European partnership for pandemic preparedness

Topic updates

24 February 2025

We recently informed the applicants about the evaluation results for their proposals.

Number of proposals submitted (including proposals transferred from or to other calls): 6
Number of inadmissible proposals: 2
Number of ineligible proposals: 3
Number of above-threshold proposals: 1
Total budget requested for above-threshold proposals: EUR 57,281,202.00
Number of proposals retained for funding: 1
Number of proposals in the reserve list: 0
Funding threshold: 12.5
Number of proposals with scores lower or equal to 15 and higher or equal to 14: 0
Number of proposals with scores lower than 14 and higher or equal to 13: 0
Number of proposals with scores lower than 13 and higher or equal to 12: 1
Summary of observer’s report:

Observer report on the evaluation process of three different Horizon 2024 topics: HORIZON-HLTH-2024-DISEASE-12-01 (a COFUND action), HORIZON-HLTH-2024-DISEASE-13-01 (a RIA action), and HORIZON-HLTH-2024-CARE-14-01 (a PCP action). The report evaluates the efficiency, transparency, and challenges encountered during the proposal assessment process. The observer attended remote briefings, a range of central consensus meetings, all three final panel meetings and held a number of private discussions with experts during the central week. Depending on the complexity of a topic, proposals were assessed with 4 or 5 or 6 experts. For example, the HORIZON-HLTH-2024-DISEASE-12-01 COFUND action, where only one proposal was eligible, required a thorough evaluation by six experts. This proposal was noted for its length and complexity across diverse areas of expertise. Overall, all procedures were carried out in a transparent way and briefings given were very good and clear. The quality of the documentation provided to experts beforehand was high although its complexity may have been overwhelming. As mentioned above, the complexity of the topics impacted the length of consensus meetings. For example, the consensus meetings of HORIZON-HLTH-2024-CARE-14-01 PCP actions required lengthier discussions and longer time slots should be allocated to such evaluations in the future. To increase the quality of the evaluation, a new approach to calibration was introduced to the HORIZON-HLTH-DISEASE-13-01 (RIA) topic by having one proposal discussed by all experts in addition to regular calibration meetings. While this approach brings added value to the evaluation, it should be considered to further improve the set-up to enable proper engagement. The remote briefings given to the experts before the central week worked well. For on-site evaluation, some technical issues were quickly resolved, demonstrating efficiency in handling logistical challenges. All of the moderators, experts and recorders displayed impartiality and respected confidentiality. Conflicts of interest were solved with respect for the rules. All procedures complied with the relevant existing rules. Experts suggested the need for a clearer interpretation of the call text integrated into the checklist, to help prevent potential inconsistencies. Lastly, the report calls for revisiting the criteria used to prioritise proposals with equal scores above the threshold as, for example, the current method of using gender balance among the researchers in the consortium is unpopular.

For questions, please contact the Research Enquiry Service.

https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/contact-us/research-enquiry-service_en

09 December 2024

Call HORIZON-HLTH-2024-DISEASE-12 closed on 26 November 2024. 6 proposals were submitted under topic HORIZON-HLTH-2024-DISEASE-12-01.

Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in February 2025.

European partnership for pandemic preparedness

TOPIC ID: HORIZON-HLTH-2024-DISEASE-12-01

Type of grant: Call for proposals

General information

Programme: Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)

Call: Partnerships in Health (2024) (HORIZON-HLTH-2024-DISEASE-12)

Type of action: HORIZON-COFUND HORIZON Programme Cofund Actions

Type of MGA: HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG]

Status: Forthcoming

Deadline model: single-stage

Planned Opening Date: 25 April 2024

Deadline dates: 26 November 2024 17:00 (Brussels time)

Topic description

ExpectedOutcome:

This topic aims at supporting activities that are enabling or contributing to one or several expected impacts of destination 3 “Tackling diseases and reducing disease burden”. The partnership will be firmly anchored within the framework of the European Health Union package^[1] that aims to improve the EU's capacity in the vital areas of prevention, preparedness, surveillance, risk assessment, early warning, and response. In this regard, synergies and close collaboration with the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) and other relevant European Commission services need to be ensured.

The partnership’s activities are expected to be key enablers of the EU Global Health Strategy^[2], notably its guiding principle 5 to boost global health research and guiding principle 7 to strengthen capacities for prevention, preparedness and response, particularly to expand and strengthen European and global research partnerships including clinical trial networks that can be pivoted to address new and emerging pathogens.

