GATEKEEPER Open Call
Second initiative
The second GATEKEEPER Open Call, which focused on integrating new pilots, concluded with significant achievements. With over 500 pre-registrations, 64 proposals were submitted, out of which 59 were deemed eligible for evaluation. Participants from 16 countries contributed to this call, highlighting its international reach and impact.
The geographical distribution of the received proposals reflected the diversity and international scope of our project. From Spain to Hungary, including countries such as Italy, Greece, the UK, and many more within the European Union, significant contributions were received from various parts of the continent. This broad participation demonstrated the global commitment of GATEKEEPER and its ability to bring together diverse entities and stakeholders in the pursuit of innovative solutions.
We are pleased to highlight the diversity of participating entities in this Open Call, ranging from emerging startups to established academic institutions, and from established companies to non-profit organizations. This variety enriched our innovation ecosystem and reinforced our commitment to open collaboration and diverse perspectives.
We extend our gratitude to all participants for their interest and dedication to our second Open Call. Through rigorous evaluation conducted by our team, 6 winning proposals were selected from among the eligible submissions. These 6 winning entities, along with a total of 15 entities, will now be considered for funding and integration into the GATEKEEPER project.
The engagement of 93 entities in this Open Call underscores the collaborative spirit and enthusiasm surrounding our project. We are excited about the diverse perspectives and innovative ideas that these entities bring to the table, further enriching our ecosystem of innovation.
Having completed the evaluation, we are pleased to inform the top 6 list to be candidate for funding and incorporation into the GATEKEEPER project:
Lead Organization Name: Instituto Tecnológico de Aragón -ITAINNOVA
The consortium applying to the call is composed of Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Aragón (IIS) (involving Hospital demand) and Instituto Tecnológico de Aragón (ITAINNOVA) (involving technological supply). IIS, and in particular the Translational research in digestive pathology group, knows the clinical context, has the information and raises the clinical problem to be mitigated and addressed of 7 Spanish clinical regions. ITAINNOVA, and in particular the Big Data and Cognitive Systems department, is in charge of offering its technical and technological knowledge with the aim of obtaining value from the data and offering a solution to the problem.
Project: GastricAITool
Gastric cancer (GC) represents a serious health burden worldwide, both because of its high incidence (5th most frequent neoplasm) and its poor prognosis. In Spain, it represents the 5th cause of cancer-related deaths. It is also expected to worsen due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced a slowdown in health systems and whose consequences will be severe in the coming years. This poor prognosis has meant that one of the main aspects of GC research has focused on the study of new strategies for prevention and early diagnosis of the disease. GC is a complex and multifactorial disease resulting from the interaction between clinical, demographic, environmental (dietary habits, smoking), Helicobacter pylori infection and host genetic factors. The study of the influence and association of all these factors with GC risk and prognosis is an area that needs to be explored. In particular, the remarkable advances in both the analysis and
understanding of the human genome have stimulated research into the role of genetic susceptibility in cancer development. The main objective of the proposal is to develop and deploy an innovative diagnostic and prognostic tool for GC built on big data technologies and personalised in GATEKEEPER infrastructure that helps the clinician to take critical decisions and detect risks about patients in an specific moment, based on the information available at this specific time and on an advanced health monitoring based on historical data. This tool will allow the development of more personalised follow-up strategies, early intervention to avoid risks or early interventions and therapeutic action and, as a consequence, improve the healthcare system. The implementation of this tool as a GC prevention strategy in the National Health System (NHS) would allow the inclusion of a rapid, non-invasive, low-risk and cost-effective method that, in addition to prevent/mitigate cancer risks, would reduce costs, time, personnel and use of equipment in the diagnosis and follow-up of GC patients, ultimately improving the health system.
Lead Organization Name: National Center for Scientific Research Demokritos
The National Centre for Scientific Research «Demokritos» (NCSRD)is a self- governing research organization, under the supervision of the Greek Government. With a staff of over 700, including 100 post-graduate students and over 300 research associates, NCSRD is the biggest research centre in applied sciences and engineering in Greece.
