EUnetHTA 2009

Project coordination: Gerda Hinterreiter
Duration: January 2009 - December 2009

Background:

The EUnetHTA Project was established in 2006 following the request of EU Member States in the High Level Group on Health Services, endorsed by the Council of Ministers of Health and the European Commission, to establish a sustainable network for health technology assessment (HTA). The Project was co-funded by the European Commission for three years and has established an effective European network for HTA that aims to inform policy decisions on the use of health technologies at the national or regional level.
A total of 64 partners (HTA institutions and organisations) from 29 European countries including 21 EU Member States have joined the EUnetHTA Project, which is organised as an open network with extensive communications facilities. EUnetHTA coordinates the efforts in the evaluation of health technology in Europe. The general strategic objective of the network is to connect public national/regional HTA agencies, research institutions and health ministries, enabling an effective exchange of information and support to policy decision-making by the member states. During the first three years of existence (2006-2008) EUnetHTA aimed to develop an organisational framework for a sustainable European network for HTA along with practical tools to use within this framework to ensure timely and effective production, dissemination and transfer of HTA results into applicable policy advice for the Member States.

Aims 2009+:
Co-funding from the European Commission for the EUnetHTA Project ceased at the end of 2008. The experience of collaboration among partners in EUnetHTA is positive, and to ensure that communication, collaboration networks and activities are continued, the partners have decided to create a sustainable, permanent European HTA collaboration. This will involve HTA Agencies and other producers of HTA information, with support from European governments, the European Commission and international health organisations. Therefore, on June 16th 2008 the EUnetHTA Steering Committee endorsed a proposal for a permanent collaboration, called the ‘EUnetHTA Collaboration’. The mission of this collaboration is to support effective HTA collaboration in Europe that brings added value at the European, national and regional level.
To ensure the continuity of EUnetHTA in the interim period of 2009, a group of 25 partner organisations, so-called “founding partners”, from 13 EU Member States (+Norway and Switzerland) developed a strategic concept with regard to a sustainable coordination of the network and the careful involvement of partners in the EU Joint Action on HTA.

Contact: Claudia Wild, Gerda Hinterreiter