Call for Abstracts: Prototypes for Humanity - Submission Deadline 22 May 2026

Dear Colleagues, 

I am pleased to invite the submission of abstracts to the Prototypes for Humanity 2026 Short Papers Platform. 

Abstract Submission Deadline: 22nd May 2026
Invitations to Successful Authors: 8th July 2026
Conference Dates: 15th - 19th November, Dubai, UAE 

** Description **

The Short Papers Platform provides a forum for professors to share their research and engage in interdisciplinary dialogue, fostering global collaboration and knowledge exchange, with a focus on driving real-world impact through academic research.

For 2026, Prototypes for Humanity is delighted to announce the launch of a strategic partnership with the Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), for the Short Papers Platform. This joint effort reinforces the programme’s commitment to advancing impactful innovation through collaboration between academia and industry, focusing on the key sectors and themes that reflect international research priorities and that are relevant to the city and to the fund. 

Themes 

• Wellbeing and Human Performance
• Infrastructures and Cities
• Autonomous Systems and Advanced Manufacturing
• Environment, Sustainability and Energy
• Mobility and Logistics
• Socio-Economic Empowerment, Digital Economies and Future Markets
• Open and Speculative

Awards

As part of the programme’s ongoing commitment to research translation, ICD will award a $50,000 prize to one of the short papers presented at the conference. The award recognises academic work with strong potential for practical application, identified through engagement with ICD industry experts, and will support the winning project’s next stage of development towards implementation.

Submissions

Full details can be found at: https://www.prototypesforhumanity.com/press-releases/stories/Call_For_Abstracts_2026

Apply here: https://form.jotform.com/260705028532451?source=https://www.jisc.ac.uk

Deadline for abstract submission: 22 May, 2026

We strongly encourage you to apply where your interests and research aligns with the programme’s thematic areas.

If you have any questions, please contact us at professors AT prototypesforhumanity.com

Sarah Ward
University Relations Manager
Prototypes for Humanity

E: sarah.ward AT prototypesforhumanity.com

My source: Email - https://www.bcs-sgai.org/

ERCIM News No. 144 Special theme: "Advancing Open Science"

 

Dear ERCIM News reader,

ERCIM News 144 is now online [in PDF also]! This issue is dedicated to Advancing Open Science. Open Science is becoming an essential part of the European research landscape, shaping how knowledge, data, software, infrastructures and results are shared, reused and sustained.

The contributions collected in this special theme offer a cross-section insight into the current European effort to make research more open, transparent, collaborative and reusable.

This special theme was coordinated by our guest editors Leonardo Candela (CNR-ISTI) and Roberto Di Cosmo (Inria and University Paris Cité).

Includes: [PJ]

Rethinking Researcher Profiles in the Research Assessment Transition Era: The OpenAIRE Approach. pp.9-10.

P. Manghi, et al., “OpenAIRE Graph Dataset (10.6.0) [Data set]”, OpenAIRE.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17725827

BibTexViz: Visualizing Research Productivity with Open Science Data. pp.10-12.

D. Hicks, et al., “The Leiden Manifesto for research metrics”, Nature 520, 429-431, 2015.
https://doi.org/10.1038/520429a
T. Munzner, “Visualization Analysis and Design”, CRC Press, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1201/b17511
M. Zaumanis, “Research Data Visualization and Scientific Graphics: For Papers, Presentations and Proposals”, Peer Recognized, 2021.

MOEBA-BIO: An Open and Extensible Framework for Evolutionary Biclustering in Biomedicine. pp.17-19.

Co-Creation as Infrastructure for Open Science Data Spaces. pp.24-25.

A Osterheider, et al., “Conceptualization of the Understanding of Participation and Co-Creation in Interdisciplinary Research Groups developing Digital Health Technology: An Exploratory Study: Conceptualization of the Understanding of Participation and Co-Creation”, Mensch und Computer 2023, 534–538, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1145/3603555.3608572

LICORICE: Deploying Privacy-Enhancing Technologies for Europe’s Digital Sovereignty. pp.30-31.

D4Science: An Enabling Infrastructure for Open Science. pp.38-39.