Project: Intelligent toolkit for ageing@home - iwelli4ageing
There is a growing amount of heterogeneous data in the healthcare industry like the data stored in Electronic Health Records (medical history, claims, MRIs, notes etc) and in personal health records (notes, vital signs, video etc) to mention but a few. This has made inevitable the adoption of big data management techniques to improve the quality of healthcare delivery providing in parallel more secure techniques for cloud-based services and sensitive healthcare datasets. The med.iwelli.com platform enables doctors to store heterogeneous data (vital signs from their patients, documents, pictures like MRI, photos of medical exams, document file types such as pdf, textual content like the medical history of the patient, financial records, audio files and many others). The mydata.iwelli.com is a personal health record that allows patients to upload their health data. The EHR med.iwelli.com and the PHR mydata.iwelli.com ecosystem of cloud platforms are supported by Android iWelli Apps that provide voice call, video call and instant messaging between patients and doctors. Within the realm of the iwelli4ageing project we aim to extend the services we offer to our clients with the Gatekeeper platform and: Simplify the implementation of IoT services for our clients utilizing the Gatekeeper platform Set up a more complex ecosystem of services in the med.iwelli.com platform to enhance the diagnostic, prevention and disease management capabilities for multimorbidity patients with cardiac diseases. Set up an open-source plugin (Info-button tool) that augments electronic records (EHRs, PHR) with intelligent search engines capabilities able to index and look through specific domain knowledge to guide the optimal treatment and support of multimorbidity patients. We expect the proposed experimentation to prove that applying open-source IoT platforms as the Gatekeeper one can lead to better prevention and chronic disease management services.
Lead Organization Name: i-Deal
i-Deal Srl is a SME with an organization with 7 employees and collaborators. The sum of its capital and reserves amounts to 345.000 Euros. The evaluation of the company is >1.6 million Euros, based on the last private investment received in July 2021. Its business area encompasses the development of applications based on human anthropometrics collection and exploitation, supported by AI, for medial, fitness and protective workwear (security, fire workers, police, oil & gas, etc..). With 4 past EC funded projects and 2 running ones i-Deal can grant a professional and effective research and innovation activity, In previous business experiences.
Project: CONCERTO - teChnologies fOr chroNiC disEases Related To Obesity
Technology has always been the foundation of the healthcare industry, nevertheless data collection is burdened with disparate legacy system and lack of effective data interoperability, that affect the boosting of AI-powered analytics in the healthcare practices. Starting from the specific domain of clinical practice CONCERTO will break the data silos by means of a transversal data management approach, where collected personal data will be anonymized to create a set of raw data accessible by dedicated APIs by any interested third-party, by means of an open-data CB. CONCERTO will implement a web data-based service starting form 2 clinical validated technologies: SizeYou (algorithms for the self-collection of body measures and anthropometric data by mobile) and Bodygram (technology for the interpretation and reporting of body composition data based on bioimpedance analysis) for a more and precise body composition screening in chronic diseased population and an early diagnosis of alteration. Starting from the most evident: obesity and overweight a correct use of preventive care may be of help in avoiding different kind of complications (diabetes, heart diseases and hypertension). The matching of these 2 promising technologies can empower screenings and diagnosis, monitoring, self-monitoring, and treatment coordination thanks to user-friendly applications addressed to both healthcare stakeholders and patients, with the highest standards of data security and several functions for physicians and patients like clinical follow-up of obese and overweight patients, and of cardiorenal disease patients; homecare for nutritional risk patients (geriatrics, oncologic patients, etc.); screening of malnutrition in pharmacy or healthcare center; patient self-monitoring of anomalies detection that can activate a warning to proceed to a follow-up with the physician. CONCERTO will follow the privacy-by design and security by design approach to develop a repository for the collection of body measurements and composition, to be federated to GK repository for research and analysis purposes.
Lead Organization Name: Starlab Barcelona
Starlab’s mission is to transform science into technologies with a profound positive impact on society. Our vision is to make science more useful, alive and vibrant. As market-oriented scientists, we believe that the potential for innovation is greater when we rethink the basics together with our clients. We build on scientific research and advanced engineering to deliver disruptive solutions. We are an intensive research, deep tech, and innovation driven SME that provides worldwide services. Our main areas of work lie in the Space and Neuroscience sectors, two key areas for the 21st century with a common element: the increasing availability of streams of data. We provide technical solutions, products and services for governments, industry and downstream markets to transform data into actionable decisions.
Project: ParkinsonAID
The analysis of cost-effective brain monitoring modalities like Electroencephalography (EEG) provides an excellent asset in the clinical domain for the early detection of chronic conditions and mid/long term risk associated to neurodegenerative brain diseases such as Parkinson disease (PD). The application of Artificial Intelligence techniques will boost the use of EEG together with other physiological data in clinical settings from the very early stages of neurodegeneration to carry out the diagnosis and the prognosis of patient evolution with the potential of improving quality of life for patients due to an increase of efficacy in early interventions. In this project we aim to provide an AI powered data-driven Decision Support System (DSS) based on non-invasive EEG with a focus on early disease detection and more accurate patient disease evaluation of PD patients. Such solution is timely given the latest advances in neuroprotective therapies and is backed up by our previous research on the development of EEG biomarkers for Parkinson Disease. We know that early and accurate diagnosis of PD in its different stages means early neuroprotective interventions that can improve outcomes, delay onset of symptoms, and reduce overall cost of care. We propose to carry out a Parkinson pilot test to test our PD DSS using the GATEKEEPER platform. This pilot will allow physicians and neurologists to assess early-stage loss of motor and cognitive function, and to cross-validate the use of other Parkinson tools for assessing disease evolution and treatment prescriptions. Additionally, the successful result of our pilot test will provide a great opportunity to build synergies with the current GATEKEEPER Parkinson study consortium, where we could extend its application to the most critical task of early disease detection. The uptake of our DSS within the GATEKEEPER ecosystem will help us to achieve a more robust and validated application with the potential for eventually being deployed widely as a routine screening test for pre-symptomatic neurodegenerative disease.
