Reimagine the future of medicine: Junior Achievement to boost digital health and innovation through entrepreneurial hubs
Brussels, 28 September 2020
Junior Achievement and Novartis are embarking on a collaborative project in Europe to be piloted in Central and Eastern Europe, aimed at leveraging technology and “start-up” thinking in the medical field. By establishing a series of pre-accelerator hubs in digital health and innovation, we will generate a stronger ecosystem of innovators who will work to reimagine medicine as we know it.
One of the defining features of the future will be closer collaboration across sectors that have traditionally existed in separate and limited silos, and scaling-up local initiatives to regional and global level. Tremendous potential for innovation and progress awaits those who master the ability to work in a network-centric fashion, and we intend to lead the way.
We will pursue our aims by first carrying out a comprehensive ecosystem mapping initiative to discover and align the key players of our mission; working on mindset and cultural change within all partner organizations to stimulate open innovation; and finally, work to scale our efforts at the European level. JA and Novartis branches from the following countries participate in the project: Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Cyprus, Malta, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
The project will kick off with a pilot in Serbia, where we will test the ground and prototype our ideas, including the adaptation and implementation of a successful pre-accelerator programme from JA Bulgaria. We intend to communicate the developments of our initiative in real time, so keep an eye out for more news from us in the near future by visiting the project website:
https://beyondaccelerate.com/europe-expansion.html
“The current context has highlighted the need to accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship in the health sector, to find timely solutions to the challenges we face”, said Salvatore Nigro, CEO JA Europe. “Junior Achievement is thankful to Novartis for leading the way and believing in the need to invest in the skills and opportunities of the next generation of Europeans”, he added.
“The time is ideal to invest in educating young people for the development of health and health related entrepreneurship. The youth in Cyprus is very creative. What they need is to be challenged to grow and innovate more. JA is here to leverage health innovation in collaboration with Novartis.” Antigoni Komodiki, CEO JA Cyprus
About JA Europe
JA Europe is the largest non-profit in Europe dedicated to preparing young people for employment and entrepreneurship. JA Europe is a member of JA Worldwide, which for 100 years has delivered hands on, experiential learning in entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy. JA creates pathways for employability, job creation and financial success. Last school year, the JA network in Europe reached more than 4 million young people across 40 countries with the support of 140,000 business volunteers and 130,000 teachers/educators.
Contact:
JA Europe: Minna MELLERI, minna@jaeurope.org
About JA Cyprus
Junior Achievement Cyprus is a member of Junior Achievement Worldwide, the world’s largest non-profit organisation dedicated to addressing fundamental social and economic challenges of young people by educating and empowering them to transform their future and own their economic success. JA Cyprus was established in 2011 and, two years later, introduced the flagship Company Programme – endorsed as a best practice by the European Commission – in high schools across the island. Today, JA offers five educational programmes that target approximately 2500 students per year. JA Cyprus collaborates with JA Europe, the European Regional Operating Centre for JA Worldwide.
Contact:
JA Cyprus: info@jacyprus.org