Proposals under this topic should aim for delivering results that are directed, tailored towards, and contributing to all of the following expected outcomes:

• The EU offers a valued network of clinical trial sites that have the capacity to implement well-coordinated large-scale multi-country quality trials in different target populations, which are able to smoothly transition to public health interventions relevant for cross-border health threats in response to a public health emergency;
• Relevant EU and national entities, the scientific communities and networks, policymakers and funders enhance their collaboration and coordination for strengthened research on pandemic preparedness and response, forming a strong and structured ecosystem with shared evidence, tools and methodologies cutting across sectors;
• Research funders, policymakers, relevant EU and national entities, and the research community recognise and close rapidly relevant research and related infrastructure gaps and break existing silos on pandemic preparedness research and response;
• Healthcare authorities, regulatory authorities, policymakers and other stakeholders use the research results to develop evidence-based strategies and policies for pandemic preparedness and response, and deploy good practices to European countries and regions, and beyond whenever relevant;
• The research community at large benefits from and uses an improved comprehensive knowledge framework integrating the EU, national/regional data and information infrastructures to improve transnational research in the area of pandemic preparedness and response;
• The EU is strengthened as an internationally recognised actor for pandemic preparedness research and response, as such substantially contributing to global cooperation and coordination.

Scope:

The COVID-19 pandemic uncovered the challenges that European health care systems face in detecting, preventing, combatting and managing outbreaks of infectious diseases in a coordinated manner. It also illustrated the need for stronger preparedness and networks for research and timely clinical trials and observational studies, for more timely availability of medical countermeasures, such as vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, as well as more appropriate non-pharmaceutical interventions and adequate communication strategies in terms of fighting mis/disinformation and fostering appropriate behaviours. Furthermore, it showed how unilateral research initiatives may lead to a fragmented, inefficient research landscape.

At the same time, the relentless work of the research community that has led to availability of several COVID-19 vaccines in record time highlighted the critical importance of collaborative R&I to respond rapidly to emerging health threats.

Therefore, transformative investments in research for pandemic preparedness are needed at European level. Stronger collaboration and coordination between European actors, including the appropriate infrastructures and networks, are an important prerequisite for improving EU’s pandemic preparedness and stepping up our contribution to global cooperation in this area.

This should be done through a partnership that promotes:

• improved coordination and cooperation to adjust research and innovation agendas on national and European levels (and contributing globally), as essential part of the pandemic preparedness planning and implementation activities;
• coordination and prioritisation of a comprehensive research response to a health emergency, from basic research for better understanding of pathogens with pandemic potential to the development or adaptation of medical countermeasures, as well as effective non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) and/or public health and social measures (PHSM), and using an integrated One Health approach;
• the consolidation and further development of ever-warm EU-wide networks and infrastructures for clinical research, controlled trials and observational studies for public health interventions, such as EU-wide vaccine and treatment trials, PHSM/NPI trials or cohorts;
• the provision of robust and timely scientific evidence to inform sound public health decision-making in response to a public health emergency;
• the use of agreed data standards^[3] to safely collect, store, link and manage FAIR^[4] data and to exploit the full potential of the generated data for modelling and in-silico methods for epidemic surveillance, clinical trials and observational studies, among others.

The partnership should strengthen the European Research Area by supporting excellence in innovative research, capacity building, programmes for development of talent, widening the engagement of countries and sectors not yet involved.

The partnership should endorse a pandemic preparedness Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) based on the work of the CSA BE READY and prepare for the management of the research response during a crisis, by strengthening the collaboration between relevant partners and the alignment of related investments. The partnership will consider the impact of environmental, climatic issues and patterns in relation with the emergence and spread of health threats to better understand how these increase the risk for emerging infectious diseases, and how this should be integrated into the research done using a One Health approach.

The scope of the partnership should encompass:

