European Innovation Partnership Research Articles

Role of twinnings in scaling up innovative solutions across Europe

IntroductionTwinnings are cross-border knowledge exchange activities where two or more organisations learn from each other’s experiences and are often used as a scaling up mechanism.ObjectivesThis paper discusses the importance of...

From MASK-air and SILAM to CATALYSE (Climate Action To Advance HeaLthY Societies in Europe).

Plant species vary under different climatic conditions and the distribution of pollen in the air. Trends in pollen distribution can be used to assess the impact of climate change on public health. In 2015, the Mobile Airways Sentinel networK for rhinitis and asthma (MASK-air®) was launched as a project of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-on-AHA, DG Santé and DG CONNECT). This project aimed to develop a warning system to inform patients about the onset of the pollen season, namely, the System for Integrated modeLling of Atmospheric coMposition (SILAM). A global-to-meso-scale dispersion model was developed by the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI). It provides quantitative information on atmospheric pollution of anthropogenic and natural origins, particularly on allergenic pollens. Impact of Air Pollution on Asthma and Rhinitis (POLLAR, EIT Health) has combined MASK-air clinical data with SILAM forecasts. A new Horizon Europe grant (Climate Action to Advance HeaLthY Societies in Europe [CATALYSE]; grant agreement number 101057131), which came into force in September 2022, aims to improve our understanding of climate change and help us find ways to counteractit. One objective of this project is to develop early warning systems and predictive models to improve the effectiveness of strategies for adapting to climate change. One of the warning systems is focused on allergic rhinitis (CATALYSE Task 3.2), with a collaboration between the FMI (Finland), Porto University (Portugal), MASK-air SAS (France), ISGlobal (Spain), Hertie School (Germany), and the University of Zurich (Switzerland). It is to be implemented with the support of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. This paper reports the planning of CATALYSE Task 3.2.

Informational resources used by farmers with ruminants and monogastrics for animal health monitoring: importance of sensory indicators

Managers of health in livestock systems are asked to shift from a curative approach to a more preventive approach. This change requires sociological and technical reconfiguration and raises the issue of how changes are implemented by farmers and their technical support ecosystem (advisors, trainers, veterinarians). Here, we report work conducted in western France by an Agricultural European Innovation Partnership Operational Group bringing together animal scientists and sociologists to advance knowledge on animal health in a range of livestock sectors, i.e. dairy cattle, beef cattle, small ruminants (sheep, goats), poultry and pigs. In this study, our aim was to answer this question: what are the Informational Resources (I.R.) that farmers use to promote animal health of their herds? First, we used a survey to characterize 129 I.R. used by advisors, then, we used statistical analysis to classify these I.R. into six clusters. Second, we organized eight focus-group sessions that involved a total of 50 farmers from across all livestock sectors to find out how they mobilize the I.R. and what they see as important for animal health monitoring practice. Finally, we performed individual interviews with 42 farmers to expand the data captured in the collective focus groups. Results showed that farmers and advisors have a broad and diverse range of I.R. to help monitor animal health. We identified six clusters of I.R.: regulatory tools, periodic reports, tools for farmer-led monitoring, tools and indicators for national reference datasets, slaughterhouse and laboratory indicators, and training delivered to farmers. During focus group, livestock farmers identified some of their I.R. within these clusters but they also cited other daily routines that help them monitor animal health that were not cited by advisors. We found that farmers mainly use sensory indicators (typically smell, sight, touch) in their daily practice whereas advisors mainly use relatively sophisticated retrospective monitoring tools. Farmers also cited the importance of indicators that can rapidly objectify any change in animal condition, behavior, or health. This work finds a split in the distribution of animal health management roles, with farmers implementing daily checks whereas advisors run periodic health surveillance, thus revealing differentiated roles and needs between farmers and their advisors.

GATEKEEPER's Strategy for the Multinational Large-Scale Piloting of an eHealth Platform: Tutorial on How to Identify Relevant Settings and Use Cases.

