Cluster 1 Health: Success, Funding Opportunities and Future Direction
Horizon Europe has made available €843 million for Health Cluster projects and €117 million for Cancer Mission projects under the 2025 Work Programmes.
Ireland’s success in the Health Cluster
Ireland has delivered an excellent performance in the first half of Horizon Europe (2021-2024), securing above €92m in funding from the Horizon Europe Health Cluster, including the Cancer Mission. This represents 2.5% of the total available budget.
The Irish health research community is actively collaborating with European colleagues across a wide range of health research areas. Ireland is leading 14 collaborative health projects in important areas such as bioprinting, cancer, planetary health, mental health, autism, palliative care, rare eye disease, metabolic disease, Crohn's disease, chronic migraine, as well as climate neutral health and care systems.
These projects employ diverse tools and approaches including healthcare interventions, implementation science, therapeutics, epigenetics, personalised medicine, computational modelling, and artificial intelligence (AI).
Figure 1: The Irish Health team attending the Horizon Europe Health Programme Committee meeting in Brussels last May. Left to right; Patricia Clarke, National Delegate; Irene Castellano, National Contact Point; and Martha Cahill, National Contact Point
Open opportunities under the Health Cluster and Cancer Mission 2025
The 2025 Work Programme is the first under the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025-2027. It aligns with the European Commission (EC)'s Political Guidelines for 2024-2029, focusing on strengthening healthcare resilience, leveraging biotechnology and AI, and addressing evolving public health needs.
Cluster 1: Health
Horizon Europe Health Cluster 2025 Work Programme is published here. Single stage calls will close on 16 September 2025. For two-stage calls, the first stage deadline is 16 September 2025. The second stage deadline (for successful proposals) is 16 April 2026. Open call topics include:
Destination 1 (€40 million)
HORIZON-HLTH-2025-03-STAYHLTH-01-two-stage: Improving the quality of life of persons with intellectual disabilities and their families
HORIZON-HLTH-2025-03-ENVHLTH-01-two-stage: The impact of pollution on the development and progression of brain diseases and disorders
HORIZON-HLTH-2025-03-ENVHLTH-02-two-stage: Advancing knowledge on the impacts of micro- and nanoplastics on human health
Destination 3 (€365.5 million)
- HORIZON-HLTH-2025-01-DISEASE-01: Testing safety and efficacy of phage therapy for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections
- HORIZON-HLTH-2025-03-DISEASE-02-two-stage: Advancing innovative interventions for mental, behavioural and neurodevelopmental disorders
- HORIZON-HLTH-2025-01-DISEASE-03: Development of antibodies and antibody-derived proteins for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases with epidemic potential
- HORIZON-HLTH-2025-01-DISEASE-04: Leveraging artificial intelligence for pandemic preparedness and response
- HORIZON-HLTH-2025-01-DISEASE-05: Support for the functioning of the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R).
- HORIZON-HLTH-2025-01-DISEASE-06: Implementation research addressing strategies to strengthen health systems for equitable high-quality care and health outcomes in the context of non-communicable diseases (GACD)
- HORIZON-HLTH-2025-01-DISEASE-07: Tackling high-burden for patients and under-researched medical conditions
- HORIZON-HLTH-2025-01-CARE-01: End user-driven application of Generative Artificial Intelligence models in healthcare (GenAI4EU)
- HORIZON-HLTH-2025-01-TOOL-01: Enhancing cell therapies with genomic techniques
- HORIZON-HLTH-2025-01-TOOL-02: Advancing cell secretome-based therapies
- HORIZON-HLTH-2025-01-TOOL-03: Leveraging multimodal data to advance Generative Artificial Intelligence applicability in biomedical research (GenAI4EU)
- HORIZON-HLTH-2025-01-TOOL-05: Boosting the translation of biotech research into innovative health therapies
- HORIZON-HLTH-2025-01-IND-01: Optimising the manufacturing of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs)
- HORIZON-HLTH-2025-01-IND-02: Digitalisation of conformity assessment procedures of medical devices and in vitro diagnostic medical devices
- HORIZON-HLTH-2025-03-IND-03-two-stage: Facilitating the conduct of multinational clinical studies of orphan devices and/or of highly innovative (“breakthrough”) devices
2025 Health Cluster Info Day recordings are available here. Access the Q&A timestamped answers in this HNN3.0 document
Cancer Mission
The Cancer Mission 2025 Work Programme is published here. All calls are single stage, with a submission deadline of 16 September 2025. The total budget available is €117 million. Open call topics include:
· HORIZON-MISS-2025-CANCER-02-01: Sustained collaboration of national and regional cancer funders to support the Cancer Mission through translational research
· HORIZON-MISS-2025-CANCER-02-02: Understanding the effects of environmental exposure on the risk of paediatric, adolescent and young adult cancers
· HORIZON-MISS-2025-CANCER-02-03: Innovative surgery as the cornerstone of affordable multi-modal therapeutic interventions benefitting cancer patients with locally advanced or metastatic disease
· HORIZON-MISS-2025-CANCER-02-04: Investigator-initiated multinational early-stage innovative clinical trials for paediatric cancer
· HORIZON-MISS-2025-CANCER-02-05: Pragmatic clinical trials to enhance the quality of life of older cancer patients (65 years and older) through nutrition
· HORIZON-MISS-2025-CANCER-02-06: Support to the network of National Cancer Mission Hubs (NCMHs)
Cancer Mission 2025 Info Day recording is available here.
Key Novelties:
Applicants should review updated rules in the Horizon Europe General Annexes including:
1. NEW – Changes in the gender balance in research teams ranking criterion for ex aequo proposals
Now applies only to researchers in leading roles, as indicated in Part A of the proposal
2. Ongoing Pilot on Blind Evaluation
Applies to the first stage of two stage calls. Proposals that include identifying information are deemed ineligible
3. Lump sum
Adoption is expanding in the 2025 Work Programmes. Proposals must align with this financial model where applicable
4. Clinical Study Template
Essential for health research projects that include clinical trials, and also for projects managing patient data. It is evaluated as part of the Excellence criterion
Future direction of the Health Cluster
The EC has recently published its Life Science Strategy: Europe for life sciences A strategy to position the EU as the world’s most attractive place for life sciences by 2030. Alongside this, biotechnology and AI, are also expected to remain central themes in the 2026-2027 Work Programme and beyond.
The final Horizon Europe Work Programmes for the Health Cluster and Cancer Mission are under development and expected in December 2025. In the meanwhile, discussions on the future of the EU Research and Innovation Framework Programme are ongoing. Ireland’s preliminary position paper can be found here.