FONDAZIONE POLICLINICO UNIVERSITARIO AGOSTINO GEMELLI IRCCS

Their core work

Fondazione Policlinico Gemelli is one of Italy's largest university hospitals and a nationally recognized clinical research institute (IRCCS) based in Rome. In H2020 projects, they contribute clinical expertise in oncology, chronic disease management, and emergency medicine, while also serving as a real-world healthcare environment for testing cybersecurity, IoT, and AI-driven decision support systems. Their role bridges the gap between clinical practice and digital health innovation — they provide the hospital infrastructure, patient data governance, and medical domain knowledge that technology-focused consortia need to validate solutions in actual care settings.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Gemelli's earliest H2020 involvement (2019-2020) centred on healthcare cybersecurity and genomics — PANACEA tackled hospital cyber threats, while oncNGS focused on next-generation sequencing for oncology diagnostics. From 2021 onward, their focus shifted decisively toward AI-driven clinical decision support, chronic disease management, and privacy-preserving health data systems (RE-SAMPLE, iHELP). This evolution shows a hospital moving from protecting its digital infrastructure to actively using AI and federated learning to improve patient outcomes.

Gemelli is building capacity in federated learning and AI-based clinical decision support, positioning itself as a go-to clinical validation partner for digital health consortia that need real hospital environments and patient data governance expertise.

How they like to work

Gemelli has never coordinated an H2020 project — they join as a participant (4 projects) or third party (3 projects), providing clinical expertise and hospital infrastructure rather than leading consortium management. With 118 unique partners across 21 countries, they operate within large, diverse consortia, indicating they are comfortable in multi-partner European projects. Their consistent participant/third-party role suggests they are valued as domain experts who bring real-world clinical settings to technology-driven projects, rather than as research agenda-setters.

Gemelli has collaborated with 118 unique partners across 21 countries, reflecting broad European reach through large consortia. Their network spans health, digital, and security sectors, connecting them to both clinical and technology-oriented organizations.

What sets them apart

Gemelli is not a tech lab or a university department — it is a fully operational major hospital with IRCCS research status, meaning it can offer what most partners cannot: real clinical workflows, real patient data (under strict governance), and real medical staff as end-users. This makes them an ideal validation and pilot site for any consortium developing digital health, cybersecurity, or AI tools that must prove they work in actual hospital conditions. Their dual strength in oncology and healthcare data privacy is particularly rare and valuable for projects navigating the intersection of clinical AI and GDPR compliance.

Highlights from their portfolio

• RE-SAMPLE
  Largest funded project (EUR 690,625), combining federated learning, GDPR compliance, and chronic disease management — represents their core strategic direction.
• PANACEA
  Significant funding (EUR 515,938) for a hospital cybersecurity project, demonstrating Gemelli's role as a real-world testbed for healthcare security solutions.
• NIGHTINGALE
  Unusual topic for a hospital — pre-hospital triage and AI-based tracking — showing expansion beyond traditional clinical research into emergency response systems.