Institutionalized Partnerships
The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) has been set up under Horizon Europe as a successor to the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 (IMI2).
The IHI is a public-private partnership between the European Union, represented by the European Commission, and various healthcare industry associations: EFPIA (pharmaceutical companies), COCIR (imaging, radiotherapy, ICT and electromedicine companies), MedTechEurope (medical technology companies), EuropaBio (biotechnology companies), VaccinesEurope (vaccine companies). The IHI is therefore much broader than the IMI in terms of the industrial sectors involved and the focus on content.
A total budget of 2.4 billion euros is planned for the IHI. The EU Commission contributes EUR 1.2 billion from the health cluster to the financing of the IHI. The industrial associations involved will bring in EUR 1 billion (“in kind contributions”), so-called “contributing partners” such as foundations are to contribute a further EUR 200 million to the financing of the IHI.
The IHI funds collaborative research and innovation projects in which anyone involved in healthcare or medical research can participate, including universities, research institutes, healthcare-related industries, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), patient organisations, regulators, among others.
The priorities to be worked on by the IHI are summarized in the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda. These priorities are to be implemented through large transnational and transsectoral collaborative research and innovation projects in the pre-competitive area. The topics of the call for tenders are mainly developed by the industrial associations involved in the IHI and the EU Commission. Annual calls for project proposals are to be published on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. The calls are made in a one-stage as well as in a two-stage procedure. The Horizon Europe participation rules for research and innovation projects (“Research and Innovation Actions”) apply. However, there are also special features that must be considered.
Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for IHI
Start - 2021
End - 2027
IHI Website
The EU-Africa Global Health Partnership is the third program of the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP3).
Global Health EDCTP3 is a partnership between the European Commission, representing the European Union, and the EDCTP Association, representing the governments of 15 European and 30 sub-Saharan African countries. Established in 2021, the aim of this partnership is to support international research partnerships that accelerate the clinical evaluation of drugs, vaccines and diagnostics for the most important infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. Novel approaches to surveillance and control of emerging/recurrent infections will also be promoted. In addition, clinical research capacities in sub-Saharan Africa are to be strengthened. Building on the two previous EDCTP programs, the partnership will ensure more people have access to new medical interventions and help protect regional and global health security.
Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for EDCTP3
Start - 1 January 2023
End – 31 December 2025
EDCTP Website
Co-funded Partnerships
Details of European Partnerships in health under Horizon Europe can be found on the Website of the European Commission.
The aim of the European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC) is to improve knowledge about chemical substances in order to better protect people's health and the environment.
The partnership started in 2022. Open tenders are not planned, which is an exceptional case for this co-financed partnership.
A total of 200 partner organizations from 28 countries and EU institutions are involved in PARC.
The PARC programme has three main objectives:
- Develop the scientific skills needed to address current and future challenges in chemical safety
- Provide new data, methods and innovative tools to those responsible for assessing and managing the risks of chemical exposure
- Strengthen the networks which bring together actors specialised in the different scientific fields contributing to risk assessment
Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for PARC
Start - 1 May 2022
End - 30 April 2029
PARC Website
Fostering ERA for Health (ERA4Health) is a thematically broad-based initiative in which funding organizations jointly establish research and innovation programs in the field of health. The partnership focuses on tackling diseases and reducing disease burden.
34 organizations from 22 countries work together in ERA4Health. The initiative started in 2022 and publishes open tenders on a regular basis.
The ERA4Health objectives are to:
- Support relevant medical research including clinical fields and intervention areas (prevention, diagnosis, treatment).
- Improve the utilisation of existing health technologies in clinical practice.
- Build capacity, in particular in conducting Investigator Initiated Clinical Studies at EU scale.
- Implement and advance the practice of responsible research and innovation (RRI) across the breadth of the programme.
Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for ERA4Health
Start - 1 November 2022
End - 31 October 2029
ERA4Health Website
Transforming Health and Care Systems (THCS) aims to make Europe's health systems more sustainable, efficient, resilient, inclusive, innovative and of high quality, as well as human-centric and accessible, based on new knowledge. 62 organizations from 25 countries are currently working together in THCS.
The partnerships core activity is the fund of research and innovation projects through joint transnational calls involving a large number of Research and Innovation Funding Organisations on common priorities and topics.
The THCS objectives are:
- Increase funding opportunities and strengthen the research and innovation community
- Fill knowledge gaps
- Increase the ability to implement innovation
- Intensify cooperation among countries and regions and beyond health and care sectors
- Increase stakeholders’ involvement and capacity building
Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for THCS
Start - 1 January 2024
End - 31 December 2029
THCS Website
The aim of the European Partnership for Personalised Medicine (EP PerMed) is the coordination between the EU, EU member states and regions and the promotion of research in the field of personalized medicine. This should also ensure faster implementation of research results and innovations in clinical practice.