• basic research to accelerate the acquisition of knowledge on the biology of pathogens with epidemic or pandemic potential, their transmission and interaction with humans, animals and plants, in particular in view of emerging threats to human health. The initial focus should be on pathogens with high epidemic or pandemic potential for the EU, such as those included in the list of priority diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO), with particular attention to those meeting the criteria identified by HERA^[5];
• preclinical research aimed at better understanding of human diseases caused by pathogens with epidemic or pandemic potential and testing of related medical countermeasures;
• clinical research to support the generation of novel solutions, in particular the development (phase I to phase III) of medical countermeasures, e.g. vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics and digital solutions, to prevent or mitigate outbreaks from pathogens with epidemic or pandemic potential, in line with the mission of HERA and the ACT EU initiative^[6];
• a key feature should be the consolidation and further development of an ever-warm network of clinical trial sites^[7] applying the same quality standards and ensuring a baseline of continuous clinical trial activity across a wide and diverse range of clinical trial sites, to allow for a rapid clinical trial response in case of an epidemic or pandemic. This includes the development of criteria for a clinical trial site to be considered as ever-warm;
• the development, testing and validation of new methods and tools, including those based on artificial intelligence and computer modelling, to improve surveillance and diagnosis and control of the spread of pathogens with epidemic or pandemic potential;
• the conduct of public health and social sciences and humanities (SSH) research for the development and robust evaluation of appropriate non-pharmaceutical interventions/public health and social measures and effective communication strategies at all phases of a public health emergency;
• the consolidation and/or development of infrastructures, platforms and networks necessary for fast and timely start of the response research, capitalising on previous investments and existing infrastructures supporting collaboration, trans-boundary access and provision of services, such as provided by ISIDORe^[8] or ECRIN^[9].
• capacity building through networking and training of researchers, to share knowledge and good practices also with EU and national entities, policymakers and funders.

It is intended to implement the partnership in two phases. The activities in the first phase should mainly focus on:

• the way clinical trials are set up and conducted in the EU to address public health emergencies, including new approaches such as computer modelling and in-silico clinical trials.
  • this will require coordination mechanisms to support prioritisation of emergency trials, improved mechanisms to identify and rank promising compounds, mobilising EU and Member State funding mechanisms, and measures to help speed up contracting of clinical trial sites during emergencies and in preparedness time. For this purpose, close collaboration with the EMA and its Emergency Task Force, National Competent Authorities, Ethics Committees, and the European Commission should be ensured.
  • this includes the consolidation, integration and further expansion of EU-wide network of ever-warm clinical trial sites, building on earlier made investments such as Vaccelerate^[10], Ecraid^[11] and EU RESPONSE^[12]. It is expected that the partnership will develop a sustainable solution to ensure the long-term viability of adequate European clinical trial networks for a timely public health emergency response, which cover key target populations and have a suitable geographic spread.
• implementing joint calls for transnational proposals to foster transnational research in the other areas in the scope of the partnership.
• developing the roadmaps for the implementation of the remaining activities foreseen by the partnership.

The second phase of the partnership is expected to build on this first phase, to further develop and consolidate what has been achieved and implement the roadmaps developed for remaining activities as outlined in the scope, with the possibility of expanding to new partners.

The total indicative budget for the partnership is up to EUR 100 million and subject to the effective implementation of the commitments made by the members of the consortium. The Commission envisages to include new actions in its future work programmes to provide continued support to the partnership for the duration of Horizon Europe.

The expected duration of the partnership is 7 to 10 years with the first phase having a duration of 2 to 3 years.

General principles

As general principles, the partnership will:

• promote an inclusive membership and balanced geographic representation, open to third countries and other relevant stakeholders;
• promote data sharing, data standards and data-based digital tools, and align with EU-wide initiatives on open access and FAIR^[4] data, artificial intelligence and virtual human twins;
• pay specific attention to the gender and sex dimensions, as well as representativeness of different population groups including young people and vulnerable groups;
• foster the development and use of trustworthy artificial intelligence^[14], in all its three dimensions (lawful, ethical and robust);
• ensure synergies and explore collaborations with other relevant activities at EU and international level.

To ensure coherence and complementarity of activities and leverage knowledge and investment possibilities, the partnership is expected to establish relevant collaborations with the relevant European Commission services, with other Horizon Europe projects, partnerships (institutionalised and co-funded) and missions as set out in the working document on ‘Coherence and Synergies of candidate European partnerships under Horizon Europe’^[15] as well as to explore collaborations with other relevant activities at EU and international level. On top of this, the proposal should consider synergies with EU programmes, including but not limited to EU4Health^[16], the Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL)^[17], the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+)^[18], the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)^[19], InvestEU^[20], the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF)^[21] and the Technical Support Instrument (TSI)^[22].

When defining calls for proposals, the partnership needs to consider the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities (SSH) disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.

The partnership should create synergies with the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) currently in its third iteration as Global Health EDCTP3^[23] Joint Undertaking, that brings together 15 countries from Europe and 25 countries from sub-Saharan Africa. EDCTP is already funding adaptive clinical trial networks spanning African and European countries and a Clinical Trials Community Network^[24] The partnership should also contribute to help achieve the goals of GloPID-R^[25], the coalition of research funders that invests in research to improve pandemic preparedness & response.

