age, improve their treatment and help

elderly people to live independently at home for a longer period could simultaneously improve the

wellbeing of old people and lead to more rational use of resources.

Considering all the issues above mentioned (P4 medicine, living labs, marginal areas, population

ageing) our action aims at getting public policy makers more aware of the importance of

supporting a final user-centred approach where the patient, identified as an over 65 person living

in a marginal territory of our region, have his health conditions monitored at home by means of

innovative medical devices which are either under experimentation (not the specific device but

the remote monitoring system, data transmission included) and need the patients’ feedback or

already into the market, requiring an evaluation of their technical and cost specifications in order

to improve them. In particular, the aged citizen is monitored to prevent future diseases and

consequent treatments. While regional authorities are expected to steer the stakeholders network

and define the relevant policy making towards the specific necessities of the users and local area

targeted by the action at issue (based on information collected by companies, universities and

local health structures), ASL (local health structures) are directly involved into it through the public

procurement. Indeed, they might scope and select, by launching calls for tenders, innovative

solutions designed to monitor elderly people’s health and under experimentation (or already

available in the market) by private enterprises and/or research centres interested to get their

4R.Muenz, Ageing and demographic change in European societies, 2007 – as reported by G. Rakhorst - Healthy Ageing Network Northern Netherlands (HANNN), Groningen, the Netherlands during the meeting “Ageing Society : technological challenges and market opportunities” held in Turin on 15th Oct 2013 5 see http://www.tuttitalia.it/piemonte/statistiche/indici-demografici-struttura-popolazione/).

23

products directly tested and evaluated by patients. These calls for tenders could concern the

procurement of medical devices, and the related equipment and services for data transmission

and management, combined with the experimentation/evaluation process or without it. As

stressed during one of the meeting of our regional stakeholders platform, the access of start-ups

to public procurement procedures should be facilitated and health sector commissioning body

should look at how they can simplify procurement processes by reducing bureaucracy, clarifying

procedures, adopting e-procurement tools. It is also important to develop training schemes that

help local businesses strengthening their capacity and capability to comply with the requirements

of public sector contracts. An initiative promoted in 2012 and 2013 by the Province of Turin and

called “Informabando” went into this direction, by providing free training courses for SMEs

focused on national and international public procurement, but it would be useful to focus part of

these formative paths on the healthcare, addressing companies but also public procurement staff.

The outputs (more correctly the results) of the implementation strategy that may be envisaged for

this second priority should reduce the gap between research and market during the innovation

process since the enterprises and research centres benefit from the capability of patients to test

and evaluate their devices and services.

Expected results: As for the specific strategies affected by the indications outlined in this sub-

paragraph, their expected results are the following ones:

• stimulate R&D and exploitation of scientific results;

• support to the growth of new innovative start-ups with a public procurement approach;

• monitoring system for new diseases: our action focuses on medical devices and services for

monitoring elderly people;

• regional focus on the European Active Ageing Society initiative;

• personalized healthcare: as previously explained the proposed draw on the paradigm of P4

medicine.

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3 - A new, more inclusive, cluster model. One of the weaknesses emerged in the State of Play

Report is the lack of sectorial (healthcare) network. Even if the cluster policy launched in 2009 by

the regional government is considered by the stakeholders the first positive initiative addressing

this issue, more can be done, especially with a wider and more inclusive perspective. In fact, the

cluster bioPmed has been originally created only for a specific sectorial domain - focus on bio and

medical technologies - and even if today it can be considered the most efficient life science

innovation Cluster in Italy and one of the best in the European context (demonstrated by the

number and the quality of European and international projects and partnership signed, by the

number of the members increasing over the years and especially by their positive evaluations on

the activities provided by the Cluster), that operates locally as a system integrator, it only

represents one of the regional instruments dedicated to improve the innovation and the

competitiveness of a single sector. Despite this, through the years the Cluster has evolved its

vision from a sectorial approach to a multi-sectorial approach based on the wider paradigm of

personalized medicine. This kind of approach is based on a new global vision and perspective of

patient’s prevention, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring, where the person is considered as a

whole and not just for her/his single health problem. Thanks to the "converging technologies", the

synergistic convergence of different fields of science and technology that are all progressing

rapidly (like nanotechnology, new materials, ICT and biotechnology), the personalized healthcare

can in fact create at the same time new innovative products and services, and – consequently -

new market opportunities.

