Irene Castellano Pellicena
National Contact Point (NCP) for Cluster 1 – Health and NCP for Cancer Mission
Health Research Board (HRB)
Ireland’s participation in the Health Cluster
Ireland has had an excellent performance in the first half of Horizon Europe (2021-mid 2024), securing €71.28m in funding from the Horizon Europe Health Cluster including the Cancer Mission and the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) Partnership.
The Irish health community is collaborating with their European colleagues, contributing to vitally important areas of research such as mental health, active healthy living, obesity, metabolic diseases, Crohn’s disease, cancer, rare diseases, stroke, ageing, sepsis and infectious diseases. Tools and approaches used by health researchers in Ireland are diverse and include personalised medicine, computational modelling, AI tools, digital twins, biomarkers, genetic therapies, antivirals, vaccines or healthcare interventions. There are also projects focused on planetary health, healthy cities and the development of climate neutral health and care systems. This collaboration includes public and private partners, international teams and interdisciplinary collaborative projects.
Open opportunities under the Health Cluster
Ireland is very well established to continue securing funding in the area of health for the next three years of Horizon Europe. At the moment, full proposals submitted under the 2024 Health Cluster (Single and Two Stage calls) are under review. Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in July 2024 at the earliest.
Horizon Europe Health Cluster 2023-2024 Work Programme has been amended to include three new call topics. New 2023-25 amended Work Programme is now published.
Current open calls include:
· Closing date: 25 September 2024
HORIZON-HLTH-2024-DISEASE-09-01: European Partnership: One Health Anti-Microbial Resistance
· Closing date: 26 November 2024
HORIZON-HLTH-2024-DISEASE-12-01: European partnership for pandemic preparedness
HORIZON-HLTH-2024-DISEASE-13-01: Implementation research for management of multiple long-term conditions in the context of non-communicable diseases (Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases - GACD)
You can find more information on the new topics and watch the latest InfoDay recording here.
Furthermore, there are six call topics open for proposal submission under the Cancer Mission 2024 Work Programme with a deadline of 18 September. Call topics include:
HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-01:Use cases for the UNCAN.eu research data platform
HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-02: Support to the development of national cancer data nodes
HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-04: Support a pragmatic clinical trial programme by cancer charities
HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-06: An information portal for the European Cancer Patient Digital Centre
For more information on the calls, please watch the Cancer Mission Info Day recorded video.
The partnering system for the Missions has now reopened. Please register here to find partners for any of the Cancer Mission calls above. To learn more about the ‘Understanding Cluster’ of the Cancer Mission, register for the first EU Cancer Mission project cluster (Understanding cancer) policy webinar which will take place on 4 July (8:30am – 11:30am IST).
Finally, the Innovative Health Initiative – call 8 (two stage) will open in the coming months. The following topics are under consideration for inclusion in IHI call 8:
· A city-based approach to reducing cardiovascular mortality in Europe
· Novel endpoints for osteoarthritis (OA) by applying big data analytics
· Patient-centred clinical-study endpoints derived using digital health technologies
If interested, please, register to the IHI Call Days which will take place next 17-21 June 2024.
The future of the Health Cluster:
The second Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025-2027 was published in March 2024 and will guide the focus of the Work Programmes for the next three years. The Health Cluster will have one Work Programme for 2025 and a second one for 2026-2027.
The outcome of the June 2024 EU elections may refine political priorities that will influence work programme topics. Important ‘known’ developments that will influence the next two Health Cluster Work Programmes and beyond include:
· The European Commission recently proposed a series of targeted actions to boost biotechnology and biomanufacturing in the EU in the “Building the future with nature: Boosting Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing in the EU”, which include health relevant actions.
· The European Parliament adopted the provisional agreement on the European Health Data Space (EHDS) regulation last April 2024. The aim is to have a common EU data space for the Health area, contributing to a stronger European Health Union. Of particular importance is the regulation of secondary use of data which will facilitate the use of data for research purposes.
· The Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) of the European Commission was created in 2021, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and its main objective is to anticipate threats and potential health crises, through intelligence gathering and building the necessary response capacities. DG HERA is a co-chair of the Health Programme Committee, alongside DG–RTG, DG Connect and DG Sante, and HERA topics will continue to be included in the Health Cluster. Also, the European Partnership for Pandemic Preparedness topic which is currently open will drive a long-term collaboration in pandemic preparedness research.