The partnership is open to all EU Member States, as well as to countries associated to Horizon Europe and will remain open to third countries wishing to join. Applicants should describe in their proposal the methodology for their collaboration and the aims they want to achieve with this kind of collaboration. Cooperation with international organisations, private sector and non-European institutions and experts may be considered.

Governance

The partnership’s governance structure should enable an upfront strategic steering, effective management and coordination, daily implementation of activities and ensure the use and uptake of the results. The governance should involve key stakeholders and interested parties, including but not limited to the research and innovation community, public health authorities, patients and citizens, health and care professionals, formal and informal care organisations, innovation owners, and relevant EU entities, including the European Commission, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Medicines Agency.

Resources

The proposal should pool the necessary cash and in-kind resources from the participating national (or regional) research programmes, in order to:

• sustain and further develop the EU-wide networks and infrastructures for clinical research, and in particular a network of ever-warm clinical trial sites by running continuous preparedness trials in relevant target populations;
• implement joint calls for transnational proposals resulting in grants to third parties. Financial support provided by the participants to third parties is one of the activities of this action in order to be able to achieve its objectives;
• conduct capacity building activities;
• implement any other activities, coordinated between (a group of) partnership members, that contribute to the achievement of the partnership’s objectives. Research projects resulting from coordinated national calls could be envisaged in this context as well.

[1]https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/promoting-our-european-way-life/european-health-union_en

[2]https://health.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-03/international_ghs-report-2022_en.pdf

[3]Without prejudice to the ones set by the Clinical Trials Regulation EU No 536/2014

[4]See definition of FAIR data in the introduction to this work programme part.

[5](1) rapid transmission mode, (2) likelihood to reach a sensitive population, for example persons with minimal pre-existing immunity and (3) their high potential to cause high morbidity and mortality

[6]https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/human-regulatory/research-development/clinical-trials/accelerating-clinical-trials-eu-act-eu. Under ACT EU, a concrete roadmap will be established for improved regulatory approval of clinical trials during public health emergencies.

[7]An ever-warm clinical trial network ensures a baseline of continuous clinical trial activity across a wide and diverse range of trial sites, which allows the rapid adaptation (‘pivoting’) of the trial in case of an epidemic or pandemic.

[8]https://isidore-project.eu/

[9]https://ecrin.org/

[10]https://vaccelerate.eu/

[11]https://www.ecraid.eu/

[12]https://eu-response.eu/

[13]See definition of FAIR data in the introduction to this work programme part.

[14]https://op.europa.eu/o/opportal-service/download-handler?identifier=d3988569-0434-11ea-8c1f-01aa75ed71a1&format=pdf&language=en&productionSystem=cellar&part=

[15]https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2020-10/ec_rtd_coherence-synergies-of-ep-under-he.pdf

[16]https://health.ec.europa.eu/funding/eu4health-programme-2021-2027-vision-healthier-european-union_en

[17]https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/activities/digital-programme

[18]https://ec.europa.eu/european-social-fund-plus/en

[19]https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/funding/erdf_en

[20]https://investeu.europa.eu/index_en

[21]https://commission.europa.eu/business-economy-euro/economic-recovery/recovery-and-resilience-facility_en#the-recovery-and-resilience-facility

[22]https://commission.europa.eu/funding-tenders/find-funding/eu-funding-programmes/technical-support-instrument/technical-support-instrument-tsi_en

[23]https://www.globalhealth-edctp3.eu/

[24]https://www.ctcan.africa

[25]https://www.glopid-r.org/

Topic destination

Tackling diseases and reducing disease burden (2023/24)

Calls for proposals under this destination are directed towards the Key Strategic Orientation KSO-D ‘Creating a more resilient, inclusive and democratic European society’ of Horizon Europe’s Strategic Plan 2021-2024. Research and innovation supported under this destination should contribute to the impact area ‘Good health and high-quality accessible healthcare’ and in particular to the following expected impact, set out in the Strategic Plan for the health cluster: ‘health care providers are able to better tackle and manage diseases (infectious diseases, including poverty-related and neglected diseases, non-communicable and rare diseases) and reduce the disease burden on patients effectively thanks to better understanding and treatment of diseases, more effective and innovative health technologies, better ability and preparedness to manage epidemic outbreaks and improved patient safety’. In addition, research and innovation supported under this destination could also contribute to the following impact areas: ‘A resilient EU prepared for emerging threats’, ‘Climate change mitigation and adaptation’, and ‘High quality digital services for all’.

