HERA Industry days 2025

The European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) is the European Commission’s Executive Agency implementing EU funding programmes in the fields of health, food safety, digital, industry and space.

The European Innovation Council (EIC) is a flagship initiative of the European Commission striving to turn disruptive European science into groundbreaking commercial propositions and accelerate the scale- up of game-changing innovations.
With a budget of over EUR 10 billion under the Horizon Europe Programme (2021 – 2027), it seeks to position Europe as a global leader in the current wave of deep tech innovation. Support from idea generation by researchers through to their commercialisation and market entry by start-ups and SMEs is delivered through three core schemes:
■ the EIC Pathfinder for early-stage research on breakthrough / game-changing technologies
■ the EIC Transition for transforming research results into innovation opportunities
■ the EIC Accelerator for individual startups and SMEs to develop and scale-up breakthrough innovations through a unique mix of grant funding and direct investment through the EIC Fund.

GARDP showcases its efforts to address global public health priorities in antibiotic R&D and access.

Gavi is an international organisation – a global Vaccine Alliance, bringing together public and private sectors with the shared goal of saving lives and protecting people's health by increasing equitable and sustainable use of vaccines. Together, we have vaccinated over 1.1 billion children, saving 18.8 million lives. We forge strategic collaborations with private sector partners to extend immunisation protection to vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations in lower income countries by leveraging funding, expertise, and innovative technology. Gavi's partnerships address operational challenges and logistical complexities with advanced technology that supports Ministries of Health to advance access to immunisation.

Through its INFUSE platform, Gavi accelerates the integration and scale-up of high-impact technologies in frontline health systems. This force-multiplier effect enables the global deployment of life-saving vaccines while introducing disruptive capabilities such as:
Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) for last-mile resupply in hard-to-reach geographies
Sensors to safeguard cold chain integrity for temperature-sensitive high value vaccines
Artificial Intelligence to sharpen the accuracy of vaccine operations
Biometric solutions to establish secure, universal patient identification within the health system
 

Global Gateway is the European Union's strategy to boost smart, clean and secure connections in digital, energy and transport sectors, and to strengthen health, education and research systems across the world.

In health, Global Gateway is strengthening healthcare capacities around the world, helping us to overcome diseases such as COVID-19, malaria, yellow fever, tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS. 

It will prioritise the security of pharmaceutical supply chains and the development of local manufacturing. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the fragility of pharmaceutical supply chains and highlighted the wide discrepancy in medical manufacturing capacities around the world. Continents must be able to manufacture their own vaccines. Therefore, the EU is committed to preventing future health emergencies by strengthening capacities throughout the world.

But health issues extend beyond the pandemic. Thus, Global Gateway will also facilitate investment in infrastructure and the regulatory environment for the local production of medicine and medical technologies. This will help integrate fragmented markets and promote research and cross-border innovation in healthcare.

The Team Europe Initiative on Manufacturing and Access to Vaccines, Medicines and Health Technologies (‘MAV+’) is a flagship of the Global Gateway, aiming to facilitate access to quality, safe, effective and affordable health products as outlined in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal target 3.8. MAV+ offers a comprehensive, 360-degree approach to tackle the existing barriers and it facilitates the sustainable local manufacturing in Africa through 3 dimensions: supply side, demand side and enabling environment.

HERA was created to strengthen Europe’s ability to access medical countermeasures in case of a pandemic or other large-scale health threats. This implies identifying possible threats, assessing existing countermeasures and establishing stocks, or supporting the development of new ones. Additionally, HERA ensures that, if needed, we will have the capacity to produce medical countermeasures quicker and at scale. Through its cooperation in the EU and globally, HERA contributes to reinforce global health security, contributing to equal access to critical medical countermeasures throughout Europe and globally.

We are an EU public-private partnership funding health research and innovation. By leveraging the skills of a range of scientific fields - from pharmaceuticals and biotechnology to medical technology and big data - we fund projects that will address public health needs, improve patients' lives, and boost the competitiveness of Europe's health industries.

The HERA Stakeholders Hub is a secure and multifunctional platform designed to enhance collaboration across the European pharmaceutical sector. Open to businesses, national authorities, non-governmental organisations, and other key stakeholders, the Hub facilitates direct communication between participants, as well as with HERA, on medical countermeasures and pharmaceuticals, including critical medicines. Its ambition is to fill supply chain and medical countermeasures production gaps through facilitating cooperation among manufacturers, ultimately contributing to a stable and reliable security of supply of strategic medical resources in the EU.

The Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) was set up by the EU to support the European industry and boost investment in critical technologies in Europe. STEP raises and steers funding across 11 EU programmes to three target investment areas:

- Digital technologies and deep-tech innovation 
- Clean and resource-efficient technologies 
- Biotechnologies

STEP also supports projects growing the skills necessary to develop those critical technologies. STEP introduces a STEP Seal – an EU label for high quality projects granting STEP projects visibility and facilitating their access to other possible sources of funding.