Boosting innovation through better integration of fragmented health R&I efforts

The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) Joint Undertaking Call 12 has been launched as part of the Horizon Europe program, emphasizing the need for better integration of fragmented health research and innovation efforts. This single-stage call is specifically looking to fund collaborative public-private partnerships focused on health research and innovation.

Eligible applicants include universities, research organizations, patient organizations, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), mid-sized companies, and large companies based in EU member states, associated countries, and some low- and middle-income countries. Notably, organizations from Canada, the UK, Switzerland, and the Republic of Korea are eligible due to their recent association with Horizon Europe.

The funding mechanism is a direct grant under the Horizon Europe Action Grant Budget-Based model. The total budget allocated for this call is €110 million, expected to fund four projects with grants ranging from €15 million to €60 million each. The call encourages large-scale projects that focus on pre-competitive research and innovation, enabling the development and demonstration of new healthcare solutions.

Applicants must create diverse consortia that include various stakeholders from academia, industry, and healthcare sectors. Proposals should target specific unmet public health needs, channeling innovative solutions into effective healthcare practices. The funded projects will be required to secure at least 45% of their budget from industry contributions, which may include both monetary support and in-kind contributions.

The opportunity aims to drive innovation in health technologies such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, digital health, and medical technology. Applications must be submitted through a single-stage electronic portal by the deadline of April 21, 2026. The proposals should be comprehensive, detailing financial commitments and alignment with the project's objectives.

Historical success rates show a significant variance, indicating high competitiveness. The call emphasizes the need for proposals that demonstrate real-world applicability, regulatory strategies, and align with broader EU initiatives, such as the European Green Deal and the EU's Life Sciences Strategy.

The expected impacts include breaking down barriers between disciplines and strengthening EU competitiveness in health technology, ultimately aiming for improved health outcomes and innovations that are accessible and effective.

The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) JU Call 12 (HORIZON-JU-IHI-2026-12-SINGLE-STAGE) is a Horizon Europe program that aims to boost innovation through better integration of fragmented health Research and Innovation (R&I) efforts. It is a single-stage call for HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) with a HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG] model grant agreement. The call opened on January 15, 2026, and the deadline for submission is April 21, 2026, at 17:00:00 Brussels time.

The overall budget for this call is 110,000,000 EUR, and it is expected to fund 324 grants. The contributions range from 8,000,000 to 30,000,000 EUR, 8,000,000 to 20,000,000 EUR and 15,000,000 to 60,000,000 EUR.

There are also other topics:

HORIZON-JU-IHI-2026-12-SINGLE-STAGE-04 - HORIZON-JU-RIA HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 43,300,000 EUR, expecting to fund 5 grants with contributions ranging from 8,000,000 to 43,300,000 EUR.

HORIZON-JU-IHI-2026-12-SINGLE-STAGE-05 - HORIZON-JU-RIA HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 9,800,000 EUR, expecting to fund 2 grants with contributions ranging from 5,000,000 to 9,800,000 EUR.

The expected impacts of this call include:

Breaking down fragmentation between various disciplines of medicine and technological areas to develop technologically and socially innovative, people-centered, integrated healthcare solutions.
Fostering the development of safe and effective innovative health technologies and their combinations through new and harmonized approaches to data generation.
Better and faster integration of future products, services, and tools along the healthcare pathway, responding to patients’ specific needs and leading to improved health outcomes and patient well-being.
Enabling patients and industry to benefit from innovative manufacturing processes such as 3D printing, on-demand small-scale good manufacturing practice (GMP) synthesis, and on-site portable production systems.
Enabling a green transition across all aspects of healthcare, both in the delivery of healthcare to patients and in the technologies and products that emerge from a competitive European industry.

Funded actions are also expected to contribute to:

Strengthening the competitiveness of the EU’s health industry through increased economic activity in the development of health technologies, particularly integrated health solutions, fostering European technological leadership and the digital transformation of societies.
Implementing the EU’s Life Sciences Strategy, including reinforcing European R&I, biotechnology innovation, bringing together fragmented efforts into dynamic and connected R&I ecosystems, and driving industrial innovation and sustainability.

