On the 24^th of January 2024, the MEDIC-NEST and BRIGHT projects officially closed their activities in a joint event for the two projects in Brussels.

While goodbyes are not always easy to say, every end sets a new starting point. On Wednesday the 24^th of January, the MEDIC-NEST and BRIGHT projects said farewell in a joint event in the premises of the CSIC (the Spanish Research Council) in Brussels.

These two sister (almost twin) projects have worked for the past two years in how cluster management organisations working in the life sciences and health sectors can support two of the most expected-to-be transformative topics, not only in healthcare but in society in general, namely: precision medicine (in the case of MEDIC-NEST) and digitalisation (in the case of BRIGHT).

The event, hosted an audience composed of cluster representatives, policy and project officers among others. To start, IMAGO-MOL and Biocat, as project coordinators of MEDIC-NEST and BRIGHT respectively, made the opening remarks, emphasizing the relevance of the joint cross-project efforts, such as those that helped the organisation of the event. The opening was followed by the presentation of the work that has been carried out in both projects. This was done by the different partners in them (i.e., the Hellenic BioCluster, MEDVIA, Leon Research/SIVI, Eurasanté, CHealth and STUNS Life Science) as well as the coordinators. The work carried out resulted in improved knowledge about the regions in which the clusters work, and what are the expectations of the stakeholders of each region, further training of the clusters’ staff, identification of good practices in other regions, new potential services to be implemented, and over 80 international exchanges facilitated by the work of the two consortia.

On a higher relevance note: THE FUTURE.

So, after the end of both projects, what comes next?

On the one hand, the plans of MEDIC-NEST have been clear from the very beginning of the project. The consortium has started a metacluster for precision medicine. During the event, the attendees, as well as the partners in both projects could participate in a workshop in which, over the base of the work performed in MEDIC-NEST, the actions of the metacluster were further defined. At the end of the event, the official signature of the agreement took place.

On the other hand, BRIGHT has developed a joint 5-year strategy based on 3 pillars: 1) aligned agendas leading to joint actions; 2) new projects that position the partners in line with EU policies; and 3) building a legacy for BRIGHT by expanding the network. These pillars have been developed in several action lines that include industry-specific challenges such as the secondary use of health data, health technology assessment, innovation procurement, etc., and that aim to be expanded to other potential partners, some of which have been previously identified.

As a concluding remark for both projects we will paraphrase Charles Kettering: our interest is in the future because people are going to spend the rest of their lives there.