The Network Of practitioners For Emergency medicAl systems and cRitical care project (NO-FEAR) was funded through an innovative call from the European Commission contained in the Horizon 2020 2016-2017 work program dedicated to Safe Societies - Protecting the freedom and security of Europe and its citizens.

The call assumed that professionals from many different sectors, including medical emergency teams, had little means and time to monitor innovation and research that could be useful to them. Moreover they have little opportunity to interact with academia or industry on these issues.

The project, funded in 2018 under a Coordination and Support Action Call, brings together practitioners, academia, policymakers and the industry involved in the response to medical emergencies, crises and health threats.

Since the very beginning, NO-FEAR has mobilized the vast network created during the project, to share real-time knowledge, experiences, lessons observed and challenges.

Qualitative methodology

This article intends to present the stages of the project during its journey where the creation of a network of practitioners dedicated to medical emergency services according to the three pillars methodology set in the project and which took place during the Covid 19 pandemic constituted a space to test innovative approaches in the relationship between end user and industry, in the identification of gaps and needs in the field and in responding to them, often going beyond the mandate of the project, creating a community capable of acting at the intersection of policymaker, companies and citizens.

The case of NOFEAR demonstrates how, thanks to a European project, created a network of individuals and businesses that interact and or collaborate with each other can accelerate knowledge driven and sustainable growth of multidisciplinary ecosystems able to mitigate the fragmentation of the emergency medical systems.