Moreover, with this new wider perspective we can also talk about a new personalised healthcare

paradigm, that encompasses all the human health aspects: it shifts the focus from a simple

medicine, intended as a simple cure to be used only in case of need, to a global medicine, which

aims at the individual wellbeing during the whole of his life6. This means that not only Life Sciences

6 This new holistic paradigm of health is also defined as the “P4 Medicine”: P1-Personalized: according to the

characteristics of the single person, it’s able to identify a personalized medical treatment; P2-Predictive: it’s able to

identify what diseases can affect in the future a particular person and how it will react to a specific medical treatment;

P3-Preventive: it facilitates a proactive approach to health and medicine, promoting thereby disease prevention and

thus shifting the focus of medicine "from the ill-being to well-being"; P4-Participatory: people will be able to take their

decisions based on accurate information, thereby taking responsibility for their own health. The role of the society

becomes important for the management of the patient at all levels.

25

sector will be involved but, exploiting the potential of the converging technologies, also different

innovative sectors will take advance of it, with important positive consequences in term of

economic growth, creation of new high skills and in perspective also on reduction of healthcare

cost. At local level, for example, an important initiative in that sense - Innovation to Market: focus

on Ageing population7 - has been promoted in Piemonte with the collaboration between different

sectors: Life Sciences, ICT, Agro-Food, Mechatronic and Textile clusters decided to work together

for a common path that, through a specific seminar, corporate meetings and one-to-one meetings,

want focus the attention of their members to this new opportunity of business. Another local

example is the establishment of a University ‘nurses advanced learning programme’, aimed at

training the professionals to a new multidisciplinary activity in order to facilitate their skills

reconversion and to pave the way to the implementation of a new model of healthcare delivery.

The final aim is to increase the quality of life for frail old people, mostly from isolated territories,

through innovative models of healthcare delivery with multidisciplinary professional teams.

Today, Personalised healthcare is still a new concept and it is only slowly establishing itself as a

promising direction for the future of medicine. No country in Europe is actually embracing and

fully implementing personalised healthcare, as this approach is relatively new and not applicable

to all areas of medicine yet. Therefore we believe that this is an excellent opportunity for

Piemonte Region to position itself, embrace the new personalised healthcare paradigm and

prepare for meeting the challenges of the future. To do that, a first step towards this direction has

to be done and we believe that the example of the network created through the Cooperative

Slimmer Leven 2020 can be a good starting point. In fact, Personalised healthcare is an

opportunity and a promising approach for the future but it requires the efforts of many different

players: Research organizations, Industry, Civil Society and also Governments have to collaborate

together to share a common vision for the healthcare of the future. This collaboration, besides

having the long term ambition of the Personalised Healthcare, can have a positive impact also on

in the short term: connecting different stakeholders from different areas and sectors but

7 http://ageing.torinowireless.it/

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interested in the same domain (healthcare) can in fact immediately stimulate common projects or

initiatives that go beyond the sectorial differences. In Piemonte, so far, a similar initiative is

missing and that is why we choose to select this specific Good Practice. This kind of strategy could

be by the regional authorities as one of the Smart Specialization to be implemented though the

new European Funds. In the Smart Specialization Strategy draft document for the Piemonte region

such vision in still missing, but the policy recommendations, provided in the section V of this CIP,

could be a step forward to bring this practice to a deeper attention of the regional policymakers.

