Call for proposals on advancing the adoption of artificial intelligence in health (DI-g-24-76)

Opened

Programme Category

EU Competitive Programmes

Programme Name

EU4Health Programme 2021-2027

Programme Description

The Programme aims to improve and promote health in the Union to reduce the burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases by:

  • protecting people from serious cross-border health threats
  • improving the availability, accessibility and affordability of medicines, medical devices and other crisis-related products in the EU
  • strengthening national health systems
Programme Details

Identifier Code

EU4H-2024-PJ-03-6

Call

Call for proposals on advancing the adoption of artificial intelligence in health (DI-g-24-76)

Summary

The overarching objective of this project is to accelerate the safe deployment of AI systems in particular in clinical settings.

One project is expected to be funded under this call.

Detailed Call Description

The activities for this action should include the following actions:

a) the setting up and running of one or more communities of experts (e.g., healthcare professionals who have experience in using/implementing AI in clinical practice and hospital managers who have experience in implementing AI solutions in healthcare organisations) and relevant stakeholders (e.g., developers of AI or AI based products and services, and patients) for delving into the potentials and challenges concerning AI deployment in clinical practice. In this respect, this should provide proposals on how to ensure sustainability of this expert community beyond the end of the project;

b) the analysis and identification of the factors that lead to the successful and less successful deployment of AI in healthcare as well as challenges and obstacles, in collaboration with the expert community or communities mentioned under point a) and taking into account existing studies and projects. Two particular areas of interest that should be included are AI in cancer and AI in remote areas and medical deserts;

c) the preparation of good deployment practices for AI in healthcare, recommendations and guidelines tailored to the needs of the specific users/environments in healthcare to accelerate the safe and effective deployment of AI in clinical practice in collaboration with the expert community or communities mentioned under point a) and taking into account existing studies and projects. This could include, e.g., how to address the diverse performance of AI systems in diverse clinical environments beyond reasons attributed to training/validation data and how the system was technically developed; how to address issues related to AI interaction with clinical workflows; obstacles related to ethical issues of AI in healthcare, AI-physician collaboration and impact on the doctor-patient relationship, as well analysis of risk of bias and how to address it.

d) the design, development, and execution of pilots to test and evaluate in diverse real-life environments the expert community(ies)’s developed good deployment practices, guidelines and recommendations. As part of the pilots, to analyse how clinical practice is changing with the incorporation of AI systems. Based on the findings from the pilot projects to update, if needed, the proposed good AI deployment practices and other recommendations and guidelines;

e) the development of user friendly interactive digital tool(s) that allows for the collection and communication of AI solutions successfully deployed in different clinical settings. The tool(s) should provide information on how the AI solutions are deployed to identify appropriate and useful information that should be indicated within the digital tool(s) that would be developed. The aim of such digital tool(s) is to engage relevant stakeholders and to support the formation of communities (e.g., develop contacts and, to enhance collaborations between the experts or healthcare professionals who are using AI tools in clinical practice or who are interested to the uptake of AI in their medical domain, to bring together healthcare centres using AI as well as those interested to deploy AI, to connect developers of AI with users of AI and enable patients to obtain valuable information on AI uses in clinical practice). These tools should be continuously fed with new updated information by the members of the community and other AI users. In this respect, the beneficiary should provide a proposal on how this system could be best updated and how to ensure sustainability of this system beyond the end of the project;

f) the organisation of workshops and communication activities (e.g., knowledge translation and dissemination of evidence-based practice/outcomes) addressed to different stakeholders (e.g., AI developers and users, hospital managers, the general public, patients). As part of these activities, to identify successful examples of AI deployment in healthcare and to provide an overview of these concrete success stories/good practices. These successful examples of AI deployment in healthcare should be displayed or included in the interactive digital tool mentioned in point (e) above. The beneficiary shall also produce other material (e.g., briefs, online campaigns) to explain and promote the safe, successful and trustful use of artificial intelligence in health to the relevant stakeholders and public;

g) the provision of a summary of lessons learned and recommendations for potential policy measures that would contribute to accelerating the safe and effective deployment of AI in clinical practice.

Call Total Budget

€4.500.000

Thematic Categories

  • Education and training
  • Health
  • Research, Technological Development and Innovation

Eligibility for Participation

  • Associations
  • Businesses
  • Educational Institutions
  • Local Authorities
  • NGOs
  • Non Profit Organisations
  • Other Beneficiaries
  • Private Bodies
  • Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
  • State-owned Enterprises

Eligibility For Participation Notes

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:

  • be legal entities (public or private bodies)
  • be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
    • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)
    • eligible non-EU countries: listed EEA countries and countries associated to the EU4Health Programme (list of participating countries)

Other eligibility conditions:

  • academia and education establishments
  • research institutes
  • hospitals
  • expert networks including ERNs
  • civil society organisations: associations, foundations, NGOs and similar entities
  • enterprises (incl. social enterprises and not for profit) in the field of public health, private entities (for profit/not for profit), public authorities (public health, etc.).

Consortium composition:

  • Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least 3 applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities), which complies with the following conditions:
    • minimum 3 independent entities from 3 different eligible countries are foreseen for the topics.

Call Opening Date

17/09/2024

Call Closing Date

22/01/2025

National Contact Point(s)

Ministry of Health, Department of European Affairs

Ms MAKRIGIORGI Elena
Email: emakrigiorgi@moh.gov.cy

EU Contact Point

For help related to this call, please contact: hadea-hp-calls@ec.europa.eu