Impressions of an exciting day.
by Oliver Wolf.
Austrian Life Science Day 2024 with a focus on health data
On June 04th, the Austrian Life Science Day took place for the second time on behalf of aws (Life Science Austria) and FFG. This time the event was organized by the Styrian Life Science Cluster Human.technology Styria at the Medical University of Graz.
The focus was on one of the most important future topics for the life sciences, namely health data and its possible uses. Interest groups from medicine, research and business were able to exchange ideas intensively in presentations, panels, short lectures and B2B sessions.
“The life sciences and pharmaceutical industry not only generates innovation and added value in Austria, but also acts as a significant employer. Therefore, we have anchored life sciences as one of our key areas in both research and industrial policy and are continuously working closely with funding agencies and companies to further enhance its potential in Austria,” said Minister of Labour and Economic Affairs Martin Kocher.
“With the Austrian Life Science Day, LISA has now created a trend-setting event for the second time to actively promote networking and exchange within the life science industry. On behalf of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Economy, we have been supporting the life sciences for more than 20 years, primarily with our deep tech instruments Preseed and Seedfinancing. Both programs provide a total of EUR 19 million for the financing and consulting of life science start-ups for the period from 2024 to 2026,” says aws Managing Director Edeltraud Stiftinger.
“Following the successful last two years since the launch of the FFG’s Austrian Life Sciences program, a total of €45 million will be made available for the life sciences sector this year until the end of 2026. The program continues to support innovative and outstanding projects in medical device and pharmaceutical research, as well as Phase I and II clinical trials. It also supports collaborative flagship projects that integrate digital solutions in healthcare. The focus is on promoting health and prevention to increase the number of healthy years of life in the population overall,” said FFG Managing Director Henrietta Egerth.
“As a Styrian life science network, it is one of our tasks to promote and stimulate networking, know-how, and exchange with regard to new trends and innovations. We operate at the interface of research, business, and politics – and this is precisely where one of the most important topics of our time belongs: The secure use of health data is of central importance for the further development of the healthcare system, both here in Styria and throughout Europe. Therefore, we hosted the Austrian Life Science Day with pride and great pleasure – also because we were able to present some of Styria's flagship projects in this field to a large professional audience,” said Lejla Pock , Managing Director of Human.technology Styria, with satisfaction.
Milestone “European Health Data Space”
Comprehensive data on diseases, patients and treatment outcomes are required to develop new drugs and therapies. Although the potential of this data is particularly high in the health sector, it has so far been extremely difficult for everyone involved to obtain and use suitable data material. The introduction of the EHDS (European Health Data Space) represents significant progress towards improved healthcare and medical innovation in Europe. The emerging common European data space is of crucial importance for pharmaceutical, biotech and medical technology companies in Austria and throughout Europe.
Austrian Life Science Day a complete success for the second time
Health data also plays an important role in the development of medical devices in order to understand and optimize the needs of users and patients. They also support doctors’ decision-making and thus enable more efficient use of resources, which further improves patient care. In addition, health data forms the basis for scientific studies and research projects that investigate solutions to health challenges. Companies that specialize in the analysis and processing of health data make an indispensable contribution to sustainably supporting and continually improving health systems.
This year's keynote explained Finland's path as a pioneer in the use of health data within Europe. Start-ups such as aitologic, Predicting Health and NORGANOID presented themselves to an interested expert audience and gave insights into their visionary handling of health data. The projects here ranged from AI-supported solutions for early disease detection to AI-based predictions of disease progression to data-supported development and production of organoid models from stem cells.
The 2nd Austrian Life Science Day 2024 was organized by aws (Life Science Austria) and FFG in collaboration with the Styrian Life Science Cluster Human.technology Styria. The venue was the Medical University of Graz. The English-language event was supported by funds from the aws program LISA – International Location Marketing, the FFG, WKO, ICS as well as CANCOM Austria and Roche Diagnostics. In addition, LISAvienna, MTC Medical Technology Cluster, ecoplus. Lower Austria's Business Agency GmbH, Innovation Salzburg and the Life Sciences Cluster of the Tirol Event-Partner location agency.
Questions & Contact
Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH
Corporate Communications
Matthias Bishop
E: m.bischof@aws.at
T: + 43 1 501 75-375
LISA – Life Science Austria
Liesa Doppler
E: l.doppler@aws.at
T: + 43 1 501 75-396
Human.technology Styria
PR & Marketing
Eva Bucht
E: eva.bucht@human.technology.at
T: ++43 699 188 99 708