University of Tartu part of European consortium tackling health and ageing issues
The University of Tartu has become a strategic partner in a consortium of higher education, business and research interests who aim to tackle social challenges across Europe through the pan-European group InnoLife, which focuses on health and ageing issues.
The winners of the 2014 Call for Knowledge and Innovation Communities proposals by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), will in total bring together more than 150 partners from more than 20 EU countries.
Vice Rector for Research at the University of Tartu, Marco Kirm, said the partnership recognizes the achievements of the researchers at the university, and proves their importance in the development of new health technologies.
“Participation in the work of InnoLife allows the researchers of the University of Tartu to implement their in-depth knowledge and skills together with the researchers and industry partners of other countries to tackle the challenges of health and ageing the human kind is facing,” Kirm said.
The University of Tartu’s focus in these areas is focused though the Estonian Genome Center, which is a member of InnoLife. InnoLife has more than 50 core partners and 90 associate partners across 14 EU countries. The EIT is putting together another group that will focus on the topic of raw materials as part of the call for proposals.
"The outstanding factor behind the decision was the potential of the winners to create innovations needed to address critical challenges for today’s societies,” said Martin Kern, EIT’s interim director.
The EIT will provide each of the winners with a start-up grant of up to 4 million EUR. The consortium is expected to become fully operational shortly after a seven-year framework partnership agreement is signed with the EIT in 2015.
Editor: S. Abel, S. Tambur