ODIN sets out to promote AI-based technology in health care delivery in hospitals in Europe. Stakeholders play an important role within this context. To reach this goal, four groups of stakeholders – demanders, enablers, suppliers and projects – have been identified and collected by the consortium partners. This article describes the methodological and practical approach for the stakeholder collections.

The primary task of the ODIN ecosystem enlargement is the engagement with different decision-makers and stakeholders outside of the ODIN consortium. For this purpose, one of the first and main activities within the project is the collection of decision-makers and stakeholders who might be interesting for the enlargement of its ecosystem. The stakeholder collection process started in November 2021 and – designed as an ongoing task – will be continued until the end of the project. The resulting data will be used to enlarge the ecosystem in terms of connecting and engaging with the identified decision-makers and other stakeholders in a targeted way, e.g., for dissemination or exploitation. One important goal in this respect is to use the stakeholder collection and especially the collected contacts for the Open Calls to acquire new pilots and technology providers. Another one is to connect with other experts in the field in order to create synergies. As a side effect, it also provides a rough overview of the AI-based health market.

Methodological approach

As a first step, the ODIN ecosystem was divided into four different groups of stakeholders – Demander, Supplier, Enabler, and Projects – which were to be collected. For three of the four identified groups – Demander, Supplier and Enabler – collection sheets were created to be filled by the whole consortium. In addition, related projects have been collected only by MINDS & SPARKS.

An additional overview document was created for coordination purposes of the collection. In this overview document, the status of the collection was tracked, and the corresponding collection sheets can be accessed directly via links. For the collection process, the partners were tasked with collecting entries for each of the three different collection sheets. The main focus of the partner’s collection is the partner’s country of origin. The best possible results could be achieved through desk research combined with local knowledge. However, the collection tasks of the partners are not limited to their country of origin as all of the EU countries are supposed to be covered. The overview sheet can be updated by consortium partners according to the collection process, making it easier to track status.

Preliminary results

The first phase of the collection phase ended in March 2022 and a total of 420 stakeholders have been collected. In order to maximise the success of the ODIN project and to achieve high impact, including the sustainability of the project beyond the project lifetime, the collection will be continued.