The World Health Organization's strategy toward healthy aging fosters person-centered integrated care sustained by eHealth systems. However, there is a need for standardized frameworks or platforms accommodating and interconnecting multiple of these systems while ensuring secure, relevant, fair, trust-based data sharing and use. The H2020 project GATEKEEPER aims to implement and test an open-source, European, standard-based, interoperable, and secure framework serving broad populations of aging citizens with heterogeneous health needs. We aim to describe the rationale for the selection of an optimal group of settings for the multinational large-scale piloting of the GATEKEEPER platform. The selection of implementation sites and reference use cases (RUCs) was based on the adoption of a double stratification pyramid reflecting the overall health of target populations and the intensity of proposed interventions; the identification of a principles guiding implementation site selection; and the elaboration of guidelines for RUC selection, ensuring clinical relevance and scientific excellence while covering the whole spectrum of citizen complexities and intervention intensities. Seven European countries were selected, covering Europe's geographical and socioeconomic heterogeneity: Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom. These were complemented by the following 3 Asian pilots: Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. Implementation sites consisted of local ecosystems, including health care organizations and partners from industry, civil society, academia, and government, prioritizing the highly rated European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Aging reference sites. RUCs covered the whole spectrum of chronic diseases, citizen complexities, and intervention intensities while privileging clinical relevance and scientific rigor. These included lifestyle-related early detection and interventions, using artificial intelligence-based digital coaches to promote healthy lifestyle and delay the onset or worsening of chronic diseases in healthy citizens; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart failure decompensations management, proposing integrated care management based on advanced wearable monitoring and machine learning (ML) to predict decompensations; management of glycemic status in diabetes mellitus, based on beat to beat monitoring and short-term ML-based prediction of glycemic dynamics; treatment decision support systems for Parkinson disease, continuously monitoring motor and nonmotor complications to trigger enhanced treatment strategies; primary and secondary stroke prevention, using a coaching app and educational simulations with virtual and augmented reality; management of multimorbid older patients or patients with cancer, exploring novel chronic care models based on digital coaching, and advanced monitoring and ML; high blood pressure management, with ML-based predictions based on different intensities of monitoring through self-managed apps; and COVID-19 management, with integrated management tools limiting physical contact among actors. This paper provides a methodology for selecting adequate settings for the large-scale piloting of eHealth frameworks and exemplifies with the decisions taken in GATEKEEPER the current views of the WHO and European Commission while moving forward toward a European Data Space.

Steering ‘green’ innovation policy toward sustainability? Lessons from implementing EIP-AGRI in Sweden

This article critically examines the state's steering capacity of ‘green innovation’ programs using Sweden's implementation of the agricultural European Innovation Partnership (EIP-AGRI) as a case representing part of the EU's Green Deal. The innovations should promote the competitiveness of rural areas and contribute to national environmental protection and climate goals.We found that despite expectations, implementation rests on compartmentalized networking within the agricultural sector, prioritizing increased ‘competitiveness’ before ‘green’ development, and interpreting ‘innovation’ mainly in the technical sense. The results indicate that the state´s steering capacity of ‘green innovation’ programs meets several obstacles: the overall goals from the top tend to be both too many and too vague, leaving it to the administration to interpret what kinds of features should be prioritized from below. The state's steering in the case of EIP-AGRI relies mostly on internal agricultural expertise contrary to previous research that suggests a recent ‘de-compartmentalisation’ of European agricultural policymaking.

European Innovation Partnership – Plant Health

European Innovation Partnership – Plant Health

A Common Management Framework for European Smart Cities? The Case of the European Innovation Partnership for Smart Cities and Communities Six Nations Forum

ABSTRACT To minimize market fragmentation, optimize efficiencies through compatible digital architectures, and encourage collaboration, high-level smart city harmonization efforts have been advocated across Europe. This paper critically analyzes attempts by the European Innovation Partnership for Smart Cities and Communities Six Nations Forum (EIP-SCC 6N) to constitute a common smart city management framework through application of a generic Blueprint. Analysis highlights how these efforts are brought to bear through four techniques: simplification, interoperability, integration, and authorization. Examining the adoption (and rejection) of these techniques underscores the importance of attending to distinctive urban contexts and alternative ways of knowing and acting in the city.