Expected results of the implementation of this third strategy in the Piemonte region are the

following:

• to create a new cluster model based on the healthcare domain. Starting from the successful

experience of bioPmed cluster (triple helix model), the new cluster should embrace a quad-helix

model, with the involvement also of the end-users as resourceful element of the development

path of a new product and not only as representatives;

• to stimulate the cooperation between different actors coming from four different worlds

(Academia, Business, Government, Civil Society as end-users) operating in the same field

(healthcare), but in different sectors (not only Life Sciences but, i.e., also ICT, Agro-Food,

Mechatronics, new materials and Textile);

• to complete the innovation value chain of the local healthcare system, connecting different

words with a common ambition: to create significant technology breakthroughs in the fields of

care, living and wellbeing. Then they would have to be introduced in the local healthcare system

following an evidence-based evaluation in coherence with the European guidelines of Health

Technology Assessment.

In the next chapter, we will explain how we plan to implement the chosen Good Practices in our

territory.

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IV. External GPs for regional agenda: learning from outside

In this chapter, we describe the three external Good Practice chosen and explain how we intent to

implement and adapt them to our regional context.

1 - Outsourced Faculty of Chemistry/Pharmacists

For the first priority, the Good practice (GP) chosen was the Outsourced Faculty of

Chemistry/Pharmacists developed by TEVA Pharmaceutical Ltd and the University of Debrecen and

our learning from the consolidated experience during the Health4Growth project and from the

chosen Good Practice aims to strengthen the links between academia and industry, launching

research careers able to include high skilled researchers within business innovation.

Recalling the information contained in the Joint report on State of Play and Collection of Good

Practices and the presentation of the same GP during the Thematic Workshop and the study visit

held in Debrecen last April, this GP developed by the University of Debrecen in collaboration with

TEVA has been generated by the “outsourced faculty” in the TEVA pharmaceutical company to

include industrial, real life knowledge into the education of chemists (later a second faculty was

also established for pharmacists). The objective was to show how a multinational pharmaceutical

company takes part in market oriented education to be able to recruit appropriate workforce from

the newly graduated students. TEVA is a capital-intensive multinational company with more than

111 years professional experience and a collaboration with the Debrecen University has started

since several decades.

Besides the training generated effects, one of the main spillovers of this collaboration has been

the recruitment of new professionals. In facts, the relationship between the University and TEVA

has included BSc and MSc students who intended to write their graduation theses at TEVA

Pharmaceuticals. In figures it has been involved more than 300 students in the visits and around

30 thesis developed through the external faculty.

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One of the main benefits has been the familiarization with the activity of the chemical and

biotechnological methods of industrial production and the opportunity for further contacts and

job opportunities.

As previously mentioned in the Piemonte system one of the main concern is the weak link

between University and Industry through the exploitation of the trained people during the degree

period and the associated risk of brain drain.

In this sense we tried to identify an initiative able to fill this gap extending this topic not only to

internships in companies but also at different level of training periods and stimulation the

collaboration between the University and other companies.

We found that the External Faculty of TEVA and University of Debrecen has been traced a

significant path to be deepened within our territory as a consolidated experience to be adapted to

our territory.

In particular, from the previous SWOT analysis it seems clear that:

• Stimulate R&D and exploitation of scientific results

• Fostering entrepreneurship and contamination between industry academia

• Support to the growth of new innovative start-ups

• Research centers could implement a liason with the Industry and the market

• Actions to maintain talents and attract talents from abroad

• Focused training course on bio-management

Starting from these priorities we have noted that on one hand the local authorities are supporting

more and more the integration between education needs and real necessities of the industries.

On the other hand we aim at having a look also on a positive contamination between research and

transversal skills, including managerial entrepreneurship and communication, that valuate the

scientific background and facilitate the growth of the local economy based on knowledge society.

In this frame the local authorities are part of the process of identification on new paths with the

harmonization between the Industrial and University Education; and central actors of a quadruple

helix system able to foster innovation, entrepreneurship and business competences, in close

interaction with research activities and business approaches.

29

The policy recommendation aims also at developing an international network between

universities, research centres and industrial partners in the health sciences sectors as to improve

the management of key issues in a system participated by the local authorities in order to

implement a quadruple helix model.

