The major key points are:
- The European Health and Digital Agency (HaDEA) was set up with the aim to reduce the administrative burden of European funding programmes, as well as to take care of the roll-out and management of their annual work programmes.
- The new Agency will execute these tasks on behalf of the European Commission and publish funding opportunities, including calls for proposals and calls for tenders on its new dedicated website.
- More specifically, the HaDEA will publish calls for the rollout of the following programmes in which it will have a managing and monitoring role:
1. EU4Health programme (€5,1 billion);
2. Horizon Europe: Pillar II, Cluster 1: Health (€5,4 billion) as well as Cluster 4: Digital, Industry and Space (€6,1 billion);
3. The Better Training for Safer Food (BTSF) initiative part of Single Market Programme (€1,3 billion);
4. The Digital Europe Programme (€0,8 billion); and
5. Connecting Europe Facility: The Telecom part (€1,7 billion).
- The Agency is headed by a Steering Committee composed of Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) staff and DGs for Research and Innovation (RTD), for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (CNECT), for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (GROW) and for Defence Industry and Space (DEFIS).
- Matthew Hudson, Director of Resource management and better regulation in DG SANTE, will serve as interim Director and will be supervising three departments as described on the HaDEA Organisational Chart.
- The HaDEA will start with around 280 staff members, and is expected to grow to more than 500 by 2027.
Analysis:
- The fact that a separate agency is created to manage the funding of EU health projects alone reflects the important total investment of €20 billion for the seven-year period in which the EU will be dedicated to building a stronger Health Union.
- Given the Agency is charged with the implementation of a number of important EU financial programmes adopted by the EU concerning health it is expected to introduce more structured cooperation between beneficiaries and contractors to deliver on projects strengthening the resilience of health systems and promote medical innovation and digital transformation.