An Analysis of Irish Dairy Farmers’ Participation in the Bioeconomy: Exploring Power and Knowledge Dynamics in a Multi-actor EIP-AGRI Operational Group

The European Commission’s European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability (EIP-AGRI), part of the European Commission’s Europe 2020 strategy, aims to ‘achieve more and better from less’ by bringing together a diversity of innovation actors to harness their combined knowledges to creatively achieve sustainability goals. The creation and novel use of biomaterials remains both a significant challenge and opportunity and bringing together all the relevant actors from primary production through to refinement and processing is anticipated to make progress in bringing into practice pilot operational approaches on the ground. For the bioeconomy, a nascent sector, it is a significant challenge for it to become established; grow; innovate and engage all the relevant actors. It has been noted internationally that primary producers, among other cohorts, remain marginalised from bioeconomy activities, which significantly compromises how inclusive and innovative the bioeconomy is likely to be henceforth. In this context, an interesting case study is the Biorefinery Glas Operational Group (OG), located in Ireland. The OG was a ‘small-scale-farmer-led green biorefinery supporting farmer diversification into the circular bioeconomy’. The central research question of this paper concerns the dynamics of farmers’ participation in the OG, focusing specifically on how their knowledges shaped the operation of the OG and bioeconomy activities within it. This paper presents a social network graph illustrating the diverse actors involved in the OG, their relative degrees of connectedness to each other, and an overview of the differing levels of actors’ influence in the network. Interrogating the roles of different actors further, a lens of power theory is used to explore how farmers’ knowledges were used in combination with others’ knowledges to shape the development of the OG and innovation within it. The overall conclusion from an analysis of interviews conducted with farmer and non-farmer participants in the OG is that while farmers were highly connected with other members of the OG and viewed their involvement in the OG positively, the level of influence they had in decision-making processes in some areas of the OG was relatively limited. Different types of members of the OG tended to work in a relatively segmented way, with farmers contributing as input suppliers and on the practical side at the farm level, while other members of the OG such as scientists worked on more technical aspects. This paper concludes by providing conclusions and lessons of relevance to innovation-brokers and practitioners, and for the operation of OGs involving farmers elsewhere.

The Choice of Soybean Cultivar Alters the Underyielding of Protein and Oil under Drought Conditions in Central Poland

The popularization of soybean cultivation in Central Poland is progressing due to the European Soy Declaration signed by 13 member states in Brussels on 17 July 2017. Hence, this research was initiated under the European Innovation Partnership on phenotyping soybean cultivars in two regions, i.e., Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Greater Poland for integrated systems. The aim of this study was to determine soybean potential in the agrotechnical and agroclimatic conditions, with the selection of the most suitable cultivars for tillage and no-tillage cultivation in the region of Central Poland. Strict field research was carried out in six locations from 2018–2020 on 20 cultivars selected in terms of their earliness of maturation to the climatic conditions. On the basis of meteorological data, it was found that half of the plantations suffered from drought stress, as evidenced by the hydrothermal coefficients (K) for the growing season of soybean K < 1.2. The significant multivariate relationship (R = 0.67; p < 0.001) between the hydrothermal coefficient K and the vegetation period days (VPD) as the predictors of the soybean yield was determined by the regression equation Y(yield) = 21.8 + 12.0 X(K) + 0.20 X(VPD). A significant multivariate relationship (R = 0.43; p < 0.01) was also found between the seed yield, hydrothermal coefficient K and the protein content, quantified with the regression equation Y(protein) = 32.6 + 0.25 X(Yield) + 0.28 X(K). In the no-tillage system of cultivation, the seed yield of soybean constantly increased with increasing K (+32.3% between dry/relatively dry and optimal periods, +22.4% between optimal and humid periods), while in the tillage system, the yield increased by 22.1% only when K rose from optimal to humid. In the seasons with optimum and humid conditions, no-tilled soybean produced more oil, in comparison to the season of dry conditions, and the opposite trend was found with the greater oil content in the tillage system. Meanwhile, a higher protein content was observed in the tillage system under humid conditions. All soybean cultivars were grouped according to the cluster analysis (k-means) with ANOVA in terms of vegetation period in days, seed yield, oil, and protein content for tillage and no-tillage cultivation. The study confirmed that soybean might be considered in the future as a profitable crop in Central Poland and create perspective for a low-input source of protein and oil.

