Details of European Partnerships in health under Horizon Europe can be found on the Website of the European Commission.
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.
The EU-Africa Global Health Partnership is the third program of the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP3).
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.
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 partnerships.
A total of 200 partner organizations from 28 countries and EU institutions are involved in PARC.
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.
34 organizations from 22 countries work together in ERA4Health. The initiative will start at the end of 2022 and the first open tenders are expected to take place at the beginning of 2023.
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 aim of the partnership 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 is expected to start at the end of 2023 and will conduct open calls for tender.
Planned for 2023/2024
The partnership 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 is expected to start at the end of 2023 and then conduct open tenders.
Planned for 2023/2024
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 at the end of 2024 and then conduct open tenders.
Planned for 2023/2024
This partnership (co-financed or co-programmed) is currently being prepared by the EU project BE.READY that started in June 2022.
Planned for 2023/2024
ERA-Nets und 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 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 coordinates national research funding and supports collaborative action for filling knowledge gaps on AMR with a One Health perspective.
JPI MYBL is working on a programmed approach to enhance coordination and collaboration between national and international research programmes related to demographic change.
JPI HDHL 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 EJP RD will develop 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 ERA-NET NEURON 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 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 has the goal of creating and funding collaborative research and innovation projects that can convert research in nanotechnology into practical gains in medicine.
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.
