On May 20, 2009 the EUnetHTA Secretariat submitted to the European Commission a grant application for a Joint Action (JA) on HTA on behalf of 33 organisations officially nominated by the Ministries of Health from 23 EU Member States and Norway.
Additionally, 19 organisations from 9 European countries joined as Collaborating Partners – among these are eg, the regional HTA agencies and healthcare administrations, medicines agencies and institutes for pharmacotherapy, HTA units of Ministries of Health. The application is a response to a call in the Health Programme’s 2009 Work Plan.
The development of the application content was led by the EUnetHTA Secretariat and a group of the Lead and Co-Lead Partners of the identified JA Work Packages (see minutes of the 2nd preparatory meeting on Joint Action on HTA) in cooperation with the JA-nominated organisations.
The need for closer collaboration in HTA has been identified by European HTA doers themselves and by the EU, whose Member States have recognized that a sustainable Network for HTA is an urgent need. The overarching objective of the Joint Action on HTA and Relative Effectiveness Assessment is to put into practice an effective and sustainable HTA collaboration in Europe that brings added value at the European, national and regional level. It is thought that the JA would facilitate solutions to overcome barriers to collaboration and facilitates national solutions to deliver context specific reporting of HTA results. The JA would build upon the methods and tools developed by the EUnetHTA Project. The JA’s strategy to evolve cooperation according to current needs would consist of two interrelated streams of activities:
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Methodological developments to heighten the efficiency and transparency of HTA processes in Europe
- Applying those tools in European transnational collaboration and at the national, regional and/or local levels
Through the constant interaction between both streams the JA would be able to respond to the evolving needs of HTA doers and users in health systems across Europe. The JA would develop a mechanism of information exchange with the identified stakeholder groups.
The preparation of the JA and consolidation of the EUnetHTA project results are among the current activities of the EUnetHTA Collaboration Founding Partners. Please visit the news section of the EUnetHTA website regularly for further updates on the development.
