Innovation for Welfare
The objective of Innovation4Welfare (I4W) is to improve, through interregional cooperation, the effectiveness of regional development policies that stimulate technology-driven innovation in the field of health and safety (‘welfare’). In this way I4W directly addresses EU policy objectives in two areas: it stimulates innovation with the aim of improving economic competitiveness as defined in the Lisbon agenda, and in this way drives the creation of new products and services that support policy initiatives addressing the key societal issue of public health, outlined in the recently adopted EU Health Strategy.

Across Europe, economic and demographics developments pose new challenges in public health: a general tendency to prioritise on health and safety, the strong increase in welfare-related diseases and the increased need for home and health care for ageing population are causing health care costs to increase rapidly. Innovative solutions are necessary to meet these challenges and
avoid health care becoming unaffordable. The challenges posed by the changing health needs of Europeans are however also an opportunity: because of the scope of the public health issue, and the enormous implications in terms of the increasing need of products and services in this area, it is an attractive target area for developing innovative new technologies and applications. 

Through one integrated (cross-cutting) approach, I4W aims to achieve three main goals: 1) to stimulate regional economic activity by better use of innovative processes and technologies in the field of health and safety, especially by SME’s and start-ups as important drivers for economic growth and jobs, 2) to contribute to welfare as a societal objective through the uptake of these innovations and 3) at the same time forge new (inter)regional coalitions between business (principally entrepreneurs and SME’s), knowledge institutes and public welfare organisations that currently do not work together sufficiently,
to stimulate the uptake of these innovations.

I4W will be a mini-programme that will focus on the analysis, development and transfer of good practices in a limited number of carefully selected subproject. In this way the project will not only capitalise on the general knowledge of the regional authorities, but on the extensive and in-depth expertise of the specific actors that implement policies and strategies to technology-based innovation in health and safety, such as universities, technology centres, hospitals and incubators. The partners will assure that the good practices identified and developed in I4W will have a strong impact in the regional innovation and health-related policy through active involvement of, and intensive dissemination to policy makers across Europe.

I4W involves partners representing regional authorities from 6 regions across Europe: Catalonia (ES), Lombardy (IT), Noord-Brabant (NL), South-West Bohemia (CZ), Region of Tartu (EE) and Upper Austria (AT).