Communicable and non-communicable diseases cause the greatest amounts of premature death and disability in the EU and worldwide. They pose a major health, societal and economic threat and burden. Many people are still suffering from these diseases and too often dying prematurely. Non-communicable diseases, including mental illnesses and neurodegenerative diseases, are responsible for up to 80% of EU health care costs[[Currently, around 50 million people in the EU are estimated to suffer from two or more chronic conditions, and most of these people are over 65. Every day, 22 500 people die in Europe from those diseases, counting of 87% of all deaths. They account for 550 000 premature deaths of people of working age with an estimated €115 billion economic loss per year (0.8% of GDP).]]. These costs are spent on the treatment of such diseases that to a large extent are preventable. Furthermore, only around 3% of the health care budgets are currently spent on preventive measures although there is a huge potential for prevention. Infectious diseases, including emerging infectious diseases and infections resistant to antimicrobials, remain a major threat to public health in the EU but also to global health security. Deaths caused by antimicrobial resistance (AMR) could exceed 10 million per year worldwide according to some predictions[[AMR is estimated to be responsible for 25 000 deaths per year in the EU alone and 700 000 deaths per year globally. It has been estimated that AMR might cause more deaths than cancer by 2050.]].

To further advance, there is an urgent need for research and innovation to develop new preparedness and prevention measures, public health interventions, diagnostics, vaccines, therapies, alternatives to antimicrobials, as well as to improve existing preparedness and prevention strategies to create tangible impacts, taking into account sex/gender-related issues. This will require international cooperation to pool the best expertise and know-how available worldwide, to access world-class research infrastructures and to leverage critical scales of investments on priority needs through a better alignment with other funders of international cooperation in health research and innovation. The continuation of international partnerships and cooperation with international organisations is particularly needed to combat infectious diseases, to address antimicrobial resistances, to respond to major unmet medical needs for global health security, including the global burden of non-communicable diseases, and to strengthen patient safety.

In this work programme, destination 3 will focus on major societal challenges linked to the Commission’s political priorities such as the fight against cancer and other non-communicable diseases, better diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases, preparedness and response to and surveillance of health threats and epidemics, reduction of the number of antimicrobial-resistant infections, improving vaccination rates, demographic change, mental health and digital empowerment in health literacy. In particular, the topics under this destination will support activities aiming at: i) better understanding of diseases, their drivers and consequences, including pain and the causative links between health determinants and diseases, and better evidence-base for policymaking; ii) better methodologies and diagnostics that allow timely and accurate diagnosis, identification of personalised treatment options and assessment of health outcomes, including for patients with a rare disease; iii) development and validation of effective intervention for better surveillance, prevention, detection, treatment and crisis management of infectious disease threats; iv) innovative health technologies developed and tested in clinical practice, including personalised medicine approaches and use of digital tools to optimise clinical workflows; v) new and advanced therapies for non-communicable diseases, including rare diseases developed in particular for those without approved options, supported by strategies to make them affordable for the public payer; and vi) scientific evidence for improved/tailored policies and legal frameworks and to inform major policy initiatives at global level (e.g. WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control; UNEA Pollution Implementation Plan).

In view of increasing the impact of EU investments under Horizon Europe, the European Commission welcomes and supports cooperation between EU-funded projects to enable cross-fertilisation and other synergies. This could range from networking to joint activities such as the participation in joint workshops, the exchange of knowledge, the development and adoption of best practices, or joint communication activities. Opportunities for potential synergies exist between projects funded under the same topic but also between other projects funded under another topic, cluster or pillar of Horizon Europe (but also with ongoing projects funded under Horizon 2020). In particular, this could involve projects related to European health research infrastructures (under pillar I of Horizon Europe), the EIC strategic challenges on health and EIT-KIC Health (under pillar III of Horizon Europe), or in areas cutting across the health and other clusters (under pillar II of Horizon Europe). For instance, with cluster 3 “Civil security for society” such as on health security/emergencies (preparedness and response, medical countermeasures, epidemic outbreaks/pandemics, natural disasters and technological incidents, bioterrorism); with cluster 4 “Digital, Industry and Space” such as on decision-support systems or on geo-observation and monitoring (e.g. of disease vectors, epidemics); or with cluster 6 “Food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture and environment” such as on health security and AMR (one-health: human/animal/plant/soil/water health). In addition, while focusing on civilian applications, there may be there may be synergies with actions conducted under the European Defence Fund, notably in the field of defence medical countermeasures.