D. Schaap, M. Assante, et al., “Blue-Cloud: Exploring and demonstrating the potential of Open Science for ocean sustainability,” in Proc. 6th Int. Workshop on Metrology for the Sea; Learning to Measure Sea Health Parameters (MetroSea), IEEE, 2022, pp. 198–202, doi:10.1109/MetroSea55331.2022.9950819.

Next Issue - No. 145

Special Theme: E-values: Statistical Testing for the 21st Century

Call for Contributions

Thanks for reading ERCIM News. If you’ve enjoyed this issue, please feel free to forward it to colleagues who may find it interesting and help us reach even more readers by sharing it on LinkedIn.

If you’re considering an even deeper partnership, advertising in ERCIM News not only helps sustain our publication but also puts your message in front of an expert, highly qualified audience.

[ Posted from Marrakech 17th-27th April ] 

"Passport please!"

Press release

'Innovator passports’ set to accelerate cutting-edge NHS care

The move is a key part of the government’s Plan for Change and its 10 Year Health Plan, which will transfer power to patients and transform how healthcare is delivered, creating an NHS fit for the future.

For too long, cutting-edge businesses avoided working with the NHS and went elsewhere, weighed down by slow timelines and reams of processes. Now, organisations will be able to join up with the NHS quicker than ever before through the removal of needless bureaucracy. Not only is this better for patients but also for our NHS and economic growth.

A ‘one-stop shop’ thorough check from the NHS will now allow businesses to get to work as quickly as possible and deliver on what matters most to patients across the country. It means NHS patients will get more effective treatments and support quicker, and the NHS will make the most of its finite assessment resource, all while businesses are given a boost through the government’s industrial strategy.

Treatments including special wound dressings - already reducing surgical site infections by 38% at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals - could be adopted more widely, benefiting patients across the country.

At Barts Health NHS Trust in London, use of antimicrobial protective coverings for cardiac devices has cut infections and saved over £103,000 per year. At University Hospitals Dorset, adopting rapid influenza testing reduced bed days and antibiotic use, freeing up vital resources.

The new passport will eliminate multiple compliance assessments, reducing duplication across the health service. It will be delivered through MedTech Compass, a digital platform developed by DHSC to make effective technologies more visible and widely available.

MedTech Compass will make these innovations and the evidence underpinning them clear to buyers within the NHS.

The initiative builds on the government’s drive to slash waiting lists and ensure people have access to health and care when and where they need it under the Plan for Change.

Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, said: 

For too long, Britain’s leading scientific minds have been held back by needless admin that means suppliers are repeatedly asked for the same data in different formats by different trusts - this is bad for the NHS, patients and bad for business. 

These innovator passports will save time and reduce duplication, meaning our life sciences sector - a central part of our 10 Year Health Plan - can work hand in hand with the health service and make Britain a powerhouse for medical technology.

Frustrated patients will no longer have to face a postcode lottery for lifesaving products to be introduced in their area, and companies will be able to get their technology used across the NHS more easily, creating a health service fit for future under the Plan for Change.

Dr Vin Diwakar, Clinical Transformation Director at NHS England, said:

We’re seeing the impact improvements to technology are having on our everyday lives on everything from smartwatches to fitness trackers - and we want to make sure NHS patients can benefit from the latest medical technology and innovations as well.

The new innovator passports will speed up the roll-out of new health technology in the NHS which has been proven to be effective, so that patients can benefit from new treatments much sooner.

It also forms an important element of the industrial strategy through the upcoming Life Sciences Sector Plan, which will turbocharge Britain’s life sciences sector and cement the UK’s position as a global innovation leader.

MedTech Compass helps speed up decision-making in trusts, allowing technology to scale faster - making it easier for trusts across the country to find, assess and adopt proven technologies that improve and speed up patient care.

The passports mean that once a healthcare tool has been assessed by one NHS organisation, further NHS organisations will not be able to insist on repeated assessments, reducing the need for local NHS systems to spend their limited resources on bureaucratic processes that have already been completed elsewhere.

The digital system will act as a dynamic best buyer’s guide, making it easier for trusts to compare products side-by-side in one place.

Read the full press release:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/innovator-passports-set-to-accelerate-cutting-edge-nhs-care

In my source (below) Laura Hughes also notes:

'However, the Financial Times has reported on calls by frontline workers for basic NHS infrastructure to be brought up to a minimum standard before politicians extol the virtues of cutting-edge tech.

