From prototype to pitch: How BRITE-EU fuels research careers
Europe’s future in digital health depends on its people, their skills, opportunities, and ability to thrive where they are most needed. Using a “twinning” logic, BRITE-EU fosters knowledge exchange between academia and industry to reverse the brain drain from Widening countries and build “interoperable” talent, researchers who can navigate both the laboratory and the commercial market. With this vision at its core, DEX Innovation Centre (DEX IC), based in Liberec, Czech Republic, leads BRITE-EU’s work on strengthening the scientific profile and research capacity of partner institutions. Two activities sit at the heart of this work: Joint research projects, connecting researchers from Widening and non-Widening countries around shared scientific challenges, and a mentorship programme pairing experienced researchers with early-career colleagues. Building bridges between researchers DEX IC sees this work not simply as a coordination task, but as an opportunity to create meaningful connections between researchers and institutions. As Adam Červenka, Project Manager at DEX IC, explains: “It is really about building bridges between people, not just institutions. When a researcher from a Widening country gets paired with an experienced mentor or joins a joint research project with a partner, they’d otherwise never meet, that’s where real capacity gets built, not just on paper, but in the way, people start working together.” Focus groups and interviews underway across all partner countries All partner countries are currently running focus groups and one-on-one interviews to map the needs, challenges, and opportunities shaping research careers and research and innovation (R&I) management in digital health. Portugal, Spain and Romania already held their focus groups, bringing together stakeholders from across their national Digital Health ecosystems, with more partner countries following soon! Each session explores topics such as skills and mentoring needs, barriers to collaboration between academia, industry, and healthcare, and recommendations for strengthening the local digital health R&I ecosystem. Contributions are treated confidentially and reported only in an aggregated way. Together, these conversations will help identify current needs, map existing expertise, and inform the design of the joint research projects and mentorship programme. Stay connected and follow BRITE-EU as it works to empower researchers, strengthen institutions, and shape the future of digital health R&I in Europe.