Interactions Between EIP on AHA Reference Sites and Action Groups to Foster Digital Innovation of Health and Care in European Regions.

The article describes some of the achievements of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA), after eight years in operation. These results were achieved thanks to the collaborative work of the action groups (AGs) and reference sites (RSs). RS regional ecosystems include key organisations committed to investing in innovation to foster active and healthy ageing. The AGs are groups of professionals committed to sharing their knowledge and skills in active and healthy ageing. This article reports on the approach used by the EIP on AHA to bring together experts and regions in identifying and addressing these challenges. Synergies between AGs offered substantial support to RSs, allowing regional health and care priorities and challenges to be identified and pursued through AG commitments. Building upon the experiences of the EIP on AHA, the Reference Sites Collaborative Network has set up a number of thematic action groups that bring together multidisciplinary experts from across Europe to address the main health and social care challenges at regional, national and European level.

THE ROLE OF THE INNOVATION BROKER IN THE FORMATION OF EIP-AGRI OPERATIONAL GROUPS

The European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability (EIP-AGRI) is part of the support for agricultural economic development. EIP-AGRI operational groups are groups of people who are working together on an innovation project funded by Rural Development Programs (RDP). Their essence is to transform innovative ideas into real solutions. The coordination of the formation process of operational groups has been entrusted to agricultural advisory units, especially to innovation brokers working there. The aim of the study was to determine the role of the innovation broker in the formation of EIP-AGRI operational groups. Mechanisms of innovation support in the agricultural sector were presented, paying particular attention to the tasks of the National Network for Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Areas (NRN) and the Measure “Cooperation” implemented under RDP 2014-2020. The “e-Networking” operation implemented by the Pomeranian Agricultural Advisory Centre in Lubań (PODR) in 2020-2021 was analysed and a survey study was conducted using an original survey questionnaire prepared on the Webankieta platform. The conducted survey shows that the role of an innovation broker is, first of all, to support entities interested in cooperation in obtaining funds for innovative activities, prepare project proposals and documents related to the functioning of the EPI operational group and identify entities willing to undertake cooperation as well as to assist in its establishment.

Multi-actor Horizon 2020 projects in agriculture, forestry and related sectors: A Multi-level Innovation System framework (MINOS) for identifying multi-level system failures

CONTEXTThe key European Union (EU) policy instrument in support of innovation in agriculture, forestry and related sectors is the European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability. It applies the ‘interactive innovation model’ which brings together actors with complementary types of knowledge. This policy instrument is implemented inter alia through multi-actor projects funded via the Horizon 2020 (H2020) Research and Innovation (R&I) programme. OBJECTIVEAlthough the multi-actor H2020 projects account for a substantial part of EU project funding for agriculture, forestry and related sector R&I, systematic and comparative research on the multi-actor H2020 projects is scarce. This is partly due to a lack of a structured analytical approach to accommodate the differences in institutional, cultural and social contexts which influence the co-innovation and social learning processes in these multinational, multi-actor partnerships. To this end, we argue that the analytical integration of the micro- and macro-level innovation system (IS) perspectives is necessary to understand fully the mechanisms underlying the functioning of, and the co-innovation process within, multi-actor H2020 projects. METHODSThis analytical gap is addressed with the development of an integrated, Multi-level Innovation System framework (MINOS) and its application to 50 multi-actor H2020 projects. MINOS recognises the presence, influence of and interaction between multiple levels of IS in such projects. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSWe distinguish four levels of IS: the European Agricultural Innovation System (EU AIS), the National Agricultural Innovation System (NAIS), the H2020 project and the partner organisations involved in the project (Partner). Our analysis of the system failures that occurred across most of the 50 cases allowed us to identify and conceptualise two categories of ‘multi-level system failures’, namely multipliers and stackers, and the presence of mitigating factors. SIGNIFICANCEThe MINOS analytical framework enabled a) a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of co-innovation in multi-actor H2020 projects and b) contributed to addressing the theoretical and conceptual gaps in terms of studying the interconnection and interdependence of different IS levels.