Matthew Taylor, head of The NHS Confederation, which represents health managers, said not all NHS organisations were at the same stage of digital maturity, which would "affect their ability to either innovate or implement preapproved innovation in this passport model."'

Individual

|

      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

innovation personal passport awareness of existing state / processes	innovation 'innovation passport' duplication
innovation public safety waiting lists / times accountability - standards - assurance	innovation bureaucracy - multiple Trusts procurement of infrastructure and innovation - cutting-edge technology

Laura Hughes NHS use of medical innovations streamlined. FTWeekend, 2 July, 2025, p.3.
https://www.ft.com/content/1d025579-990a-4d58-9e0b-6d0d29d27dab

Previously:

Infracare - Hodges' Health Career - Care Domains - Model

edges : Socio-Technical

Infracare - Hodges' Health Career - Care Domains - Model

Trying to sort papers again, I'd saved the article by Floridi (below) the title having caught my attention.

If Hodges' model has a meta-function, there is also a role in the infrastructure of care.

There is an opportunity for me to do the proverbial '360' exercise, visit each of the care domains in turn and literally throw in the kitchen sink:

Individual

|

      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

I see you! Who you are.  person-centred  care  IDENTITY (identities) A model of care - A theory of (health) communication Information theoretic, information disorder   and relational studies	person-centred care  I see you! Who you are. identity - (IDENTITIES) - addressing Parity of Esteem in - - Practice & Research Information theoretic, information disorder   and relational studies
NHS and Social  Care Community Care as a resource Self care education and health promotion built in to education system Value Social Capital	Law and Justice to protect and secure Peoples & Populations Policy - National & Global that supports health and health promotion Declared integrated care care philosophy Adopted generic model for self, national and global and planetary health

Infraethics, Luciano Floridi. January 2013. The Philosophers Magazine. DOI: 10.5840/tpm20136010

AI Health 2025 Friday November 7th 2025

AI Health 2025

Friday November 7th 2025

At the BCS London Office
Ground Floor, 25 Copthall Avenue, London, EC2R 7BP (near Moorgate underground)

Organised by BCS-SGAI

BCS-SGAI, the British Computer Society Specialist Group on Artificial Intelligence was founded in June 1980. Its mission is: "To foster achievement, capability and awareness in both business and research in Artificial Intelligence, and to promote the interests of the related community". It is one of Europe's longest established groups working to support the community of artificial intelligence developers and users and is the organiser of one of the longest running annual series of AI conferences in Europe: the AI-20xx series.

In England, 189 out of 208 (91%) hospital trusts are using electronic health records (EHRs) bringing opportunities and challenges and for Artificial Intelligence (AI). In the morning, there will be a session about EHRs with speakers from UK (animal health records), France (European Health Data Space infrastructure for the use and exchange of EHRs), and Spain (personal health records). Before lunch break, there will be a brief 101 hands-on tutorial about Neuro-Symbolic AI with short exercises. In the afternoon, there will be a session about clinical decision support, exemplifying the use of AI-based healthcare technologies. Come along if you are interested in AI and its potential in healthcare.

There will be Certificates of Attendance for those who register and attend the event.

We hope that you will come and join us, and that you enjoy this new offering from the BCS SGAI.

Dr. Mercedes Arguello Casteleiro (BCS SGAI)*

https://www.bcs-sgai.org/health2025/

Please see link above for programme and speaker details.

*.. And my source - BCS SGAI.

ERCIM News No. 138 Special theme: "Sustainable Cities"

Dear ERCIM News reader,

A new ERCIM News issue (Number 138) is online with a special theme on sustainable cities. This ERCIM News special theme reports on research addressing technologies, systems, applications, and services for sustainable smart cities, showcasing Europe's research ecosystem.
You can access the issue at https://ercim-news.ercim.eu/

This special theme was coordinated by our guest editors German Castignani (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology) and Georgios Mylonas (Industrial Systems Institute, Athena Research Center).

Thank you for reading ERCIM News!

Please share this issue with anyone who might find it interesting. You can also support us on Twitter (@ercim_news) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/ercim). Let's keep the conversation going and share the latest updates together!

Next issue:
No. 139, October 2024
Special Theme: "Software Security". Submissions are welcome! See call for contributions.

