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Table 2 Summary of the recommendations, details on the rationale, and suggestions for action points directed to the funding agencies and the actors in the field

From: Towards a European health research and innovation cloud (HRIC)

Recommendation

Rationale

Action points

Provide and foster standards, good practices, and guidelines necessary to establish the European Health Research and Innovation Cloud (HRIC)

The HRIC should be supported by predefined standards, data formats, protocols, and templates. The data standards and guidelines applied in the HRIC should be designed to facilitate interoperability between the diverse health systems and policies in Europe and globally

Suggest the adoption of data formats and architectures in policies, grant applications, and projects calls throughout the EU and its member states

Develop and certify the infrastructure and services required for operation of the HRIC

The HRIC should provide computational infrastructures and services and analytical and visualization tools to all users as a platform to share knowledge, data, and guidelines. Services for data sharing, security, and analysis should be compliant with an EU certification system

- In future grant and project calls related to the development of the HRIC, the EU and the applicants should commit to complying with the highest standards of security, interoperability, and reproducibility

- The EU should develop a certification system to validate compliance with the standards mentioned

Enable the HRIC to operate within an ethical and legal framework that is adequate for health systems

A robust ethical and legal framework has to be developed that defines rules for privacy, security, ownership, access, and usage of data within the HRIC. A federated system architecture should be preferred as it allows for comparison of data and results, while complying with EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and international data protection and sharing rules

- In grants and project calls, federated and GDPR-compliant data architectures should be preferred

Establish a proper environment for the training of a new generation of data and medical scientists

Education and training of health professionals need to be updated with the HRIC in mind, considering both international standards and practices for data sharing as well as national environments and regulations. The EU should take inspiration in existing large and successful infrastructures that foster multidisciplinary teams, such as the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN)

- Scientists and health professionals in training should be made aware of the possibilities of the HRIC

- Communication in relevant professional channels should be strengthened

Fund public and private initiatives for the development of the HRIC through EU Framework Programmes

(Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe)

The EU and its member states should, together with private investors, develop a coherent, ambitious, and long-term action plan supported by innovative funding mechanisms that consolidate the outcomes from the existing project portfolio into a long-term operational infrastructure

- The EU should invest through calls and grants in order to build and consolidate the HRIC

- The existing industrial ecosystem should be supported, to remain competitive against the other actors in the world