Under the theme “Translating research into long-term impact”, the IHI Forum 2026, held in Brussels on 20-21 October, brought together stakeholders from across the health research community to explore how public-private partnerships can deliver lasting benefits for research, healthcare systems, industrial competitiveness and EU policies. Panel discussions and workshops also examined how these partnerships can respond to evolving stakeholder needs in a rapidly changing world.
The programme included a dedicated poster session where early-career researchers from Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) projects presented their work. A programme committee assessed the posters and selected six winners to present in plenary and participate in a panel discussion on the second day.
Vera Soares, Project Manager and Researcher at PATH partner SHINE2Europe, was one of six winners selected from the poster session featuring 60+ early-career researchers at the Forum.
Vera presented the poster “From Stakeholder Mapping to an Expert Group: Towards Safe and Effective AI Integration into Cancer Care”, co-authored with SHINE colleagues Lucia Thielman, Miriam Cabrita and Carina Dantas. It showcased work within the PATH project addressing a central challenge: AI has the potential to transform cancer care, but algorithms alone are not enough to ensure safe and effective implementation.
The poster highlighted how stakeholder mapping informed the creation of the PATH Expert Group, bringing together diverse perspectives to help shape use cases, validate findings and develop recommendations for AI integration into cancer care.
Following the poster selection, Vera joined Niklas Blomberg, Executive Director of IHI, and the other five selected early-career researchers for a discussion on their research and experiences of working in public-private partnerships. Participants reflected on how public-private partnerships support research and career development through shared learning, professional connections and collaboration across disciplines, while acknowledging the effort needed to establish a common language between partners.
The Forum also featured a Synergy Hub showcasing organizations active in health research, alongside opportunities to strengthen existing relationships and explore new collaborations.
For PATH Project, the Forum provided an opportunity to contribute to discussions on how collaboration and early stakeholder involvement can help translate research into healthcare practice and to showcase its stakeholder engagement.