Announcements in this issue:

• Call for Proposals: Dagstuhl Seminars and Perspectives Workshops - Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik is accepting proposals for scientific seminars/workshops in all areas of computer science.
• ERCIM "Alain Bensoussan" Fellowship Programme - Postdoctoral fellowships available at leading European research institutions. Simple application procedure. Next application deadline: 30 September 2024.
• Call for Participation: Forum Beyond Compliance 2024: Research Ethics in the Digital Age
• Call for Participation: Edge AI Meets Swarm Intelligence - Dubrovnik, Croatia, 18 September 2024
• SmartEdge & AIoTwin Summer School and Workshop, 16-20 September 2024, Dubrovnik, Croatia
• Call for Participation: FMICS 2024 - 29th International Conference on Formal Methods for Industrial Critical Systems, co-located with Formal Methods (FM) 2024 in Milan, 9-11 September 2024
  

---

ERCIM News is published quarterly by ERCIM, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics. With the printed and online edition, ERCIM News reaches more than 10000 readers.
All issues published to date are available online.

---

About ERCIM

ERCIM - the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics - aims to foster collaborative work within the European research community and to increase cooperation with European industry. Leading European research institutes are members of ERCIM. ERCIM is the European host of W3C.

Subscribe to the ERCIM News quarterly alert

Peter Kunz*                      	
ERCIM Office
2004, Route des Lucioles
BP93
F-06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex

https://www.ercim.eu
https://ercim-news.ercim.eu 

*My source via email - many thanks.

n.b. A search did not find 'health', 'well-', 'care', or 'pollution' in this issue.

 
Contrast with (and other previous issues):

ERCIM News No. 98 Special theme: "Smart Cities"

Implementing the primary health care approach: A primer

Overview

This Primer is about the 'how' of primary health care (PHC) and brings together best practices and knowledge that countries have generated through 'natural experiments' in strengthening PHC with the best available research evidence. Despite the progress made towards PHC globally, the concept is still often misunderstood, even within the public health community. The Primer offers a contemporary understanding of PHC and more conceptual clarity for strengthening PHC-oriented health systems. It does so by consolidating both scientific evidence and an extensive sample of practical experiences across countries for the needed evidence to address practical implementation issues. 

The Primer is organized in three parts. Part I explains the PHC approach, its history, core concepts and rationale, and draws out lessons for transformation. Part II addresses operational and strategic levers that make PHC work. It covers governance, financing and human resources for health, medicines, health technology, infrastructure and digital health, and their role in implementing change. Part III concludes with a cross-cutting view of the impacts of PHC on the health system, efficiency, quality of care, equity, access, financial protection and health systems resilience, including in the face of climate change. 

Rajan D, Rouleau K, Winkelmann J, Kringos D, Jakab M, Khalid F, editors. Implementing the Primary Health Care approach: a primer. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2024 (Global report on primary health care). Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. 
https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240090583

Infraethics <-> Infrastructure c/o Floridi & TPM

INDIVIDUAL

|

     INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

moral education^ character development^ personal values courage, commitment .. 6Cs Your - Registration What does being a professional mean to you? What does belonging to a profession mean to you?

"The idea of an infraethics is simple, but the following “new equation” may help to clarify it further. In the same way as business and administration systems, in economically mature societies, increasingly require physical infrastructures (transport, communication, services etc.) to succeed, likewise human interactions, in informationally mature societies, increasingly require an infraethics to flourish. The equation is a bit more than just an analogy between infrastructure and infraethics."*

"Any complex society—be this the City of Man or the City of God to put it in Augustinian terms—has an implicit infraethics, which can be more or less morally successful, and more or less evil-unfriendly. Theoretically, even a society of angels, that is, of impeccably good moral agents, needs infraethical rules for coordination and collaboration. ... The right sort of infraethics is there to support the right sort of axiology. Designing it, maintaining it and keeping it updated is one of the crucial challenges for our information society. It is one of the reasons why our age is the age of design. Clearly, when talking about infrastructures, politicians have more on their plates than just networks of bits and atoms." socio-

"When economists and political scientists speak of a “failed state”, they may refer to the failure of a state-as-a-structure to fulfil its basic roles, such as exercising control over its borders, collecting taxes, enforcing laws, administering justice, providing schooling and so forth. Or they may refer to the collapse of a state-as-an-infrastructure or environment, which makes possible and fosters the right sort of social interactions." -political infrastructure

^Raised on In Our Time:
https://x.com/h2cm/status/1720095205012251114?s=20

*Point noted.