Based on needs that emerged during the management of COVID-19, some research and innovation actions under Destination 3 should support the mission of the European Health Emergency and Response Authority (HERA) to strengthen Europe’s ability to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to cross-border health emergencies by ensuring the availability and access to key medical countermeasures. Other actions should deliver relevant complementary inputs to the “Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan”[[https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12154-Europe-s-Beating-Cancer-Plan]] in order to cover the entire cancer care pathway, including prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, cancer data monitoring, as well as quality of life of cancer patients and survivors. Furthermore, synergies and complementarities will be sought between Destination 3 and the implementation of the EU4Health Programme (2021-2027)[[https://ec.europa.eu/health/funding/eu4health_en]]. These synergies and complementarities could be achieved, notably through mechanisms based on feedback loops, enabling on the one hand to identify policy needs that should be prioritised in research and innovation actions and facilitating on the other hand the implementation of research results into policy actions and clinical practice, thereby providing an integrated response across sectors and policy fields.

Expected impacts:

Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to tackling diseases and reducing disease burden, and more specifically to several of the following impacts:

• Health burden of diseases in the EU and worldwide is reduced through effective disease management, including through the development and integration of innovative diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, personalised medicine approaches, digital and other people-centred solutions for health care. In particular, patients are diagnosed early and accurately and receive effective, cost-efficient and affordable treatment, including patients with a rare disease, due to effective translation of research results into new diagnostic tools and therapies.
• Premature mortality from non-communicable diseases is reduced by one third (by 2030), mental health and well-being is promoted, and the voluntary targets of the WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs 2013-2020 are attained (by 2025), with an immediate impact on the related disease burden (DALYs)[[WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs 2013-2020 (resolution WHA66.10), https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241506236]]^,[[Including for instance the following voluntary targets (against the 2010 baseline): A 25% relative reduction in the overall mortality from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, or chronic respiratory diseases; Halt the rise in diabetes and obesity; An 80% availability of the affordable basic technologies and essential medicines, including generics, required to treat major non-communicable diseases in both public and private facilities.]]^, [[Disability-adjusted life year (DALY) is a quantitative indicator of overall disease burden, expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death.]].
• Health care systems benefit from strengthened research and innovation expertise, human capacities and know-how for combatting communicable and non-communicable diseases, including through international cooperation. In particular, they are better prepared to respond rapidly and effectively to health emergencies and are able to prevent and manage communicable diseases transmissions epidemics, including within healthcare settings.
• Citizens benefit from reduced (cross-border) health threat of epidemics and AMR pathogens, in the EU and worldwide[[WHO global action plan on antimicrobial resistance, 2015]]^, [[EU One Health Action Plan against AMR, 2017]].
• Patients and citizens are knowledgeable of disease threats, involved and empowered to make and shape decisions for their health, and better adhere to knowledge-based disease management strategies and policies (especially for controlling outbreaks and emergencies).

The EU benefits from high visibility, leadership and standing in international fora on global health and global health security.

General conditions

1. Admissibility conditions: described in Annex Aand Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes

Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System

2. Eligible countries: described in Annex Bof the Work Programme General Annexes

A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

3. Other eligibility conditions: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes

In recognition of the opening of the US National Institutes of Health’s programmes to European researchers, any legal entity established in the United States of America is eligible to receive Union funding. Because the US contribution will be considered for the calculation of the EU contribution to the partnership, the concerned consortium of research funders from eligible EU Members States and Associated Countries must expressly agree to this participation.

The following exceptions apply: subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes

5.Evaluation and award:

• Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex Dof the Work Programme General Annexes

The thresholds for each criterion will be 4 (Excellence), 4 (Impact) and 3 (Implementation). The cumulative threshold will be 12.

• Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual

• Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes

Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties. The support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants. Financial support provided by the participants to third parties is one of the primary activities of the action in order to be able to achieve its objectives. Given the type of action and its level of ambition, the maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 3.00 million. However, if the objectives of the action would otherwise be impossible or overly difficult (and duly justified in the proposal) the maximum amount may be higher.

The funding rate is 50% of the eligible costs. This is justified by the pooling of proposers' in-kind contributions and in-house activities and by the nature of activities to be performed: in addition of joint calls, sustain and further develop the EU-wide networks and infrastructures for clinical research, and in particular a network of ever-warm clinical trial sites.

Specific conditions

7. Specific conditions: described in the specific topic of the Work Programme

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The submission system is planned to be opened on the date stated on the topic header.

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