For our first ecosystem of the month of 2022 we are really pleased to feature our Ecosystem from West Hungary which is an experienced Ecosystem at both collaboration with many of our ECHAlliance ecosystems around the globe as well as with European Funding programmes.
Andy Bleaden, the ECHAlliance’s Communities Director, said: “I was delighted when Balázs agreed to join the ECHAlliance as a member and as our first ever Hungarian Ecosystem.”
Check out our interview with Balázs Barta, Managing Director at Pannon Business Network Association (PBN), and find out more about the ecosystem’s stakeholders, top champions, key priorities and more!
What is the approximate stakeholder breakdown of your ecosystem?
Our ecosystem, Szombathely2030, consists of the classical quadruple helix partners, representing local government, universities, the chamber of commerce, industrial partner organizations, business intermediaries and a digital innovation hub.
We are extremely proud to have recently signed a formal agreement not just by our ecosystem members, but also by representatives of the Enrich USA programme, aiming at ecosystem cooperation support between Europe and the United States.
Who are the top 5 champions from your Ecosystem?
- MAM Ltd.: a global company specialized on pacifiers, baby bottles and breastfeeding.
- Ivy Technology Ltd: a multinational company, focusing on electronics repair, among others health monitor devices
- Egis Plc.: a Hungarian-based global pharmaceutical company.
- Schott Hungary Ltd.: a large international company focusing on the pharmaceutical industry.
- am-LAB: the digital innovation hub, being awarded in January 2021 as DIH of the year in Europe.
What EU funding/collaboration are you involved with, or you would like to be part of?
Being a recipient of EU funding is one of the strengths of our ecosystem. The program was developed under the framework of the Intelligent City Challenge of the European Commission. Later the improvement was supported by the Thematic Platform of the Interreg Europe programme, involving 5 advanced regions from Europe focusing on the health sector.
Multiple elements are funded by Interreg Central Europe, the Austrian-Hungarian border programme and Interreg Europe. Some of our initiatives were kicked off within Horizon funding and structural funds of the national programme.
What are the key priorities and themes for your ecosystem?
Our main objective is to facilitate job creation in the healthcare sector via reinforcing research and education activities in the care domain, which contributes to the diversification of the economy that is currently and dominantly automotive driven.
Within the care sector, our focus is rehabilitation, based on the local thermal water-related strong rehabilitation infrastructure, the regional stroke center and the relevant education of the medical university. We aim to combine these with robotics skills.
What is your primary strength as an ecosystem?
We offer care and rehabilitation-oriented test and experimentation capacity for product development and validation combined with a globally competitive working culture.
Over 1 million outpatient traffic in the regional hospital specialized on stroke treatment, 1.5 million guest nights in the thermal water oriented facilities, a digital innovation hub with over 30 applied research at digital technologies and a competitive labour force compose our portfolio.
Being strongly connected to European and national funding schemes and a presence of global companies are also integral parts of our unique positioning.
6. Who are your clinical champions, either hospital, clinicians and specialties?
- The University of Pécs Faculty of Health Sciences is dedicated to rehabilitation education for care providers, through which nurses are trained in digital skills.
- Pálos Károly Social Care Services focuses on senior care, both in inpatient and outpatient forms. Dementia, post-surgery rehabilitation and senior homes are in the service portfolio of the organization, which also services over 500 senior households.
- The Markusovszky University Teaching Hospital has 1.673 beds, 34 different inpatient hospital wards, 53 different outpatient clinics and 2.000 employees.