The actions are expected to consider and contribute to EU programs, initiatives, and policies such as the European Green Deal, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, the EU Mission on Cancer, the upcoming Cardiovascular Plan, the Apply AI Strategy, the European Virtual Human Twins Initiative, the 1+ Million Genomes Initiative, preparedness and response to health emergencies, the upcoming EU Biotech Act, the Regulation on the European Health Data Space (EHDS), and the EU Artificial Intelligence Act.

Applicants must define the outcomes expected to be achieved by their proposal, ensuring that they contribute to the integration of fragmented health R&I efforts to enable the development of tools, data, platforms, technologies, and processes for improved prediction, prevention, interception, diagnosis, treatment, and management of diseases, meeting the needs of end-users in line with the IHI JU’s Specific Objective 2.

Funded projects must deliver results that address public health needs and support the development of future health innovations that are safe, people-centered, effective, cost-effective, and affordable for patients and healthcare systems. These outcomes are also expected to benefit relevant stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem.

The expected outcomes may cover the entire spectrum of care from prevention to disease management and may be centered around disease areas, key themes, or approaches such as prevention, precision diagnostics, personalized medicine, and chronic disease management. They may also include enabling solutions for digitalization, artificial intelligence (AI), regulatory science, greener and more sustainable healthcare, and the deployment and use of these solutions into practice.

The scope of this call is to fund pre-competitive research and innovation for novel tools, methods, and technologies that will foster the development of health innovations to prevent, intercept, diagnose, treat, and manage diseases and enable recovery more efficiently.

Applicants must assemble a collaborative public-private partnership consortium reflecting the integrative and cross-sectoral nature of IHI JU.

Proposals should:

Address an unmet public health need based on the high burden of disease, high economic impact, or the transformational nature of potential results on innovation processes.
Demonstrate the ability to translate research into innovative solutions that can be integrated/implemented into the healthcare ecosystem and/or industrial processes.
Carry out a landscape analysis to avoid unnecessary overlap and duplication of efforts with existing initiatives/projects and to identify potential synergies and complementarities.

When applicable, proposals should consider relevant aspects of patient-centricity, with the help of suitable health technologies and/or social innovations, taking demographic trends into account. Proposals may address specific target populations, underserved communities, or areas with limited resources, and/or support challenging unmet needs and diagnostic or treatment gaps.

Applicants are expected to perform activities at scale that consider the different innovation cycles of the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries and drive concrete and transformational outcomes. The topic welcomes integrated pre-competitive activities, including demonstration pilots, that could accelerate and improve the discovery, development, and piloting of methods and strategies that facilitate the uptake of evidence-based practice and research outcomes into regular use.

If applicable, applicants are expected to consider the potential regulatory impact of the anticipated project’s outputs and develop a regulatory strategy and interaction plan for generating appropriate evidence and for engaging with regulators and other bodies in a timely manner.

Consideration should be given to the Health Data Access Bodies established under the European Health Data Space Regulation in the context of secondary use of data.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to consider relevant measures to provide open access to project-generated outputs such as standards, data sets, and other research results and, if relevant, share evidence on their clinical utility and economic aspects.

The admissibility conditions include a proposal page limit of 50 pages for RIA full proposals, as described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.

Eligible countries are described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

Other eligible conditions are described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes and in the "Conditions of the Calls for proposals and Calls management rules" section of the IHI JU Work Programme (WP).

Financial and operational capacity and exclusion are described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Evaluation and award criteria, scoring, and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes and in the "Conditions of the Calls for proposals and Calls management rules" section of the IHI JU Work Programme (WP).

Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.

The indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement is described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.

The legal and financial set-up of the grants is described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Specific conditions on Availability, Accessibility, and Affordability (3A) apply to this topic. The JU has the right to object to transfer/exclusive licensing.

Templates of reference documents and associated guidance can be found on the IHI JU website. Application forms, templates, and annexes are available to download in the submission system of the Funding and Tender Opportunities portal.

The application form templates specific to this call are available in the Submission System.

The evaluation form for RIA Actions (single and two-stage Calls procedure) is the IHI JU Evaluation form for Research and Innovation Actions.

Proposal templates include Part A (generated by the IT system) and Part B (IHI JU Proposal template (RIA/FP) - Part B).

