The Health Engineering Heaven toolbox created by the University of Lille, Centrale Lille, and the University Hospital (CHU) of Lille is an unprecedented system that brings together tools to facilitate and increase interdisciplinary research projects between engineering and health. The underlying goal is to spur the development of breakthrough deep tech innovations at the crossroads of health and engineering.
The first workshop, organised on 24 March 2022 on the university hospital campus in Lille, combined 3-minute pitches and BtoB meetings between health professionals and engineering researchers to establish collaborations around innovation projects. 14 research projects were presented covering topics such as diagnostics, transomics, therapy and artificial intelligence.
Bringing together more than 180 participants, the workshop is one of the concrete expressions of the collaborative dynamics between health and engineering inherent to the Lille site. It illustrates the synergies in place within the academic community, and pushes them to a larger scale. This workshop also marks the first stage in the construction of the “Health Engineering Heaven” toolbox launched in March 2022 by the three institutions, which is part of the “Engineering for Health in Lille” initiative of the Public Experimental Institution (EPE – Établissement Public Expérimental).
The toolbox is designed to encourage the emergence of new research and innovation projects for bottom-up breakthrough innovations, at the crossroads of Engineering and Health, to meet the needs of patients and clinicians. Bringing together all the site’s players in engineering and health, it is an essential link that connects the “Research, Training, Promotion” trio in the clinical/health and technology/engineering fields for Lille and its regional community.
It draws on the 6 engineering Grandes Ecoles, the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST), their research teams and their engineering training potential, as well as the health research teams from the Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport (UFR 3S) and clinicians, their platforms and technological facilities. The project covers the entire value chain from upstream research to innovation, including translational research, clinical trials and industrialisation issues.
“This collective adventure, which kicked off with the workshop on 24 March, marks the beginning of a phase in which our research collaborations will be stepped up. The next step will be to bring together all Lille’s players, firstly academic, then economic” explains Régis Bordet, President of the University of Lille.
Emmanuel Duflos, Managing Director of Centrale Lille states that “by reconciling health and engineering, we strengthen our ability to create innovations that benefit everyone and that meet pre-identified needs. The first step was to gather needs and encourage meetings between the parties; this is now under way. Moreover, these are subjects that are particularly important for Centrale Lille: we train general engineers to work on complex issues from a global perspective; in this respect, we share the same approach as an internal medicine health professional”.
To see the pitches given by health personnel and engineering researchers on 24 March 2022, go to: https://centralelille.fr/health-engineering-heaven/