ELIXIR Innovation and SME Forum: AI in Health Research

Thu 13 April 2023
Villa Jongerius, Kanaalweg 64, Utrecht, 3527 KX, Netherlands
SME event banner

The Innovation and SME Forum is a one-day event that provides the platform for experts from the private and public sector who work on AI in the healthcare sector to discuss challenges and opportunities in health digitalisation and data-driven innovation.

This event contains a mix of high-level speakers, giving companies the chance to present technological advances in the field of AI for healthcare applications. The participants will have the chance to learn about Health-RI and ELIXIR resources and reach out to relevant networks from industry and academia.

Agenda

09.15 - 10.00

Registrations and welcome coffee

10.00 - 10.10

Introducing Health-RI, the mission and the work so far, and the connection with the European bioinformatics infrastructure, ELIXIR (Lincoln Zephyr room)

Speaker: Ruben Kok (Health-RI /ELIXIR-NL)

10.10- 10.30

What AI can bring to Health Innovation (Lincoln Zephyr room)

Speaker: Cor Veenman (TNO)

10.30- 11.30

Successes and struggles on accelerating the adoption of (AI) technology in Health and Life Sciences (Lincoln Zephyr room)

Topic: Stakeholders representing the whole value chain will set the scene for AI in health research. This will include SMEs with experience in working with larger organisations (public and private) and large organisations with experience or ambition towards engaging with SMEs, presenting bottlenecks and opportunities in working collaboratively.

Speakers:

  • Dennis van der Hoeff, IQVIA (Large enterprise perspective)
  • Ian Wachters, Roseman Labs (SME perspective)
  • Mercedes Tuin, BOM (Investor perspective)
  • Margrietha H. (Greet) Vink, ErasmusMC (Academic perspective)
11.30 - 12:00

Coffee break (Grand Café)

12.00 - 12.45

Panel discussion on how to improve the ecosystem (Lincoln Zephyr room)

Topic: Panel discussion and Q&A on how to improve the ecosystem, reduce struggles and boost innovation at the national and European levels, improve the incubation environment for AI in health research, what scares companies in the health sector and what good practices in the sector.

Speakers from the previous session and:

  • Gerty Holla, Amsterdam Economic Board
  • Pieter Jeekel, NL AIC
  • Leone Flikweert, Health RI
12:45 - 13.45

Lunch break

13.45 - 14.40

Flash talks from companies (Lincoln Zephyr room)

Topic: SME and start-up representatives will present their products and innovative activities in the healthcare sector, struggles and needs for partnerships.

Speakers:

5-min Wrap up of the day (Despoina Sousoni, ELIXIR Hub)

14.45 - 15.00

Short break

15.00 - 16.00

Roundtable discussions

Two rounds of 25' min discussions (participants will have the opportunity to join two tables)

Topic: Flash talk presenters will discuss with participants areas where building collaborations are essential for innovative achievements.

Speakers:

  • Syntho: Synthetic data and PETs at the startup level
  • Roseman Labs: Protecting privacy in data collaboration
  • Orikami: Using real world data for better clinical decisions
  • MRDM: Data availability & quality
  • Health RI: NLP for unstructured data
  • Soom Inc.: Collaboration between researchers and technology companies to advance healthcare knowledge
  • Knights Analytics: Challenges in matching and making use of siloed data sources
16:00 - 17:00

Networking drinks

Objectives of the day

  • Collect best practices and learn from established players
  • Understand the SME ecosystem
  • Put forward what is needed for innovation to thrive in Europe and The Netherlands
  • Stimulate collaboration between large and small organisations

Target audience

People chatting at the SME

Professionals from:

  • Large, medium and small enterprises
  • Funding bodies
  • Technology transfer and incubator offices
  • Nonprofit and public organisations
  • Patients’ and clinicians’ associations

With research interests in:

  • Health and life sciences
  • AI and ML services
  • Data management
  • Innovative services in the above areas

Representatives from SMEs, start-ups, or companies are welcome to express their interest in presenting their work in the flash talk session in the registration form. The speakers will have the opportunity to introduce their work in a five-minute talk and discuss in a one-hour round table format challenges and opportunities in building collaborations.

Travel and accommodation

  • Address: Kanaalweg 64, 3527 KX Utrecht (see the venue on a map)
  • Tel: (030) 2930945
  • Accommodation: Participants and speakers are expected to make their own accommodation arrangements. The recommended hotel is Hotel NH Utrecht, which is located 14 min walking distance from the venue.
  • Parking: free of charge, but limited parking spaces available on the premises of the venue and paid parking available at the Jaarbeurs parkings close by

Background

Since 2014
17
SME forums in...
12
European countries with over...
~1,000
participants from...
308 companies

ELIXIR is a distributed life science data infrastructure connecting 22 countries and over 220 of Europe's leading life science organisations. It coordinates, integrates and sustains hundreds of databases, software tools, interoperability resources, training and compute resources across its member states.

This research infrastructure manages and safeguards the increasing volume of data being generated by publicly funded research and enables users in academia and industry to access services vital to their research.

Programme Committee

Ian Wachters
“I hope this day, many SMEs and larger organisations get to know each other, connect and find opportunities to collaborate to develop better AI in healthcare."
- Ian Wachters, Commercial officer Roseman Labs and Advisor to start-ups
Roseman labs logo
Douwe Jippes
“It is time to start building a thriving healthcare ecosystem around artificial intelligence products and services."
- Douwe Jippes, Co-Founder and Managing Partner Healthy Capital
Health Capital logo
Merlijn van Rijswijk
“Company engagement and making data AI-ready are key activities for Health-RI. Therefore we are pleased to organise the SME Forum AI in Health Research together with ELIXIR."
- Merlijn van Rijswijk, Board secretary Health-RI, Manager DTL-Projects and Director NMC
Health RI logo

Partners

DTL
Life Science RI
ELIXIR Netherlands

Funded by

ELIXIR CONVERGE logo