The Galician Health Knowledge Agency will lead the European Hercules project

Santiago de Compostela, 3 February 2024

The Galician Health Knowledge Agency (ACIS), an organization under the Ministry of Health, will lead the HERCULES project, within the Interreg Europe interregional cooperation programme, for a period of three years, and a budget of €1.6 million.

ACIS, as project leader, will have the cooperation and participation of various European partners to achieve the proposed objectives for up to six countries: University of Twente (Netherlands), Attica Regional Development Fund (Greece), Aarhus Municipality (Denmark), Västerbotten Region (Sweden), Emilia Region – Romania (Italy), and St. Jadwiga Hospital in Silesia in Trzebnica (Poland).

It should be noted that in 2019, more than a fifth of the EU population was aged 65 or over, and projections indicate that the proportion of people aged 80 or over will double. On the other hand, the Covid crisis has shown the importance of innovations that can undoubtedly help transform health systems into a more proactive, preventive and personalized process.

The HERCULES project aims to develop a strategic plan at European level for the dissemination of solutions that address this problem in the healthcare environment, based on an analysis of vulnerabilities, resources and capacities in the regions concerned. In this way, the participation of all agents of the five-pointed helix (citizens, regional authorities, companies, investors and academia) will be sought.

References in European innovation

Hercules continues the long history of European innovation projects in the field of health. The year 2023 ended with the conclusion of two groundbreaking projects in the Covid field such as TITTAN (1.7 million euros) and in personalized medicine REGIONS4PERMED (1.6 million euros). Currently, five European projects are being implemented with a budget exceeding €25 million, including: PROCURE4HEALTH to create a European Public Procurement Network for Health Innovation (€5 million); CIRCE for the transfer and implementation of good practices in primary care (€12.2 million); INVEST4HEALTH which seeks new financing models for health systems (€5.5 million); INNOV4LIFE to create a cross-border ecosystem for collaborative innovation in health (€2.3 million); and TRANSFIRESAÚDE, which aims to strengthen the integration of the European regional health R&D and innovation ecosystem (€2.5 million). In addition, Galicia has been a European benchmark by the European Commission in the development and adoption of innovative practices for active and healthy aging since 2023, receiving the highest 4-star award in 2019 and re-verifying the highest score in the latest edition of 2022.