Bridging EU Initiatives: How smartHEALTH connects Health Innovators to other available EU support mechanisms and tools
Beyond its core technical (Test Before Invest) and digital skills services, smartHEALTH has developed a distinctive ecosystem and access-to-capital support model by drawing on the wider capabilities of its partner network. Through close collaboration with the Enterprise Europe Network – Hellas (EEN Hellas), the Horizon Europe National Contact Points (NCPs) — in particular the European Innovation Council (EIC) NCP — and the EuroCC@Greece national competence centre for High-Performance Computing, smartHEALTH offers its clients a holistic support journey that extends well beyond technical consultation.
Key Information
Collaboration Partners: Enterprise Europe Network – Hellas (EEN Hellas), Horizon Europe National Contact Points — EIC, ERC, MSCA — and EuroCC@Greece
Coordinated through: PRAXI Network / FORTH
Focus Area: Holistic access-to-capital, internationalisation and HPC awareness for health-tech SMEs and startups
Impact: Virtually every company that received smartHEALTH networking and access-to-capital support also benefited from EEN services, while a large number of them received dedicated EIC guidance toward Horizon Europe funding opportunities.
Seamless Signposting, Shared Expertise
A health-tech company approaching smartHEALTH for support rarely has just one need. A startup developing an advanced medical technology, for instance, may require technical validation, but also needs access to international partners, guidance on EU funding, and awareness of high-performance computing resources that can accelerate its R&D. Rather than referring companies elsewhere and losing sight of them, smartHEALTH ensures that these services reach its clients through coordinated, joint support.
Signposting between smartHEALTH, EEN Hellas and the NCPs happens in all directions. A company first encountered through EEN may be introduced to smartHEALTH for specialised digital health expertise, while a smartHEALTH client with strong commercialisation potential may be guided toward EIC Accelerator or Pathfinder funding through the EIC NCP. Joint consulting sessions and backend team collaboration ensure that companies experience a single, coherent support journey — not a series of disconnected referrals. This happens seamlessly with most of the above being hosted by and ran by PRAXI Network, FORTH’s technology transfer structure.
The Synergy in Practice
A recent case illustrates how these instruments come together around a single company. A Greek deep-tech startup developing advanced sensor and imaging technologies for the health sector approached smartHEALTH for support. What followed was a multi-layered engagement that drew simultaneously on all three pillars of the ecosystem.
Through EEN Hellas, the company was introduced to targeted B2B matchmaking opportunities at major international health events — including brokerage events alongside leading European health conferences and trade fairs — and was connected with a prospective technology partner abroad through the EEN partnership database. In parallel, the smartHEALTH team provided hands-on coaching and mentoring to strengthen the company’s investor readiness: developing pitch materials, advising on valuation, and supporting its legal and intellectual property positioning as it prepared to spin off and enter new markets.
At the same time, the EIC National Contact Point guided the company toward relevant European funding instruments — including the EIC Pre-Accelerator programme and collaborative R&D calls — while ensuring that its proposal strategy was aligned with current Horizon Europe priorities. The company was also informed of national accelerator programmes and private investment opportunities, from angel investment summits to corporate innovation challenges in the health sector. All of this was delivered not as separate, siloed services, but as a single coordinated journey managed by teams that share the same institutional home.
The EIC National Contact Point: From Innovation to Investment
Health innovation companies supported through smartHEALTH often develop technologies with significant market potential, yet face the well-documented “valley of death” between research and commercialisation. The EIC NCP, hosted by PRAXI Network alongside smartHEALTH and EEN, bridges this gap by guiding companies toward EIC Accelerator and Pathfinder opportunities, providing tailored advice on proposal preparation, and helping innovators position their work within the broader Horizon Europe landscape.
The collaboration extends in three directions: the EIC NCP has guided smartHEALTH-supported SMEs toward EIC funding instruments; joint information events have brought funding awareness directly to the digital health community; and insights from the NCP team continuously inform smartHEALTH’s own “Support to Find Investments” service, ensuring that the guidance companies receive is aligned with the latest European funding priorities.
“When a health innovation company comes to us through smartHEALTH, we don’t just point them to a funding call — we work with them to build a credible path from concept to investment. The fact that EIC support, EEN internationalisation services and smartHEALTH’s digital health expertise all operate under one roof means we can offer something most ecosystems cannot: a truly integrated journey from innovation to market.” — Dr. Maria Christina Cheimonidi, EIC National Contact Point, PRAXI Network / FORTH
Connecting the Health Ecosystem to High-Performance Computing
smartHEALTH has also built a productive collaboration with EuroCC@Greece, the national competence centre for High-Performance Computing, by virtue of having a number of organizations in partner and coordination roles in both HPC is increasingly critical for health applications — from genomic analysis and drug discovery to medical imaging and AI model training — yet many health-tech SMEs remain unaware of the resources available to them.
Through co-organised workshops — including interactive sessions on how HPC can transform healthcare businesses — and through EuroCC@Greece’s participation in the smartHEALTH Annual Forum with a dedicated roundtable on HPC as a growth driver for the healthcare sector, smartHEALTH has facilitated direct engagement between its client companies and the national HPC infrastructure. This collaboration ensures that the digital transformation support smartHEALTH provides is not limited to software and AI, but extends to the computational backbone that makes advanced health applications possible.
Looking Ahead
This collaborative model continues to evolve. The Venture Launchpad 2026 took place in June and was co-organised with key ecosystem partners in the early stage investment sphere. It brought together health-tech innovators together with investors, industry partners and European funding experts — a tangible expression of the integrated support approach that smartHEALTH has cultivated. At the same time, the second iteration of smartHEALTH aims to deepen and expand this model further by way of collaborations with PHAROS, the Greek AI factory, TEF Health and many more cornerstone European initiatives, building on the proven synergies to serve even more companies across Greece and Europe.
The smartHEALTH experience demonstrates that when innovation support instruments work together rather than in parallel, the result is greater than the sum of its parts — and health-tech companies are the first to benefit.
