UNIDADE LOCAL DE SAUDE DO ALENTEJO CENTRAL EPE

Their core work

Unidade Local de Saúde do Alentejo Central is a Portuguese public healthcare provider serving the Alentejo Central region, operating hospitals and primary care services. In the H2020 context, they contribute as a clinical end-user and real-world testing environment for health-related innovation projects — particularly in cybersecurity for healthcare infrastructure, pharmaceutical supply chain integrity, and security coordination. Their value lies in providing authentic hospital operational settings where digital health and security solutions can be validated against actual clinical workflows and threats.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their H2020 participation spans a short window (2019–2021), so evolution is limited but visible. Early involvement focused on healthcare IT security — protecting hospital systems through AI, honeypots, homomorphic encryption, and medical device sandboxing (SPHINX). By 2020–2021, they shifted toward blockchain applications in pharma supply chains and broader tactical security coordination (PharmaLedger, VALKYRIES), suggesting a widening scope from internal hospital cybersecurity to cross-domain security and data integrity challenges.

Moving from internal hospital cyber-defense toward broader health data integrity and cross-sector security applications — a useful partner for projects needing clinical pilot sites with security awareness.

How they like to work

Exclusively a participant, never a coordinator — consistent with their role as a clinical end-user providing real-world testing environments rather than driving research agendas. Despite only 3 projects, they have worked with 63 unique partners across 20 countries, indicating they joined large, well-connected consortia. This suggests they are approachable partners who integrate well into big international teams without demanding a leadership position.

Through just 3 projects they connected with 63 partners across 20 countries, reflecting the large-consortium nature of their projects. Their network spans broadly across Europe with no obvious geographic concentration beyond the typical Western/Southern European health research ecosystem.

What sets them apart

As a regional public hospital actively engaged in EU cybersecurity and blockchain projects, they offer something rare: a real clinical environment willing to serve as a testbed for digital health innovations. Most hospitals avoid the overhead of EU project participation, making those that do — especially in underrepresented regions like Portugal's Alentejo — valuable pilot partners. Their dual exposure to both health and security domains makes them well-suited for projects at the intersection of healthcare digitalization and data protection.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SPHINX
  Addressed the specific and underserved challenge of cybersecurity in healthcare, combining AI, honeypots, and homomorphic encryption in a hospital context.
• PharmaLedger
  High-profile blockchain initiative tackling counterfeit medicines and clinical trial data integrity — their largest-funded project at EUR 176,250.
• VALKYRIES
  Their highest single-project funding (EUR 326,000), focused on security equipment harmonization and tactical coordination procedures.