Your input for German Council Presidency/ScanBalt Forum 2020 is needed
The COVID 19 crisis dramatically underlines the importance of closer digital data exchange in Europe. If the European Union wants to deal with health challenges of this magnitude in the future, we need new levels of cooperation, data exchange and best practices to achieve a higher level of preparedness for disease outbreaks. What we urgently need is networking, shared research infrastructures, cross-country-coordination of treatment capacities and the distribution of medical goods. No one doubts that the answer to these challenges must now be digital.
From 1 July 2020, Germany will take over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The German Ministry of Health is committed to setting the course for a genuine European health data area and the development of a code of conduct for the use of health data. In order to identify further starting points for political initiatives, the Ministry is looking for examples of best practice from the Member States that can be taken up.
The Joint Declaration
ScanBalt members and other European cluster organisations are very welcome to actively participate in the formulation of a joint declaration on the necessary next steps to create the European Data Space. They are invited to draw on the experience of their cluster members such as universities, hospitals, research institutions, pharmaceutical and med-tech companies and start-ups. This declaration has high political significance and can be taken up by the German Council Presidency for its Council conclusions and further recommendations. By inviting further innovation clusters from other EU countries, a pan-European, specifically targeted consultation process will be created under the leadership of ScanBalt.
Get Involved in the Joint Declaration with your Best Practices
The reference to the current COVID 19 crisis can be helpful as it raises awareness and underlines the need for action. Here it would be important to present the application of innovative digital solutions from the different areas of care:
- Research (exchange of patient-related data in cross-border research projects, for example in infectiology or pharmacology)
- Patient care and nursing (cross-border coordination of capacities),
- Use of innovative digital apps (e.g. early warning system for new waves of infection or for monitoring social distancing measures)
- Suggestions for a fast track approval of digital solutions
The examples submitted can have high visibility in the subsequent process of developing European solutions and framework conditions.
It is also planned to continue these consultations during the subsequent EU presidencies of Portugal and Slovenia. The best-practice examples submitted can thus also serve as a template for follow-up projects. They may also be relevant for the respective business model, e.g. the technologies presented can be taken up in other EU countries. Overall this initiative works to improve the competitiveness of the EU’s internal market and its healthcare industry.
Our aim is to collect and analyse a maximum of input on the above-mentioned topics and to formulate the joint declaration to be discussed at the ScanBalt Forum on 04 September 2020. The ScanBalt Forum 2020 will be held for the first time as a purely digital conference. Innovative digital conferencing technologies will enable the active participation of cluster representatives from all over Europe without the need for travel. The German Minister of Health Jens Spahn is requested as a keynote speaker. The joint resolution will be signed jointly by all participating cluster organisations.
Your benefits
Together with extensive documentation of the conference contents, this guarantees
- High visibility of the clusters as relevant players in the current COVID-19 crisis
- possible access to EU project funding
- networking with European clusters on the subject of a single data space
Share your best practices
In order to achieve the best possible outcome of the process and the forum, we invite all interested parties to
- Recommend examples of best practice and list/describe up to 5 problems/bottlenecks that are hindering progress on the above issues
- Proposals on how to use instruments at EU level to remove bottlenecks
- Suggest potential speakers and panellists for the forum
- Suggest candidates for the Declaration Drafting/Event Programming Committee be established by ScanBalt ExCo
We look forward to receiving your input at by 30 June 2020
For further information please contact sbforum2020@scanbalt.org