The Relevance of Videos as a Practical Tool for Communication and Dissemination in Horizon2020 Thematic Networks

Thematic networks (TNs) are Horizon2020 projects promoted by the European Innovation Partnership Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability (EIP-AGRI) that collect existing knowledge and best practices on a given theme in agriculture and forestry. Their purpose is to make these available in easily understandable formats for users such as farmers/foresters and advisors. Videos are a powerful tool for communication and dissemination about project outcomes; thus, they are frequently used as part of project activities. Despite the large number of videos that have been produced by TNs, only a few have reached a high number of views. Hence, most have not reached a wide public, decreasing the impact of TNs’ outputs. This paper analyzes several characteristics of TN videos in order to suggest best practices. That is, we investigated whether each characteristic influences the number of views or average percentage watched. Using the analysis, we suggest several best practices. For example, future TNs should show practical content prioritizing farmers as a speaker and translate videos in more than one language. Better involvement of project partners increases the contact with farmers; thus, outcomes are more easily spread, and the chance of being applied increases. To increase the visibility of videos, a user-friendly digital knowledge platform linked to demonstration activities and peer-to-peer exchange will improve the sharing of knowledge. This will further enhance a TN’s impact and sustainability in agricultural and forestry innovation in the longer term.

Impact of chronic stress exposure on cognitive performance incorporating the active and healthy aging (AHA) concept within the cross-sectional Bern Cohort Study 2014 (BeCS-14)

PurposeThis study aims to verify that the mental-cognitive domain of the validated generic bio-functional status (BFS)/bio-functional age (BFA) assessment tool, incorporating the concept of Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA), reflects cognitive performance. In addition, the effects of chronic stress exposure on the mental-cognitive BFS/BFA should be investigated.MethodsThe study was carried out as a monocenter, cross-sectional, observational, non-interventional trial (Bern Cohort Study 2014, BeCS-14) with the participation of 147 non-pediatric, non-geriatric subjects. All participants followed a standardized battery of biopsychosocial assessments consisting of BFS/BFA, a validated cognitive performance test battery (Inventar zur Gedächtnisdiagnostik; IGD) and a validated questionnaire for the assessment of chronic stress (Trier Inventory for the assessment of Chronic Stress; TICS), respectively.ResultsMean cognitive performance was average and higher in younger or better educated individuals. The BFA of the participants was 7.8 ± 7.8 year-equivalents below their chronological age. The mental-cognitive BFS/BFA assessment correlated well with the validated questionnaire for cognition assessment, the IGD. Further, three TICS subdomains (work overload (r = − 0.246, p = 0.003), work discontent (r = − 0.299, p = 0.006) and pressure to succeed (r = − 0.274, p < 0.001)), reflecting mainly work-related stress, showed a significant negative correlation with the mental-cognitive BFS/BFA.ConclusionsOur study shows that the BFS/BFA assessment tool follows European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA) requirements. Further, we could demonstrate that higher levels of chronic work-related stress may be associated with poorer mental-cognitive performance and a pro-aging state indicating that cognitive impairments can be reduced by stress management interventions.

