About the project: 6 questions to better understand KAPPA-Health
1. What does KAPPA-Health mean?
KAPPA-Health means "Key Performance Factor Assessment and Valorisation for Successful EU-FP Project Participation of Innovative SMEs in the area of Health research".
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2. How is KAPPA-Health born?
In the European economy, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in biomedical sectors such as healthcare, biotechnology and medical technology are important contributors to competitiveness and growth. Despite the incredible potential of these SMEs to provide solutions for the cure of debilitating diseases and to improve citizens' quality of life, public and private funding for biomedical research and design is declining - a trend that could jeopardize efforts to develop improved treatments against life-threatening illnesses.
Although public funding by the European Union Framework Programmes accounts only for 4-5% of the total investment in R&D, the FP projects bring together the critical mass of stakeholders with the aim to improve the health of European citizens and to boost the European economy. In almost all cases, additional capital from other public sources, private investors or public-private partnerships is needed to bring biomedical discoveries towards the market.
That is how the overall objective of the EU-funded project KAPPA-Health is born, in order to enhance the competitiveness of European research by contributing to the creation of the most favourable support environment to SMEs and to accelerate the process of bringing new products/processes/services to the market.
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3. Who participate in KAPPA-Health's project?
The project includes 7 Participants. Five of them are SMEs. They provide complementary knowledge on Framework Programmes, managerial issues, financial market and awareness of the challenges that SMEs are facing in their perspective of achieving commercial success out of their research results.
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4. What is its mission?
The project will evaluate what makes a biomedical SME successful in terms of its participation in an FP6/FP7 EU co-funded research project and how this joint research can lead to successful commercialisation of the results.
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5. What are the objectives?
1. To contribute to the creation of the most favourable support environment for SMEs (by identifying and analysing the key factors, that make them successful in their EU Framework Programme research participation)
2. To cooperate with other related initiatives (such as National Contact Points, Financial Networks, Europe Enterprise Network, Cluster initiatives) to further support SMEs in the health sector
3. To help SMEs benefit from their participation in R&D projects, (valorise the results and advise them how to better access capital and additional private or public financing
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6. How will KAPPA-Health succeed?
Through survey and in-depth interview of biomedical SMEs participating in FP6 "Life sciences, genomics and biotechnology for health" and FP7 "Health" theme, the KAPPA-Health project participants will identify the major performance factors by considering quantitative elements such as the number of out-licensing/new products on the market and taking into account longer term qualitative impacts in terms of sustainable growth of companies and establishment of winning business strategies.
The identified success factors will be used as criteria to develop a methodology for the assessment and valorisation of project outcomes for SMEs. It will facilitate the evaluation of projects with more chance for success and help policy makers to define objectives and intermediate performance targets.
The KAPPA key success factors aim at becoming a "check-list" to take into account to better exploit the research resulting from EU Health research projects in the near future.
The check-list will be the core of a practical guide to be published in the coming months.
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