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Following a first joint call for health technology (HealthTech) projects launched by Luxembourg's Ministry of the Economy, the Luxembourg National Research Fund (Fonds National de la Recherche - FNR) and Luxinnovation on 1 April 2021, four projects have been selected out of a total of eight submissions.
This joint call for projects focused on the use of digital tools and the power of data analysis to improve the prevention, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of diseases. It was aimed at stimulating collaborative research and development (R&D) projects in the form of public-private partnerships and providing financial support to companies and research and healthcare organisations that collaborate to assess the relevance of a technology, product or healthcare solution, its technological advantages and benefits for human health.
This is the first time in Luxembourg that such an initiative has been launched jointly by the Economy Ministry, the FNR and Luxinnovation.
The selection process, which took place in two phases, covered seventeen expressions of interest.
The four selected projects were:
- ViewMind, in partnership with the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH);
- IEE, in partnership with the LIH and the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (CHL);
- LuxAI, in partnership with the LIH;
- Meracle Health in partnership with the LIH and the CHL.
The total budget for these four projects is estimated at €6.1 million. An overall co-financing of about €4.5 million comes from the Ministry of the Economy and the FNR, covering almost 75% of the total cost of the projects.
The overall contribution of the FNR is €2.8 million and that of the Ministry of the Economy is €1.75 million. The remaining costs are covered by the companies' or research organisations' own funds.
Luxembourg's Minister of the Economy, Franz Fayot, commented: "This joint call for projects is part of the economic diversification strategy to further develop the health technology sector which is driven by innovation, resilience and competitiveness".
Such calls for projects in the field of health technologies facilitate companies' access to hospital or public research partnerships. This provides them with the opportunity to technically and clinically validate their medical products at the prototype stage, before envisaging a market launch. This approach has the double advantage of speeding up companies' development of products that are better adapted to patients' needs and of making it possible for patients and health professionals to benefit earlier from the latest medical innovations, even before they are available on the market.
The joint call allowed the team of the pharmacy and medicines division of the Health Directorate to prepare the implementation of a regulatory framework conducive to business-led innovation in Luxembourg. This is expected to speed up access for Luxembourg patients to innovative, safe and effective digital health medical devices.
"FNR's strategy is to promote collaboration between public research institutions, companies and health sector stakeholders around research and innovation projects aimed at accelerating the digital transformation in the health sector", explained Marc Schiltz, CEO of the FNR.
"Within the context of these public-private partnerships, the Luxinnovation team focuses especially on following up the project ideas submitted. In particular, we work on bringing together the various public and private partners interested in participating. In this way, we are activating a key lever for innovation in our country", added Sasha Baillie, CEO of Luxinnovation.
In view of the success of this first call for projects, similar joint calls are planned, notably in the fields of defence and high-performance computing (HPC), as well as a new call for health technologies.
Summary of co-funded projects
ViewMind (in partnership with the LIH): ViewMind is an Argentine company that graduated from the Fit 4 Start acceleration programme (managed by Luxinnovation and the Ministry of the Economy). Its "DigiCog" project aims to clinically validate a non-invasive technology based on artificial intelligence for neurocognitive assessments based on eye tracking of movements in response to visual stimuli. The objective is to identify which patients among those suffering from long-COVID syndrome have neurocognitive deficiencies. Budget: €1.36 million.
IEE (in partnership with the LIH and the CHL): Originally a world leader in the field of detection and safety systems in the automotive sector, IEE is diversifying into the medical sector. Its "GAIT & Activity Monitoring Solution for Patients with Orthopaedic Conditions" project, which will be carried out in collaboration with the LIH and the CHL, seeks to validate a wearable device for the day-to-day monitoring of patients suffering from orthopaedic conditions in real-life conditions before, during and after their rehabilitation period. Budget: €1.529 million.
LuxAI (in partnership with the LIH): LuxAI is a spin-off of the University of Luxembourg, which graduated from the Fit 4 Start acceleration programme. The company has developed a social robot, "QTrobot", to support home therapy for autistic children. The research project focuses on the validation of an early intervention delivered by this robot as a new digital therapeutic approach based on specific teaching, training and evaluation modules. To validate the clinical effectiveness of the solution, LuxAI and the LIH will conduct a large-scale, long-term, multinational clinical study. In addition, a new software module will be developed to evaluate the interaction data collected by the robot during therapy sessions. Budget: €1.868 million.
Meracle Health (in partnership with the LIH and the CHL): Meracle Health is a spin-off from the National University of Singapore and a graduate of the Fit 4 Start accelerator programme. It has developed "Whizz", an intuitive solution to improve the daily management of chronic respiratory conditions. The clinical validation project, carried out with the LIH and the CHL, will pave the way for the European certification of the device and will also advance the scientific understanding of asthma. Budget: €1.346 million.