Lead Organization Name: Ubiwhere
Founded in 2007, Ubiwhere is focused on Research, Development and Innovation of software-based solutions in the areas of Smart Cities, Telecom and Future Internet, and New Technologies. With a team of 60 employees. Ubiwhere cooperates with leading technology companies and research entities all over Europe.
Project: DTX@GK
The Lisbon NDS aims to demonstrate the impact of DTX@GK, an innovative digital therapeutics program for personalised risk detection, advanced health monitoring and early interventions for patients with chronic diseases (Challenge #1), currently in use in a Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) program co-developed by CUF and Multicare. Ubiwhere, a leading R&D Portuguese SME, will further contribute to the GK platform with two new Big Data and AI services: a data connector for modelling of continuous glycemia with Big Data from Continuous Glucose Monitoring; and Flor, a AI personalized eCoach for interacting with patients in a personalised way and guiding them through the process towards an empowered patient. With DTX@GK and the new AI services, Lisbon NDS will address three Use Cases currently included in GK: Diabetes: predictive modelling of glycaemic status; lifestyle-related early detection and interventions ; and multichronic elderly patient management. Expansion in the recruitment of patients is already granted by CUF’s current infrastructure and chronic care program. The installation/training for patients is carried by CUF’s nursing staff on the patients’ first visit to the clinic. An expert trained staff teaches patients on how to use the AI platforms (devices + software) and ensures they have sufficient knowledge and are aware of all ethical and privacy implications of enrolling in the program. The Lisbon NDS will therefore extend the benefits of the GATEKEEPER platform beyond the boundaries of its current pilots, expanding the GK ecosystem with a new deployment site in Lisbon with the largest private healthcare system and largest health insurance companies in Portugal, and with new external AI services that may be incorporated in the GK marketplace and expanded to other DS. These partners may also support GK in co-creating value-based business models focused on changing the current paradigm in healthcare.
Lead Organization Name: The University of Bologna
(UNIBO), the oldest university in the Western world, paves the way for innovation through an increasingly rich programme catalogue, cutting-edge research, and a constant and increasingly broad international perspective. Since its origins in 1088, the University of Bologna has been student-centred hosting prominent figures from science and the arts. Based in five campuses (Bologna, Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna, Rimini), with a branch in Buenos Aires, it offers a teaching catalogue diversified and tailored to the needs of present-day society: over 200 degree programs among its 32 Departments and 11 Schools are offered to over 81,000 students. 5,000 graduates are enrolled in PhDs and 3rd cycle programs. As a comprehensive research university, the University of Bologna invests in the multidisciplinary cross-cultural approach and in the inseparable connection between research and teaching.
Project: FHIRing SHARE Data
The FHIRing SHARE Data project aims to support the GATEKEEPER (GK) mission by providing services for integrating into the GK platform the data of the SHARE study. SHARE is a longitudinal study about health, ageing, and retirement in Europe, conducted since 2004 on more than 140,000 subjects. This project addresses GK challenge 3 “Health data space management”. The integration services will enable data harmonization, standardization, and lawful exploitation. We will seek harmonization with data of the GK pilot studies using the Maelstrom Research guidelines for rigorous retrospective harmonization and standardize the data using HL7 FHIR. We will enable lawful data exploitation according to two modalities: individual data access upon registration on the SHARE website and federated learning. SHARE data cover multiple domains, including lifestyle, health, disease, disability, healthcare utilization, social networks, and economic aspects. The last wave of SHARE further includes a COVID-19 section involving more than 54,500 participants. SHARE data are representative of the general population of people aged 50+ years and are collected in 28 European countries and Israel. In this sense, they are “broad” and complementary to the GK pilot study data, which are “vertical,” being specific for particular use cases and geographical regions. By integrating both data sources, the developers of the GK platform will be able to train and test more expressive, accurate, and mature AI models. We will ensure close collaboration with the GK Consortium members. We will establish the functional requirements and technical specifications of the services, adopting a co-design approach. We will collect feedback from the GK members and refine our services through iterative development and validation.