See also:

Floridi, L. Infraethics–on the Conditions of Possibility of Morality. Philos. Technol. 30, 391–394 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-017-0291-1.

My original source:

Floridi, L., Infraethics, The Philosopher's Magazine, 1st Quarter 2013. Issue 60. pp.26-27.
(Still clearing books, journals, magazines... )

ERCIM News No. 133 Special theme: "Data Infrastructures and Management"

Dear ERCIM News reader,

ERCIM News No. 133 has just been published. This special theme of this issue highlights the advancements made in the field of data infrastructures and management through exploration of novel research and technologies.  

This special theme was coordinated by our guest editors Manolis Terrovitis (ATHENA RC) and Dominik Ślęzak (University of Warsaw).

Thank you for your interest in ERCIM News. Please forward this message to anyone who might be interested. We also appreciate you following us and talking about us on Twitter @ercim_news and other social media.

Includes:

p.11 The Data Portal of the European Plate Observing System – A New Tool for the Solid-earth Sciences in Europe
by Vasco Avramo (EPOS-ERIC), Daniele Bailo (EPOS-ERIC, INGV) and Rossana Paciello (EPOS-ERIC, INGV)

p.24 CyberSec4Europe - Securing and Preserving Privacy Sharing Health Data
by Raquel Cortés Carreras, Juan Carlos Pérez Baún and
Miryam Villegas Jimenez (Atos Spain S.A.)

p.44 Survival Skills in the Digital Era: Helping Teachers to Develop Digital Competences
by Angela Fessl and Katharina Maitz (TU Graz), Monica Divitini (NTNU)

Next issue:
No. 134,  July 2023
Special Theme: "Explainable AI". Submissions are welcome! See call for contributions.

Announcements in this issue:

---

Call for Proposals: Dagstuhl Seminars and Perspectives Workshops Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik is accepting proposals for scientific seminars/workshops in all areas of computer science.

---

ERCIM "Alain Bensoussan" Fellowship Programme - postdoctoral fellowships available at leading European research institutions.
Simple application procedure. Next application deadlines: 30 April and 30 September 2022

---

ERCIM News is published quarterly by ERCIM, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics. With the printed and online edition, ERCIM News reaches more than 10000 readers.
All issues published to date are available online. The previous four issues focuse on:

- Fighting Cybercrime

- Assistive Technologies

- Ethical Software Engineering

- Cognitive AI & Cobots

---

Advertise in ERCIM News

About ERCIM

ERCIM - the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics - aims to foster collaborative work within the European research community and to increase co-operation with European industry. Leading European research institutes are members of ERCIM. ERCIM is the European host of W3C.

https://www.ercim.eu/
https://twitter.com/ercim_news
ERCIM LinkedIn Group

Subscribe to the ERCIM News quarterly alert

Peter Kunz*                      	
ERCIM Office
2004, Route des Lucioles
BP93
F-06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex

*My source.

"Socio-Technical - Infrastructures ?" (inc. Adult content)

Please note this blog post includes adult content - 'The Moderators'.

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

psychological support ?	Field of Vision - The Moderators from Field of Vision on Vimeo.
	financial support ?

My source: Fortson, D. (2018) Shocking world of the web content guardians, Business & Money, The Sunday Times, 14 October, p.5.

ERCIM News No. 105 Special theme: "Logistics and Planning"

Dear ERCIM News Reader,

ERCIM News No. 105 has just been published at http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en105

This issue features a special theme on "Logistics and Planning"
coordinated by the guest editors Rob van der Mei (CWI) and Ariona Shashaj (SICS).
Keynote "Trends and Challenges in Logistics and Supply Chain Management"
by Henk Zijm, Professor of Production and Supply Chain Management, University of Twente.

This issue is also available for download in pdf and EPUB.

Thank you for your interest in ERCIM News. 

Feel free to forward this message to others who might be interested.

