• 30 de Março, 2011

The conference is taking place today and tomorrow in Brussels, Place Sainte-Croix, and will bring together the key stakeholders of the healthcare sector to highlight and discuss the policy developments needed for research and innovation in healthcare at European and National level, in the frame of the Innovation Union and beyond.

Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn;  Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, Antonio Tajani and Commissioner John Dalli, responsible for Health and Consumer Policy are among the speakers. Maria da Graça Carvalho participated in the official opening and keynote session about "The Healthcare sector in the context of the Innovation Union, Global trends in healthcare, European specificities representing the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (see intervention here).

Maria da Graça Carvalho, rapporteur for the simplification of the EU research and innovation programmes and EPP permanent rapporteur for the research area in both the current Budget Committee and in the Future Budget Committee, gave an overview of how she sees the future of the different EU research and innovation programmes, underscoring "the need for increased funding in the present and future budgets for EU research and innovation programmes".

For the MEP, "this is a particularly crucial moment for us all as the Parliament, the Council and the Commission are in the process of conducting the mid term review of the FP7. They have also already started working on the FP8 and on the future EU budget, post-2013". To conclude Ms Carvalho added that "at this juncture, all of us should pull in the same direction in order to ensure that we obtain the best possible design, structure and funding for the future programmes".

This session also included the participation of  Robert-Jan SMITS, General Director DG Research and Innovation, European Commission; Miklós SZOCSKA, Minister of State for health, Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union; Alastair KENT, Chairman, European Platform for Patients' Organizations, Science and Industry (EPPOSI); Guy LEBEAU, Chairman, European Medical Technology Industry Association (Eucomed); Marc DE GARIDEL, President, European Biopharmaceuticals Enterprises (EBE), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ipsen; Iain GILLESPIE, Head of the Science and Technology Policy Division, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The objective of the 2011 conference is to produce an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) for innovation in healthcare and make specific recommendations that will be addressed to policy-makers and stakeholders.

During these two days, key stakeholders in the innovation of healthcare, policy makers, Member States, universities, other research institutions, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), larger companies, industry associations, researchers, hospital managers, patients and patients associations are expected to participate. In addition to DGs Research and Innovation, Enterprise and Industry and Health and Consumers, other European institutions and agencies will be among the speakers. The Presidency of the Council of the EU will attend as well.

Conference programme: hereThis is the second edition of the conference building on the event of May 2010. See the outcome report of the previous conference.