2 - LiCaLab – Living & Care Lab

This living lab approach has been set by the LiCaLab good practice and we were inspired by that to

face the challenges connected with the second priority.

LiCaLab (Living & Care Lab), as explained in the good practice description and during the Thematic

Workshop held in Turin on 23th October 2013, is a real-life environment located in the heart of

Turnhout (Belgium) for testing and validating new products, services and processes conceived and

designed in the healthcare sector, operating as a link in the innovation-chain that supports

companies on introducing their solutions in the market. Indeed, the co-creation, testing and

evaluation of new products and services which are evidence-based, taking into account also their

economical feasibility. Methodological support in design and management of real life testing is

also provided, as well as legal, financial and business advice. The effectiveness of LiCaLab is proved

by the fact that 3 new products/services for health care have been tested since 2012 and two of

them resulted in very successful introductions in the market whereas a third one isn’t ready to

enter the market yet. LiCaLab leans on a broad network of partners, both profit and non-profit

organizations with expertise in living and care sciences and a close collaboration between

government, research and industrial partners, health institutions and users is crucial for the co-

creation process of innovation.

The thematic domains LiCaLab deals with are “active ageing” and “housing”, this last related to

innovation supporting people to live independently in a safe, comfortable and accessible house.

It was stressed above that a key factor of success of this external practice is the collaboration

among different stakeholders, public and private ones, and also in our region a similar cooperation

30

among interested actors should be the driver that helps our action to reach its goals. For these

main reasons LiCaLab has been considered as a good experience to look at.

However, some points should be highlighted to explain why the good practice at issue cannot be

transferred as a whole into our regional context but by adapting it to our socio-economic and

regulatory conditions and referring just only to some aspects of the good practices.

The Interreg IVC manual defines the overall objective of the programme as the improvement of

the effectiveness of regional development policies and instruments. It may be achieved through

the exchange, sharing and transfer of good practices experiences and identifies a “policy” to the

public institutional framework of the regions.

LiCaLab provides companies with testing facilities (laboratories) whose prospective establishment

can be considered more as an output of policymaking than a policy itself and requires a long/mid-

term programming. So, the setting up of specific facilities for real-life testing is clearly a positive

way to improve healthcare environment but it is in fact beyond what expected within “Health 4

Growth” and would require a deeper and longer political negotiation which overrun the project

deadlines. Furthermore the action envisaged for the second priority targets elderly people living in

marginal areas and for this reason by getting the patients directly involved from their own houses

in testing health monitoring devices, it is possible to avoid the problems for local inhabitants

(especially older ones) of those territories to move from a place to another place in case of a

specific located laboratory for testing; physical conditions of the area where LiCaLab initiative has

been undertaken are much more advantageous than the mountain territories of Piemonte.

Another goal of our action should be the application of public procurement procedures to identify

and buy innovative health monitoring device and services under experimentation but the criteria

of cooperation among local actors in Turnhout region must be adapted to our legal context

concerning healthcare (also because ASL are a key role player in our action).

In order to implement the action described in the previous section and based on “LiCaLab” good

practice, the Province of Turin is considering to exploit the synergies with another EU project for

territorial cooperation (which our local body has taken part into), called “Alcotra Innovation” and

funded by the Alcotra Italy-France 2007-2013 territorial cross-border cooperation program. As for

the health sector, the Province of Turin has considered worthwhile to experiment , together with a

31

French partner, an initiative which consists on monitoring and providing health remote assistance

to elderly people living in marginal areas of our territory by means of innovative devices and

relative services which should be selected, and bought, thanks to public procurement procedures.

If the proposal is approved by the managing authorities of the Alcotra program, we will intend to

use this project to put in practice the action for the second priority. Another funding line could be

also provided by the new Interior National Strategy 2014-2020: linked to the next European

Structural Funds, it offers today to the Italian regions the possibility to apply for financed pilot

projects in the field of education, transport and also health.

3 - Cooperative Slimmer Leven 2020

The third Good Practice that we want to implement was chosen because of the necessity to have

an inclusive instrument that can build a connection between the different sectors and actors of

the regional Healthcare system.