Next issue: No. 106, July 2016 - Special Theme: "Cybersecurity" (see Call for contributions)

Best regards,
Peter Kunz
ERCIM News central editor

Includes:
An Industrial Take on Breast Cancer Treatment
d2V – Understanding the dynamics of Evolving data: A Case Study in the Life Sciences

ERCIM News No. 101 Special theme: "The Internet of Things & the Web of Things"

Dear ERCIM News Reader,

ERCIM News No. 101 has just been published at http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en101

ERCIM News 101

Special Theme: "The Internet of Things & the Web of Things"
http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en101/special/
Guest editors: Dave Raggett, W3C and Emmanuel Baccelli, Inria

Keynote by Cees Links, Founder & CEO GreenPeak Technologie: "The Internet of Things will Change our World "
http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en101/keynote

This issue is also available for download in:
pdf: http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/images/stories/EN101/EN101-web.pdf
epub: http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/images/stories/EN100/EN100.epub


Next issue: No. 102, July 2015 - Special Theme: "Trustworthy Systems of Systems"

Thank you for your interest in ERCIM News. Feel free to forward this message to others who might be interested.

Best regards,
Peter Kunz
ERCIM News central editor

ERCIM News No. 100 Special theme: "Scientific Data Sharing and Reuse"

Dear ERCIM News Reader,

ERCIM News No. 100 has just been published at http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en100
Join us in celebrating the 100th issue and post a message at http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/guestbook

ERCIM NEWS 100

Special Theme: "Scientific Data Sharing and Reuse"
http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en100/special/

Keynote by Carlos Morais, European Commission: "e-Infrastructures Enabling Trust in the Era of Data-Intensive Science"

This issue is also available for download in:
pdf:  http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/images/stories/EN100/EN100-web.pdf
epub: http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/images/stories/EN100/EN100.epub

Next issue: No. 101, April 2015 - Special Theme: "The Internet of Things & the Web of Things"
(see Call for articles at http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/call)

Thank you for your interest in ERCIM News. Feel free to forward this message to others who might be interested.

Best regards,
Peter Kunz
ERCIM News central editor

ERCIM News No. 83 Special Theme: "Cloud Computing"

Dear ERCIM News Reader,

ERCIM News No. 83 has just been published at http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/

Special Theme:
"Cloud Computing"
- coordinated by: Frédéric Desprez, Ottmar Krämer-Fuhrmann and Ramin Yahyapour
- featuring the keynote "Cloud Computing: The Next Big Thing?" by Burkhard Neidecker-Lutz, Keith Jeffery, Maria Tsakali and Lutz Schubert.

Next issue: January 2011 - Special Theme: "Intelligent and Cognitive Systems"

Thank you for your interest in ERCIM News.
Feel free to forward this message to others who might be interested.

Best regards,
Peter Kunz
ERCIM News central editor
Follow us on http://twitter.com/ercim_news

Of note in ERCIM #83 :

An Infrastructure for Clinical Trials for Cancer – ACGT Project Successfully Terminated; by Jessica Michel Assoumou and Manolis Tsiknakis


Mastering Data-Intensive Collaboration and Decision Making through a Cloud Infrastructure; by Nikos Karacapilidis, Stefan Rüping and Isabel Drost

Finally, the first issue of 2011 #84 sounds a great prospect!

Care Logistics: have model will travel ...

From: NHS Logistics - supplies, v4m, corporate, orders, consultancy, catalogue, process, delivery, stock, just in time, service, quality, priority, efficiency, customers, finance, contracts ...
	To: Care Logistics - access, choice, attitude, empathy, communication, values, outcomes, human rights, dignity and respect, quality care, professionalism, purpose, roles, holistic competency, standards, personal, measures, equity ...

Two workshops on Infrastructures in Health Care

'Infrastructure' is a word of our time with both reductionist and wholist connotations. The 4P's of PROCESS, POLICY, PURPOSE and PRACTICE can be found here together with at least several C's: COMMUNICATION, CO-ORDINATION, COLLABORATION and COMPLEXITY. So, here for 2009 is an infusion of the socio-technical at two health infrastructure events:

Call for Papers: 2nd International Workshop

Infrastructures for Health Care: Connecting practices across institutional and professional boundaries

June 18-19, 2009, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Scope
The 1st international workshop: Infrastructures for Health Care was held at the Technical University of Denmark in June 2006. It attracted researchers, health care professionals, IT professionals, administrators, and others engaged in the development of infrastructures and new, integrated applications and services for improving the quality of health care services. The purpose of this 2nd international workshop is to continue this forum for discussing current issues and trends related to the integration and coordination of health care practices across institutional, organizational, and professional boundaries.

