The ENKORE consortium members gathered in Rome, Italy, on 3-5 February 2026 for its 3rd Plenary Meeting, hosted by two of the consortium partners theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma andFondazione Policlinico Universitario Campus Bio-Medico. A S M Zakir Hossain, Senior Electronic Engineer at TVS, attended the meeting to represent the organisation. Recently, we had an opportunity to speak with him about his participation in the meeting.
Could you please provide a summary of the discussions that took place during the meeting?
The ENKORE project reached a key milestone of completing its first year with its 3rd Plenary Meeting. Over 60 delegates from across the consortium including clinical, industry, academic, SME and patient partners gathered to review its first-year achievements and align on execution for the next phases. Discussions focused on translating Reference Use Case outcomes into integrated hospital and home care pathways, while strengthening coordination across technical, clinical, and sustainability work packages. Technovative Solutions Ltd, leading WP3, ENKORE Suite of Services, also presented progress on the relevant preparatory work around ontology based DPP preparation, customised ENKORE LCA tool development among some others. The plenary meeting successfully consolidated progress, clarified interdependencies, and reinforced collaborative momentum setting a clear direction for ENKORE's next phase of delivering scalable, patient-centered healthcare solutions across Europe.
What did TVS present at the meeting?
Technovative Solutions Ltd (TVS), as leader of Work Package 3 (WP3), ENKORE Suite of Services, presented the latest progress and technical developments under WP3. TVS is responsible for advancing the ENKORE digital service layer through Ontology-based DPP framework, ELCA/SLCA tool services for the Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) and cost models to evaluate environmental, social and economic impacts across product lifecycles, Circularity Calculator (CC) and ENKORE Data Suite of Service and dashboard for assessing and modelling product circularity performance. During the meeting, TVS highlighted the development of a sample DPP of a medical injection device comprising the relevant data attributes and structured using SAMM-based ontology modelling, demonstrating how sustainability and lifecycle data can be semantically organised to ensure interoperability. In addition, preparatory work for the LCA tool was presented, leveraging methodologies, insights, and experiences from prior projects to shape a robust and scalable assessment framework. Overall, the presentation underscored the technical groundwork being and also highlighted the interdependency and information requirement from other partners to support ENKORE’s sustainability objectives, digital transparency goals, and long-term interoperability ambitions across the project ecosystem.
Could you elaborate on the progress of the ENKORE project during last quarter, particularly the work packages that TVS is leading?
Overall project progress through the first year was focused on advancing the eco-design framework for sustainable healthcare products and packaging. Development and refinement of five Reference Use Cases have continued to validate eco-design solutions. Exchange of knowledge and requirements gathering took place across partners, and TVS worked on initial stages of digital tools development (e.g., DPP, Circularity Calculator, LCA tools). Structured planning across work packages continued to ensure alignment between research outputs, clinical validation, and sustainability metrics. TVS’ specific progress centers on the ENKORE Suite of Services — digital tools that underpin eco-design evaluation and circularity. It aimed at aligning DPP architecture with partner needs, including harmonisation with LCA approaches and use case priorities, stakeholder engagement within to ensure implementation readiness and integration with other project outputs.
Have you visited any sites as part of the meeting?
Considering the hospital sensitivity, only a small team comprising Reference Use Case respective leads visited the Hospital - Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital to practically experience the hospital practices for medical devices and packaging solutions in relation to hospital pathways for ENKORE.
What are the next steps to be taken?
Following the Rome plenary, the next phase will focus on deeper coordination and execution across work packages and Reference Use Cases (RUCs), ensuring that technical developments are closely aligned with real-world validation needs. Different RUC teams will continue collaborative work spanning relevant activities across multiple work packages, strengthening integration between sustainability modelling, digital tools, and clinical implementation pathways. In particular, the TVS team will work closely with RUC partners to further detail the requirements and define the implementation scope of the ENKORE Suite of Services, including the DPP, Circularity Calculator, and LCA tools. This process has already commenced with RUC-1 through the formation of a dedicated sub-team, of which TVS is a member, and a similar structured collaboration approach will be extended to other RUCs in the coming months to ensure consistent and scalable tool deployment across use cases.
What were your key takeaways from the meeting?
The key takeaways from the 3rd ENKORE Plenary Meeting in Rome were that the project has reached a strong level of maturity and alignment across partners after its first year, with a clear shift from conceptual planning toward practical implementation and validation. There was evident progress in coordinating technical development, clinical use cases, and sustainability methodologies, particularly in aligning digital tools such as the Digital Product Passport (DPP), Circularity Calculator, and LCA models with real-world healthcare workflows. The discussions reinforced the importance of interoperability, measurable environmental impact assessment, and stakeholder engagement including clinical partners and patient communities to ensure that solutions are both technically robust and operationally relevant. Overall, the meeting provided clarity on priorities for the next phase, strengthened collaboration among work packages, and confirmed a shared commitment to delivering scalable, evidence-based sustainability outcomes within the ENKORE framework.
About ENKORE
The ENKORE (Propelling the shift toward the future of circular, safe and sustainable packaging and single-use device solutions ecoDesigned through healthcare environments) project aims to promote the development of new health products by integrating the principles of the Safe & Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework, from the earliest design stages, and notably for packaging and device design including the end-of-life of a product.
This project is supported by the Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU) under grant agreement No 101166707. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme and COCIR, EFPIA, Europa Bío, MedTech Europe, and Vaccines Europe