From our Joint report on State of Play and Collection of Good Practices, the Cooperative Slimmer

Leven 2020 is an organised partnership within Southeast Netherlands, with Brainport Eindhoven

region at its core. The main purpose of the initiative is to stimulate the cooperation between the

70 members coming from four different worlds: Academia, Business, Government, Civil Society

(end-users). The participants clustered within this partnership share the same ambition: to create

significant technology breakthroughs in the fields of care, living and wellbeing that will, in the long

term, be cost-efficient for society and generate added economic value. In particular, by connecting

different stakeholders from different types of organisations and governance levels the cooperative

tries to be an agenda setter, matching various political-administrative and organizational levels

and develop additional resources, alternative financing, grants and new business models. Named

quad-helix model, this approach is useful and efficient because it involves also the end-users not

as representatives, but as resourceful element of the development path of a new product.

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In Piemonte such cooperative infrastructure does not exist but there are the conditions that allow

it to be implemented: bioPmed cluster it is a good point to start because of its vision that already

embraces a wider personalized medicine approach, but also the willingness demonstrated by

other clusters (dealing with other technological sectors) is representative of the Industry

involvement and interest in such theme. If we consider that also the Research Organizations have

demonstrated their interest (Academia is a fundamental part in innovation driven clusters), the

creation of a new inclusive local network based on a personalized healthcare approach is missing

(or not fully involving) today in Piemonte two of the four elements that compose the Quad-Helix

model: the Civil society and the Government. In our case, Civil Society means end-users, as

Hospitals, ASL (local health structure), welfare organizations, Private Care institutions, Health

Insurers etc., but it is easily predictable that they will show an interest in a new approach

promising new opportunities for all of them. In the Network that we want to implement, their role

is fundamental: their needs and their sensibility about everyday real-life problems represents a

very useful contribution for a common Agenda and they are also excellent starting points for new

project ideas. The fourth part of the Network is the Government: in Piemonte region it means that

we have to involve the political level, as the regional Councillor, but also the technical level, as the

respective DG. For our purpose, we have to involve three departments: Health, Research &

Innovation and Industry. At present only the third is fully committed, the second is partially

committed and the first still needs to be properly involved. Only if we are able to fully engage all of

them we can reach the political weight to set a strong common Agenda with possibility to be

implemented. There are many reasons for each of them to embrace this new approach: as said in

our State of Play Report, also the Piemonte region Healthcare system is facing the problem of cost

constraint and the Personalized Healthcare model promises cost rationalization and reduction.

There are many studies that show how this new approach represent a stimulating opportunity for

researches of many sectors and also a business opportunity for many industrial sectors.

A problem that we might face during the realization of this new collaborative Network is related to

the economic sustainability. If we look at the example of the chosen Good Practice, we can see

that the cooperative’s income comprises a contribution from the members (5.000 euro per year,

33

definitely too high for the average Italian SME). With this budget, the Slimmer Leven 2020 offers a

set of services like projects mapping, partners matching, research of finance and funding schemes.

This kind of model has in principle - with some adjustments - the chance to be implemented in the

local scenario but, if we have the ambition to direct our region to a Personalized Healthcare

model, we need a higher economic effort. In a period of economic suffering like the one that all

Europe - and in particular Italy and also Piemonte region - is facing, it is not easy to find public

funds to invest in such approach, even if the future benefits are many. A solution exists, i.e.

European funds: Piemonte region can overcome this economic problem deciding to invest part of

their new (2014-2020) European regional funds in this challenge. Following the smart

specialization approach8, the Region can in fact decide to concentrate part of their research

investment in the field of Health, giving start to an innovative path toward the personalized

healthcare model.

For that reason, the network that we want to build is even more necessary, because it has the

intent to put together all the actors and sectors involved in the healthcare domain, in order to

share a common vision for the future of our region and it is fundamental to obtain, through their

involvement in the network, political commitment to this new approach.