The health care sector is characterized by a worsening shortage of personnel and endlessly growing costs caused by the development of new treatments in combination with rising demands for treatment, which are associated with an aging population and an increase in chronic diseases. Against this backdrop, policy makers, health care professionals and researchers show an increased interest in innovative systems of care, which improve communication, coordination and collaboration among patients/citizens, care providers in primary care and specialty services (clinics, hospitals, emergency departments, old people's homes etc.). Concepts like shared care, integrated care and continuity of care are indicative of ambitions of creating coherent and effective health care services for patients that require complex - and often long-term - care. Although these concepts are often used in relation to projects that seek to enhance communication, coordination, and collaboration around particular patient groups, they also have bearing on more general visions of reorganizing health care.

Infrastructural arrangements - such as electronic patient records, classification schemes, accounting systems, communication standards, and quality systems - play a crucial role in these new models of care, and it is increasingly hard to imagine integrative initiatives that do not have a strong IT component. This raises a multitude of questions about the - actual and imagined - role and impact of IT and other infrastructure components in the development of patient-oriented, integrated healthcare services.

We wish to highlight how new infrastructures - socio-technical assemblages - simultaneously connect existing practices, influence and change these practices, and create entirely new practices in health care work (e.g. related to the maintenance of the infrastructure itself). What characterizes infrastructures in health care? What role do they play in transforming and reorganizing health care and in creating new actors in health care? How are infrastructures established and maintained? What is the impact on work practices, organizational structures, cost effectiveness, quality of care, etc.?

Topics of Interest
Our aim is to bring together researchers, health care professionals, IT professionals, administrators and others involved in establishing infrastructures and/or developing new, integrated models of healthcare. We seek practical case studies as well as empirical and theoretical research contributions. Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to the following:

* Infrastructures as socio-technical achievement in health care
* Health care organizations and infrastructures
* Infrastructures and new patient practices
* Designing infrastructures for health care
* Economic aspects of infrastructures for health care
* Myths of infrastructures
* Infrastructures and politics
* Managing infrastructures

We encourage potential participants to submit an abstract (3-500 words) describing the contribution before March 1, 2009. Abstracts must be submitted by email to
infrastructures2009 AT sundhedsITnet.dk

After the conference, a selection of the contributors will be invited to submit a full paper to an edited - and fully reviewed - book or special issue (to be decided).

List of important date
Submission of abstracts 2nd of March 2009
Notification of acceptance 1st of April 2009
Deadline for registration 15th of May 2009
Conference 18th - 19th of June 2009

Workshop Co-Chairs
Finn Kensing, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Jørgen P. Bansler, Technical University of Denmark
For abstract submission and further information, contact
infrastructures2009 AT sundhedsITnet.dk
We are looking forward to an exciting workshop!
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The other event is in April (and has already closed in terms of submissions):

Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre

HaCIRIC International Conference 2009 -
Improving healthcare infrastructures through innovation

2-3 April 2009, Hilton Metropole, Brighton

The conference will bring together researchers and practitioners from across disciplines and countries with different healthcare systems to focus on how to use innovation to improve the delivery and operation of healthcare infrastructure. Areas of particular interest include:

Integrating infrastructure and service planning
Can we translate service planning into infrastructure asset planning more effectively? Are moves towards greater contestability and a local devolution of responsibilities making this harder? What lessons are there from different national health systems? What tools, models and performance metrics are appropriate?

Stimulating innovation in infrastructure provision
How can procurement and incentivisation models be designed to deliver innovation? Can policy targets be used more effectively? How do we ensure that innovation is embedded on a sustainable basis? How can the design process be more effectively used to generate innovation? How do we capture and diffuse knowledge of innovative solutions?

Examples of infrastructure innovation targeted at key problems
Healthcare acquired infection is an example of an area where a multi-disciplinary approach embracing service delivery, behavioural and infrastructure change is needed. We are interested in case studies and research reporting on how this has been tackled, as well as the methodological challenges in conducting such research.