EIF and EIT Health sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to attract additional funding to the health and life science sector across Europe
The MoU will help both institutions to collaborate, share best practices and pursue new avenues to support innovation in the sector
The new collaboration will enable EIF and EIT Health to set-up a new Venture Centre of Excellence (VCOE) in the healthcare and life sciences sector

The European Investment Fund and EIT Health have signed a Memorandum of Understanding enabling cooperation between the two institutions to further support the sustainable growth of the European healthcare and life sciences enterprises. The MoU will enable both institutions to bring together their respective network of partners in order to attract private investment finance for companies in the sector.

The aim of the cooperation is to bring two worlds closer together: EIF, by bringing its extensive network of venture capital funds and their portfolio companies, and EIT Health, by sharing a network of best-in-class health research institutions and pharma or med-tech enterprises and their respective deal flow of start-ups. The new cooperation will help to attract more venture capital to the industry and enhance networking, market knowledge, strategic collaborations and the sharing of investment opportunities amongst the different industry players and venture capital funds.

During the signature event at the EIT Health Industry Partners’ Meeting in Amsterdam, Pier Luigi Gilibert, European Investment Fund Chief Executive, stated, “Europe is at the forefront of life sciences innovation in many domains but is faced with more limited availability of financing and a fragmented life science ecosystem. I am excited to be entering into a partnership with an institution like EIT Health with a vast partner network in Europe including the top tier research institutions, universities, pharma and med-tech companies. The cooperation agreement signed today will allow both EIF and EIT Health to help Europe’s start-ups, scale-ups and corporates in the healthcare and life science sector to collaborate better and identify together new opportunities for growth.”

Jan-Philipp Beck, Chief Executive Officer of EIT Health stated “At EIT Health we have created a fantastic eco-system that connects over 150 top players from across Europe representing excellence in health innovation. We are set up to deliver new innovations and contribute to the re-imagining of European healthcare systems for its long term sustainability. Connecting to the EIF, the largest investor in European life science venture capital and the sector’s most active limited partner with EUR 2bn in commitments, close to 100% market coverage and an annual volume of around EUR 300m, is a tremendous opportunity to mobilise the investment needed to scale.”

The new collaboration will enable EIF and EIT Health to develop the Venture Centre of Excellence (VCOE) - the first collaborative framework on a pan-European scale aimed at fostering relations between corporates from the pharma / med-tech sectors and managers of European life science VC funds. This is expected to increase the availability of venture capital to the industry and enhance networking, exchange of market knowledge, strategic collaborations and the sharing of investment opportunities amongst the different industry players.

Background information

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank group. Its central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them to access finance. EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments that specifically target this market segment. In this role, EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth, and employment.

For more information visit: https://www.eif.org/

EIT Health is a network of best-in-class health innovators with over 150 partners and is supported by the EIT, a body of the European Union. We collaborate across borders to deliver new solutions that can enable European citizens to live longer, healthier lives.

As Europeans tackle the challenge of increasing chronic diseases and multi-morbidity, and seek to realise the opportunities that technology offers to move beyond conventional approaches to treatment, prevention and healthy lifestyles, we need thought leaders, innovators and efficient ways to bring innovative healthcare solutions to market.

EIT Health addresses these needs. We connect all relevant healthcare players across European borders – making sure to include all sides of the “knowledge triangle”, so that innovation can happen at the intersection of research, education and business for the benefit of citizens.

EIT Health: Together for healthy lives in Europe.

For more information visit: www.eithealth.eu.