Horizon Europe: funding opportunities

Staying Healthy (Two stage - 2024) (HORIZON-HLTH-2024-STAYHLTH-01-two-stage)

Deadline model: two stages

Opening date: 30 March 2023

Deadline dates:

• 19 September 2023 17:00:00 Brussels time
• 11 April 2024 17:00:00 Brussels time

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are responsible for the majority of the disease burden in Europe and are the leading cause of avoidable premature death. The human and financial cost of NCDs is high and expected to grow. Reducing the burden of NCDs requires a holistic approach and tackling health inequalities across the board. Preventing NCDs from developing in the first place will be at the core of successful public health programmes in the future.

Personalised approaches and the development of targeted interventions have led to an impressive progress in several fields of medicine and have been included in many treatments. However, the use of stratification and individualisation in guiding prevention strategies is still not widely in use even though examples of its potential are accumulating. Identifying people at risk of developing a particular disease before the disease starts to manifest itself with symptoms greatly improves treatment options. It is estimated that about two thirds of all NCDs are preventable, many affecting people who are unaware of their disease risks or do not have access to information pertaining to the management of the condition.

Personalised prevention is the assessment of health risks for individuals based on their specific background traits to recommend tailored prevention This can include any evidence-based method. Personalised prevention strategies complement general public health prevention programmes without replacing them, optimising the benefit of both approaches. Personalised prevention is ideally suited to the use of large data sets, computational and omics approaches, with design and use of algorithms, integrating in-depth biological and medical information, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and ‘virtual twin’ technology, taking into account explainable and transparent AI.

The funded projects will work towards reducing the burden of NCDs in line with the ‘Healthier Together’ – EU Non-Communicable Diseases Initiative This does not limit the scope of projects under this topic to particular diseases as any disease area of interest, co-morbidities and health determinants can be addressed.

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Tools and technologies for a healthy society (Two stage - 2024) (HORIZON-HLTH-2024-TOOL-05-two-stage)

Deadline model: two stages

Opening date: 30 March 2023

Deadline dates:

• 19 September 2023 17:00:00 Brussels time
• 11 April 2024 17:00:00 Brussels time

The proposal(s) should develop and/or use tools and strategies that address critical areas of biomedical research where animal-models are currently used but are of limited translational value for investigation and development of prevention and treatment. Such advanced tools and strategies should aim at a better understanding of the pathogenesis of disorders that feature a high impact on public health and exhibit a high rate of animal use or severe animal suffering, and enable to develop biomedical concepts with increased translational value, thereby ultimately leading to improved disease prediction, prevention and treatment.

The proposals should address all of the following aspects:

• The innovative tools and strategies should include a variety of technologies and methodological approaches such as –omics and other high-throughput procedures, human-derived cell-based material, organoids, micro-physiological systems, and in-silico models.

• The newly proposed tools and strategies should demonstrably advance the state-of-the-art in specific areas of biomedical research.

• Prospects and avenues for dissemination, knowledge sharing, uptake or translation into health policies of the proposed tools and strategies within the EU should be provided.

• Aspects such as harm and cost-benefit assessment as well as ease of production with respect to current practices should also be considered.

• Criteria for model qualification and standardisation should be developed in well-justified use-case contexts to demonstrate their translational values.

Proposals could consider the involvement of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) to provide added-value regarding such aspects as supporting validation of emerging approaches, promotion of research results, and the interfacing with the regulatory community. In this respect, the JRC is open to collaborate with any successful proposal after the selection process has been completed.