The partnership is the follow-up initiative of ICPerMed and the Horizon 2020 ERA-Net ERA PerMed. It started in November 2023 and publishes regularly Joint Transnational Calls.
Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for EP PerMed
Start - 1 November 2023
End - 31 October 2033
EP PerMed Website
The partnership ERDERA (European Rare Disease Research Alliance) aims to improve the lives of people living with rare diseases by developing new diagnostics and treatments. It will coordinate European, national and local research and innovation programs and bring together research funding and research supporting activities.
The partnership is the follow-up initiative of the Horizon 2020 joint program EJP Rare Diseases. It started in September 2024.
The ERDERA roadmap is:
- Generate knowledge and ensure its translation into medical interventions
- Make healthcare and research data accessible and foster its use for scientific and regulatory evaluation & healthcare delivery
- Empower, as equal partners, people living with rare diseases
- Enhance the capabilities and knowledge of rare diseases stakeholders to improve the continuum from research to healthcare
- Break existing silos and integrate a multinational and multi-stakeholder research and innovation ecosystem for rare diseases
Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for ERDERA is not published yet.
Start - 1 September 2024
End - 31 August 2031
ERDERA Website
The partnership aims to coordinate activities and funding in the field of antimicrobial resistance between the EU and the countries involved. The aim is to contribute to the European One Health Action Plan against AMR and the WHO Global Action Plan on AMR. The partnership is the successor initiative to the JPI AMR, which has existed for years. It is expected to start in 2025 and then conduct open tenders.
Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for OHAMR
Planned for 2025
This partnership is currently being prepared by the EU project BE.READY that started in June 2022 and will end in May 2025. The partnership will contribute to enabling Member States and the European Commission to jointly support research and innovation in pandemic preparedness and will aim to improve the EU’s preparedness to predict, prevent and respond to emerging infectious health threats.
Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for Pandemic Preparedness (draft)
Planned for 2025
The partnership is currently being prepared by the coordinating and supporting action Brain Health (Designing a European Brain Health Landscape). The goal of the Brain Health partnership is to maintain and promote brain health in society by addressing the biomedical, economic and social challenges holistically. The partnership will aim to provide innovative solutions to maintain and improve brain health, as well as to prevent, diagnose and treat neurological and mental disorders in Europe and worldwide.
Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for Brain Health (draft)
Planned for 2026
ERA-Nets and JPIs
ERA-NETs and Joint Programming Initiatives (JPI) are alliances between national and regional research funding institutions in different countries that conduct their own transnational calls for proposals.
JPND is an initiative from the last framework programme, Horizon 2020, and aims to increase coordinated investment between participating countries in research aimed at finding causes, developing cures, and identifying appropriate ways to care for those with neurodegenerative diseases.
The JPI AMR is an initiative from the last framework programme, Horizon 2020, and coordinates national research funding and supports collaborative action for filling knowledge gaps on AMR with a One Health perspective.
JPI MYBL is an initiative from the last framework programme, Horizon 2020, and is working on a programmed approach to enhance coordination and collaboration between national and international research programmes related to demographic change.
JPI HDHL is an initiative from the last framework programme, Horizon 2020, and is working on a programmed approach to align national R&I strategies and to fund new research, in order to facilitate true understanding of the relationship between diet, physical activity and health.
The vision of HDHL is that by 2030 all citizens will have the motivation, ability and opportunity to consume a healthy diet from a variety of foods, have healthy levels of physical activity and that the incidence of diet-related diseases will have decreased significantly.
The EJP RD has ended on 31 August 2024. It aimed at developing an effective RD research ecosystem to improve the integration, effectiveness and social impact of RD research by developing, demonstrating and promoting Europe/world-wide research, and sharing clinical data, resources, procedures, knowledge and expertise. The initiative’s commitment to the rare diseases community continues with the European Rare Disease Research Alliance (ERDERA) that started on 01 September 2024.
The ERA-NET NEURON is a Cofund initiative from the last framework programme, Horizon 2020, and is a funding platform focused on brain-related diseases and disorders of the nervous system and holds a strategic position in bringing pre-clinical and clinical research communities closer together and fostering translational research, while covering the entire value chain.
TRANSCAN-3 is a Cofund initiative running until February 2026 and aims at becoming a catalyst for a sustainable model of funding of cancer research in Europe, with an approach driven by what is beneficial to cancer patients and to society as a whole.
EuroNanoMed3 had the goal of creating and funding collaborative research and innovation projects that can convert research in nanotechnology into practical gains in medicine.
The ERA-Net EuroNanoMed3 ended in 2021.
ERA PerMed aims to align national and regional research strategies and funding activities, promoting excellence, reinforcing the competitiveness of European players in Personalised Medicine, and enhancing the collaboration with non-EU countries.
The ERA-Net ERA PerMed ended in 2023.