8 http://ec.europa.eu/research/regions/index_en.cfm?pg=smart_specialisation

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V. Recommendations: Health4Growth 2020

The local stakeholders, the experience gained in the last 2 years and the results of the State of Play

analysis, have suggested us the importance to implement some specific measures, able to

integrate the entrepreneurial system, the local institutions and the academy.

The so-called Leuven system is an example of how collaboration among different actors can foster

innovation, entrepreneurship growth and overall improvement of health system and academic

education provided.

As a consequence, this has enhanced better life and health conditions for the population,

qualifying the region as a touristic health hub.

The study on our territory has underlined that:

1. A strong political guidance is unfortunately missing. Without a unique vision and without a

common plan, single and non-coordinated initiatives alone (for example a single policy

dedicated to innovative research project in the field of the personalized medicine) are not

sufficient and not sustainable;

2. The economic growth of the Health Sector is strictly related with research and higher

education systems, through business innovation activities and intellectual assets up to

innovation in SMEs, as well as an increasing interaction between quadruple helix actors. In

Piemonte there is still a gap within the development of entrepreneurship mind set; but

interesting experiences in self-employment and spin-off are carried out by 2i3T;

3. The coordination between clusters and enterprises is not sufficiently incentivized;

experiences like those gained by bioPmed should be supported to hinder the brain drain

phenomenon;

4. Testing of new products and models is still delayed by bureaucratic system;

5. It is necessary to build fast tracks for healthcare research and experimentation or tools to

enhance them.

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Policy recommendations:

1. The Regional government should create and coordinate a common working group among

the different actors connected to healthcare - i.e. different internal department (DG Health

- health provider included, DG Industry & Innovation, Research and University), clusters

(representing the companies), incubators, universities and scientific parks. Besides is very

important to include the end users (patients through their associations and non-profit

organizations) and social impact actors (Civil Observatory, Third Sector) – draw with them

the framework of a new collaboration and implement a set of coordinated policy/actions

that together can be functional to plan and define the path to follow in order to be able to

achieve long term goals (e.g. Personalised healthcare).

2. Supporting innovative SME’s in healthcare sector to test their innovation by clear and

simplified procedures; harmonization of procedures should help them in reducing time to

market of a new product/service; fostering SME interaction with Scientific Research

centers; Boosting new models and product development (e.g. clinical trials) in order to

optimize their validation and implementation on the market.

Products and services in Health Sector have to be linked to real needs and priorities and

they have to be validated through the Health Technology Assessment.

The interaction between SMEs and Public Bodies can significantly foster innovation.

Fostering entrepreneurship and training on bio-management and boosting new initiatives

able to reduce brain drain; the educational path has to be structured so that qualified

youngsters’ inclusion and self-employment can be achieved successfully.

3. Fostering entrepreneurship and training on bio-management and boosting new initiatives

able to reduce brain drain.

4. It is acknowledged that doctoral students need to approach the labour market with

entrepreneurial attitude, project management skills and orientation to business planning.

Promoting employment of young university researchers in SMEs by supporting applied

research during PhD years. The goal may be achieved building a strong link between the

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needs of labour market and the education provided by Academy. Advanced education,

innovation and jobs creation can be fostered by the match between public (EU) and private

funds, co-financing grants for industrial PhD.

5. The Piemonte Region should continue the clusters experience but declining them by

market-driven, multi-technological domains and following a quad-helix model.

The health system should be supported through: scouting and follow-up for start-ups

creation; building of clusters of local and cross-border level; harmonization of European

enterprise legislations.

End users like Local Health Services and Associations need to be included even in the

current cluster model.

6. Funds should be addressed to enterprises that make research to find solutions to social

challenges (ageing and health issues). It would be proper to realize a network of

collaborations among the actors of the health system, like in the picture below9:

9 Source: Europe INNOVA

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7. The Piemonte Region should indicate “Smart Personalized Health” as one of its Smart

Specialization: with a multi-sectorial and multi-technological imprinting, this decision can

be both a prospective answer to local and global challenges (i.e. ageing society, healthcare

costs) and an opportunity of economic growth.