EUR 1.6 billion for Healthy Ageing

Lueneburg/Dublin (ots) - Leuphana University Lueneburg will apply
for an EU Innovation Project, with an investment volume of up to EUR
1.6 billion - Big Data revolution in Healthcare through focused
European collaboration in the most promising application areas -
Strong partnerships with the University Medical Center Goettingen
and the University of Zurich as well as the Republic of Malta, Sclavo
Vaccines Association of Italy and ICHOM, among others.

The University of Lueneburg, Germany, continues to exert great
strides in the field of research-based innovation and business
development. It intends to forge close collaboration with the
European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a European
Union (EU) institution. This will address the challenges and
opportunities of progressive ageing of the population, due to
increasing life expectancy in Europe: a girl born in Germany today is
expected to live a life of 102 years. A large-scale EU project to
promote knowledge-based innovation, entitled "Healthy Living and
Active Ageing," will unlock the economic growth potential of
demographic change and allow people to lead an active life well into
old age. Up to EUR 400 million will be provided by the EU for this
purpose starting in 2014, an additional EUR 1.200 million will be
invested through complementary financing. With these funds, the
consortium aims to build a market with a primary turnover of EUR 210
billion over seven years.

"We are at the beginning of a revolution in health care, in which
all stakeholders in the health care system are competing to improve
the results that matter most to patients", says Harvard University's
Michael Porter, co-founder of ICHOM, which is a partner in the
competition. "The enormous value to European societies will primarily
be unlocked through the efficient and effective use of 'Big Data' to
boost innovation in education, research and business in Europe. To
jointly pursue this objective, a select group of highly respected
partners have teamed up." adds Holm Keller, Executive Vice President
at Leuphana University and in charge for the project.

The Leuphana-lead international consortium consists of the
Republic of Malta with its relevant national agencies, ICHOM
(International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement) and its
shareholders Karolinska Institutet and Boston Consulting Group, among
others, Sclavo Vaccines Association of Italy with the Novartis
Vaccines Institute for Global Health and its European network of
research institutions, the University Medical Center of Goettingen as
well as the University of Zurich's Research Priority Program URPP
Dynamics of Healthy Aging, the Coburg Geriatric Clinic and the BioCon
Valley network for life sciences with its Northern European
partner-network ScanBalt.

The Honourable Dr. Joseph Muscat, Prime Minister of Malta, states
that "the Maltese government fully supports this Knowledge and
Innovation Community initiative which is being spearheaded by
Leuphana University, having as its local coordinating entity the
Malta Council for Science and Technology".

The project will be unveiled by the partners on April 29th, on the
occasion of an EIT conference in Dublin, Ireland.

For more information and details click here:
http://kic.leuphana.com

Contact:
Henning Zühlsdorff, PR Officer
Fon +49 4131 677-1007
email: henning.zuehlsdorff@leuphana.de