The "Blind Evaluation" is a pilot for the anonymous appraisal of short applications (stage 1) in the two-stage application process. Part B of the short application must not contain any information that give information on the identity of the applicant. Otherwise the application is considered inadmissible.
This anonymous application assessment is used in all two-stage application procedures in the 2023/2024 calls for proposals in Clusters 1 Health. Since only single-stage tenders are planned for 2023 in the health cluster, this applies to all two-stage tenders for 2024.
The EU Commission has now updated the application form for the short application and added information on "blind evaluation". The updated application form can be found on the Funding & Tenders Portal.

The UK is currently still in negotiations with the EU for association with Horizon Europe. Institutions from the UK can therefore currently participate in Horizon Europe applications, but will not receive any EU funding, if the UK has not been associated by the time the grant agreement is signed.
The UK government has extended the funding guarantee from national funds. The guarantee commitment covers all calls in Horizon Europe with a submission deadline before or on June 30, 2023. The Cluster Health calls have a deadline in April and are therefore covered by the funding guarantee.

Website UK Research Office

Various Indian ministries, including the Ministry of Biotechnology, have provided co-financing for Indian institutions for a total of eleven call topics of the Horizon Europe program. The following three calls originate from the health cluster:

1. HORIZON-HLTH-2023-DISEASE-03-04: Pandemic preparedness and response: Broad spectrum anti-viral therapeutics for infectious diseases with epidemic potential
2. HORIZON-HLTH-2024-DISEASE-03-13-two-stage: Validation of fluid-derived biomarkers for the prediction and prevention of brain disorders
3. HORIZON-HLTH2024-DISEASE-08-20: Pandemic preparedness and response: Host-pathogen interactions of infectious diseases with epidemic potential

Background: Indian institutions can participate in all Horizon Europe calls, but usually do not receive any EU funding.

More information can be found on the EURAXESS website.

On 3 February 2023, EMA, the Heads of Medicines Agencies (HMA) and the European Commission (EC) have launched a public consultation on the establishment of a multi-stakeholder platform to improve clinical trials in the European Union (EU). The multi-stakeholder platform is a deliverable of the joint initiative Accelerating Clinical Trials in the EU (ACT EU).

Public consultation on a multi-stakeholder platform to improve clinical trials in the EU

The call topic ‘Tackling high-burden for patients, under-researched medical conditions’ (HLTH-2024-DISEASE-03-14) of the Work Programme 2023-2024 of Cluster 1 makes reference to an independent scoping study that the European Commission commissioned.
The exploratory study was aimed at helping to identify high-burden under-researched medical conditions and define the type of research and/or research priorities to better address the different needs of patients with these conditions.

The study is completed and a ‘Discussion paper’ has just been published.

The EU Commission and the New Zealand government have successfully concluded the association negotiations for the Horizon Europe program under Pillar II "Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness". The signing of the association agreement is expected soon. This means that New Zealand institutions and scientists can then receive standard funding within the framework of calls for proposals from Pillar II of Horizon Europe, including the "Health" cluster, and also coordinate projects.

Further information