A European Partnership on Transforming health and care systems – state of play and future plans

Abstract Horizon Europe will foresee the establishment of a number of European Partnerships. One proposed Partnerships is targeted towards Transforming health and care systems, which is presented in the opening presentation. Research and Innovation activities (R&amp;I) in such a EU Partnership should accelerate the transformation towards sustainable health and care systems. It builds on the experience and outcomes of some closely related European initiatives, including the Active &amp; Assisted Living Programme (AAL Programme), the Joint Programme Initiative “More Years, Better Lives', the European Innovation Partnership on Active &amp; Healthy Ageing and the To-Reach Coordination and Support Action (CSA). The four initiatives share a common vision to improve the European citizens' health by reaching high quality, fairly accessible, sustainable, efficient, health promoting and resilient health and care systems for all EU citizens. The Partnership aims to achieve this objective by 2030 by means of providing multidisciplinary research with a particular focus on improving the ability of relevant health and care actors to take up innovative solutions, including organisational, service and policy innovations. The process is to develop a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), building on work on already conducted by previous projects and initiatives, including the ones listed above. The workshop at the EPH Conference can be seen as part of a series of workshops to advance the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda based on countries priorities and wide stakeholders' consultations, To provide cumulitative learning, the presentation will share the outcomes of a consultation process among European stakeholders so far, among others involving decision makers and research funding bodies to identify common goals and priorities, providing opportunity to workshop participants to reflect and add missing elements crucial for such a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda.

Actor motivations to engage with collaborative agri-environmental policy: An assemblage based exploration

Governments around the world are seeking to achieve socially just transitions to environmentally sustainable modes of agricultural production. Policy makers have increasingly sought to engage an array of societal actors in the collaborative design and implementation of associated policies, which we refer to as Agri-Environmental Policy (AEP) initiatives. Yet, the existing literature includes little context specific exploration of the motivations of those who engage with such initiatives. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the motivations of a small group of actors who established and coordinated a collaborative group to apply to one AEP initiative in Ireland – the European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability (EIP-AGRI). This group included three farmers, an agri-environmental policy advocate, and a research scientist. Drawing on assemblage literature, we illustrate how each of these actors' motivations emerged 1) based on the specific relationships in which they operated and 2) based on their imagining of potential future scenarios, which they sought to actualise through EIP-AGRI. This paper thus provides a qualitative account of how motivations emerge as different actors creatively navigate complex sets of relationships. We illustrate the utility of an assemblage approach to explore such motivations in ways that account for specific contexts and the capacity of each actor to engage with possible futures. We conclude that the capacity of collaborative approaches to AEP to appeal to actors from different backgrounds relies heavily on such actors’ ability to envisage and anticipate new possibilities. This line of exploration helps us to better understand the extent to which collaborative AEP may align the multiple goals associated with transitioning to environmentally sustainable and socially just food production systems.

Cost-utility analysis of a consensus and evidence-based medication review to optimize and potentially reduce psychotropic drug prescription in institutionalized dementia patients

BackgroundGrowing evidence shows the effects of psychotropic drugs on the evolution of dementia. Until now, only a few studies have evaluated the cost-effectiveness of psychotropic drugs in institutionalized dementia patients. This study aims to assess the cost-utility of intervention performed in the metropolitan area of Barcelona (Spain) (MN) based on consensus between specialized caregivers involved in the management of dementia patients for optimizing and potentially reducing the prescription of inappropriate psychotropic drugs in this population. This analysis was conducted using the Monitoring and Assessment Framework for the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (MAFEIP) tool.MethodsThe MAFEIP tool builds up from a variety of surrogate endpoints commonly used across different studies in order to estimate health and economic outcomes in terms of incremental changes in quality adjusted life years (QALYs), as well as health and social care utilization. Cost estimates are based on scientific literature and expert opinion; they are direct costs and include medical visits, hospital care, medical tests and exams and drugs administered, among other concepts. The healthcare costs of patients using the intervention were calculated by means of a medication review that compared patients’ drug-related costs before, during and after the use of the intervention conducted in MN between 2012 and 2014. The cost-utility analysis was performed from the perspective of a health care system with a time horizon of 12 months.ResultsThe tool calculated the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of the intervention, revealing it to be dominant, or rather, better (more effective) and cheaper than the current (standard) care. The ICER of the intervention was in the lower right quadrant, making it an intervention that is always accepted even with the lowest given Willingness to Pay (WTP) threshold value (€15,000).ConclusionsThe results of this study show that the intervention was dominant, or rather, better (more effective) and cheaper than the current (standard) care. This dominant intervention is therefore recommended to interested investors for systematic application.