Lead Organization Name: The University of Vigo
The University of Vigo is a public university located in Galicia (North-western Spain) committed to institutional cooperation, solidarity and the preservation of the natural environment, recognized and valued for the quality of the services offered, the efficiency, effectiveness and transparency of its management, and for its academic prestige. it offers engineer degrees in Mining, Telecommunications, Forestry Engineering, Computer Science and Industrial Engineering, among others.
Founded in 1990 as a spin-off of the University of Santiago de Compostela, University’s 20.000 students are studying on its into three campuses at the cities of Vigo, Ourense and Pontevedra. Considered the most technical of the universities of Galicia, the university offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in more than 150 program areas including technology, industry, business, communication and the arts, education, government, law, leadership, and nursing and healthcare.
Project: Panoramix: Serious Games for the Early Detection of Cognitive Impairment
This proposal aims to incorporate in the GATEKEEPER platform a battery of serious games to detect cognitive impairment in elder adults. This game battery assesses different cognitive areas and uses machine learning techniques to discriminate among players suffering from mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer disease from healthy adults. Using the battery, it is also possible to identify individuals likely to develop cognitive decline, to predict the future evolution of cognitive decline and to contribute to keep the cognitive reserve of elder adults. The battery complies with the psychometric properties set of the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, that is, it meets all the clinical criteria to be considered as a valid screening tool.
Lead Organization Name: CognitEye
The CognitEye develops cutting-edge deep learning technologies to recognize video semantics automatically. CognitEye was founded by four alumni and scientists from the KU Leuven, who acquired an accumulative experience in audio-visual data processing through involvement in many international projects.
The members of the leadership team know each other very well due to working in the same university before starting CognitEye. The CEO and CTO of CognitEye Dr. Farahani and Dr. Diba are young, highly motivated, and dynamic scientists and are highly supported by Dr. Bahari who has been recognized by MIT Technology Review as top ten Belgian talents in 2017 for developing SensifAI video semantic concept recognition startup.
Project: On-device video semantic concept recognition: a wearable personal vision assistant
The CognitEye develops cutting-edge deep learning technologies to recognize video semantics automatically. CognitEye was founded by four alumni and scientists from the KU Leuven, who acquired an accumulative experience in audio-visual data processing through involvement in many international projects.
The members of the leadership team know each other very well due to working in the same university before starting CognitEye. The CEO and CTO of CognitEye Dr. Farahani and Dr. Diba are young, highly motivated, and dynamic scientists and are highly supported by Dr. Bahari who has been recognized by MIT Technology Review as top ten Belgian talents in 2017 for developing SensifAI video semantic concept recognition startup.
Lead Organization Name: Quadible
Quadible Ltd is an SME technology company that is based in London, UK. Quadible’s main target is to deliver software products with great impact on the market and drive the technology further to improve people’s lives in a societal manner. Quadible ensures the result of a project by delivering innovative software artifacts and providing efficient solutions for complex projects. The team’s expertise lies on conducting research and developing innovative mobile and wearable technologies, Internet of Things systems, as well as knowledge extraction based on machine-learning and data analytics.
Project: MENTAL: Secure mental condition and behaviour change detection for elderly people
The world’s population is ageing across every country and continent. According to the World Economic Forum, “never before have such large numbers of people reached the older ages (conventionally defined as ages 65 and up)”. New form of medication, vaccines as well as better way of life has led to the increase of the age of the population. In the meantime, elderly people require a larger amount of support from the community and healthcare. This creating large pressure to the national healthcare systems considering that the majority of the actions require healthcare personnel involvement or even 24/7 observation for assistance or daily behaviour monitoring to detect behaviour changes as well as mental conditions. This creates huge amounts of personnel costs, lack of healthcare staff, the potential for human error as the monitoring process is fully human-based and does not allow elderly people to live an independent life in their homes. MENTAL project focuses on improving the detection and prevention of behaviour changes and mental conditions for elderly people, to reduce productivity costs for healthcare organisations, allow them live independently at their homes, while improving the security/privacy and trustworthiness of healthcare solutions. MENTAL will integrate and deploy an AI-based behaviour analysis solution at the GATEKEEPER framework to fully automate the behaviour monitoring process allowing the derivation of fine-grained behavioural information. A 2-week pre-pilot will be performed at the beginning of the project to validate the correctness of the integration. Following, a 10-month pilot will validate the interoperability, scalability and user satisfaction of the MENTAL platform and the GATEKEEPER platform at four pilot sites. Information related to the user experience, service quality etc. will be monitored during the pilots, to measure the success of the project. Dissemination and communication activities will maximise the international outreach of the GATEKEEPER project at a worldwide scale.
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