Health Hackfest 2014 in Brussels Taps into EU Funding Intel for Over Ten Billion Euro

BRUSSELS - April 16, 2014 - PRLog -- BRUSSELS, BELGIUM Wednesday, April 16th, 2014 - The "Health Hackfest" hackathon, slated to run in Brussels over two days (June 4-5, 2014), has been created for software developers, hardware hackers, designers, researchers, entrepreneurs, business developers and healthcare professionals who want to have an impact by helping to create future solutions for Healthcare.

Please see http://the-hackfest.com/events/health-hackfest-brussels-2014.html for more information.

By tapping into API's and SDK's made available by health technology companies currently seeking to build developer communities and well over a hundred publically available APIs, developers can work together with participants with other to cultivate new ways of tackling old problems and brainstorming over two days to build new friendships, create new networks and most importantly, design new products and services - as well as win prizes and present to a jury of industry leaders.

"With key figures who hold the purse strings to over €10 billion euro of health funding from the EU Horizon 2020 programme at our partner event - the World Research and Innovation Congress for Health in Brussels, the Health Hackfest 2014 is an amazing opportunity for both sponsors and participants alike to gain knowledge and build networks with organisations and people who have been slated to deliver massive investment into health innovation in Europe over the next six years," said Richard Kastelein an organiser of Health Hackfest.

"This is part of the largest ever government fund for innovation the world has ever seen at €80 billion euro called Horizon 2020," he added. "Funding is not restricted to European companies, and consortiums with participants from around the world are welcome to tap into the monies being made available."

Organisations attending the parallel event on the same days and in the same venue - WRIC Health - will bridge both academia and commercial and with the core tenet of Horizon 2020 focussing on SME participation, this is a perfect opportunity to build new bridges and networks for all involved.

The bulk of the funding being made available from the EU at WRIC Health is slated for non-drug research, but rather - for software and hardware solutions - as technology plays a pivotal role in the new Horizon 2020 framework.

Health Hackfest in Brussels was created to help tackle serious issues emerging around the European health care industry. By creating a short-term brainstorming event which brings together groups of people from various professions to work together in driving innovation in a juried contest we reward the best ideas with prizes - setting the stage for future development of projects into the future.

Approximately a tenth of the EU's GDP is spent on healthcare and over 15 million people are employed in Europe in this sector.

The sustainability of European healthcare systems is under threat - the ageing of the European population, the prevalence of chronic disease and a need to focus on wellness and preventative health management, in parallel with treatment of disease, pose significant social and economic challenges.

The aim of Health Hackfest 2014 is to stimulate ideas that deal with both preventative health management as well as seeking new technology solutions in the form of applications that help those dealing with health issues deal with their illness more effectively.

Health Hackfest was created to help fill the void where long terms R&D programmes, which used to provide the seeds for health solutions have been eliminated and provide a bridge to constructing new start-ups for ideas that are born in Europe, stay in Europe - and are commercialised in the EU first, then migrated overseas.

Focused on pioneering healthcare's greatest innovations, Health Hackfest will be unique as we will be partnering with leading European health organisations and sponsors to accelerate breakthrough ideas developed over the course of the two days to turn ideas into sustainable solutions we hope will be piloted following the event.