"One Health" Approach for Health Innovation and Active Aging in Campania (Italy).

This article describes how innovations are exploited in Campania (Italy) to improve health outcomes, quality of life, and sustainability of social and healthcare services. Campania's strategy for digitalization of health and care and for healthy aging is based on a person-centered, life-course, “One Health” approach, where demographic change is considered capable of stimulating a growth dynamic linked to the opportunities of combining the “Silver Economy” with local assets and the specific health needs of the population. The end-users (citizens, patients, and professionals) contribute to the co-creation of products and services, being involved in the identification of unmet needs and test-bed activity. The Campania Reference Site of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Aging is a flexible regional ecosystem to address the challenge of an aging population with a life-course approach. The good practices, developed in the context of research and innovation projects and innovative procurements by local stakeholders and collaborations with international networks, have been allowing the transfer of innovative solutions, knowledge, and skills to the stakeholders of such a multi-sectoral ecosystem for health.

Guided Internet-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression: Implementation Cost-Effectiveness Study

BackgroundMajor depressive disorder is a chronic condition; its prevalence is expected to grow with the aging trend of high-income countries. Internet-based cognitive-behavioral therapy has proven efficacy in treating major depressive disorder.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to assess the cost-effectiveness of implementing a community internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy intervention (Super@, the Spanish program for the MasterMind project) for treating major depressive disorder.MethodsThe cost-effectiveness of the Super@ program was assessed with the Monitoring and Assessment Framework for the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing tool, using a 3-state Markov model. Data from the cost and effectiveness of the intervention were prospectively collected from the implementation of the program by a health care provider in Badalona, Spain; the corresponding data for usual care were gathered from the literature. The health states, transition probabilities, and utilities were computed using Patient Health Questionnaire–9 scores.ResultsThe analysis was performed using data from 229 participants using the Super@ program. Results showed that the intervention was more costly than usual care; the discounted (3%) and nondiscounted incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were €29,367 and €26,484 per quality-adjusted life-year, respectively (approximately US $35,299 and $31,833, respectively). The intervention was cost-effective based on the €30,000 willingness-to-pay threshold typically applied in Spain (equivalent to approximately $36,060). According to the deterministic sensitivity analyses, the potential reduction of costs associated with intervention scale-up would reduce the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of the intervention, although it remained more costly than usual care. A discount in the incremental effects up to 5% exceeded the willingness-to-pay threshold of €30,000.ConclusionsThe Super@ program, an internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy intervention for treating major depressive disorder, cost more than treatment as usual. Nevertheless, its implementation in Spain would be cost-effective from health care and societal perspectives, given the willingness-to-pay threshold of €30,000 compared with treatment as usual.

Replicating European smart cities?

The paper unpacks the notion of “replication” within the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities from two perspectives: The first focuses on the rationale of replication as laid out in the mission statement and integral to its vision of a European smart city market and interrogates the term borrowed from laboratory science. The second turns to replication in practice and explores how replication work, rather than providing standardized technological solutions, has harmonized the vocabulary of replication narratives, creating repositories of modularized descriptions of solutions for knowledge exchange and inspiration. The conclusion draws attention to how the focus on describing technical details precludes a more fundamental or even public debate on measures, and how the apparent failure to create a mass market for smart city technologies results in an increased access to “soft policy options,” making the European smart city an increasingly governable entity.