Compulsory annexes include:

Annex to the budget and type of participants (Excel document)
Declaration of in-kind contribution commitment (Word document)
In-kind contributions to additional activities (IKAA) (Excel template)
Essential information for clinical studies (uploaded as a separate document)
Contributing partners (for consortia involving contributing partners)

An optional ethics annex is available.

Model Grant Agreements (MGA) include the HE MGA.

Additional documents include:

Council Regulation (EU) 2021/2085
IHI JU Work Programme (WP)
Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA)
IHI JU Guide for Applicants
IHI JU FAQs
Horizon Europe Reference Documents
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – General Annexes
HE Programme Guide
EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions
Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement

LEARs, Account Administrators, or self-registrants can publish partner requests for open and forthcoming topics after logging into the Funding & Tenders Portal.

To access the Electronic Submission Service, click on the submission button next to the type of action and the type of model grant agreement that corresponds to your proposal.

The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) JU Call 12 is a funding opportunity under the Horizon Europe program designed to foster collaboration between public and private entities in the health sector. The goal is to integrate fragmented research and innovation efforts to develop new tools, data platforms, technologies, and processes that improve the prediction, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management of diseases. This initiative aims to address unmet public health needs, strengthen the competitiveness of the EU's health industry, and contribute to the implementation of the EU's Life Sciences Strategy. Successful applicants will form collaborative consortia to conduct pre-competitive research and innovation, with a focus on translating research into practical healthcare solutions. The call encourages projects that consider patient-centricity, regulatory impacts, and open access to research outputs, ultimately aiming to create a more effective, efficient, and sustainable healthcare ecosystem across Europe.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly stated, but the call is open to a collaborative public-private partnership consortium. This suggests eligibility for a range of entities including industry (pharmaceutical, medical technology), research organizations, universities, SMEs, and other stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem. The emphasis on cross-sectoral collaboration implies a broad range of eligible organizations. Contributing partners are also mentioned, indicating a tiered participation structure.

Funding Type: The funding type is a grant, specifically a HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Action (HORIZON-JU-RIA) under a HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG] model grant agreement.

Consortium Requirement: A consortium of multiple applicants is required. The call explicitly states that applicants must assemble a collaborative public-private partnership consortium.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility is described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. While not explicitly stated, eligibility extends to EU member states and associated countries. The text mentions that non-EU/non-Associated Countries may have specific provisions for funding.

Target Sector: The target sector is health, with a focus on integrating fragmented health research and innovation efforts. Specific areas include health technologies, integrated health solutions, biotechnology innovation, digital health, artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, regulatory science, precision diagnostics, personalised medicine, chronic disease management, greener and more sustainable healthcare, and the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries. The program also targets the implementation of the EU’s Life Sciences Strategy.

Mentioned Countries: The opportunity details do not explicitly mention specific countries, but it refers to EU member states and associated countries as the primary geographic focus. It also mentions "non-EU and non-associated countries (‘third-countries’)" which may have specific funding provisions.

Project Stage: The project stage targets pre-competitive research and innovation, development of novel tools, methods, and technologies, demonstration pilots, translation of research into innovative solutions, scale-up, and uptake and piloting use in healthcare of novel treatments and healthcare solutions. This suggests a focus on projects ranging from development to demonstration and piloting.

Funding Amount: The funding amounts vary depending on the specific topic within the call:
HORIZON-JU-IHI-2026-12-SINGLE-STAGE-01, HORIZON-JU-IHI-2026-12-SINGLE-STAGE-03, HORIZON-JU-IHI-2026-12-SINGLE-STAGE-02: €8,000,000 to €30,000,000, €8,000,000 to €20,000,000 and €15,000,000 to €60,000,000 respectively.
HORIZON-JU-IHI-2026-12-SINGLE-STAGE-04: €8,000,000 to €43,300,000
HORIZON-JU-IHI-2026-12-SINGLE-STAGE-05: €5,000,000 to €9,800,000

Application Type: The application type is a single-stage call (HORIZON-JU-IHI-2026-12-SINGLE-STAGE).

Nature of Support: Beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a grant to support their research and innovation activities.

Application Stages: The application process is a single-stage procedure.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned. However, the indicative number of grants for some topics is provided, which can give a rough idea of the competition level. For example, one topic indicates 3, 2, and 4 grants, while others indicate 5 and 2 grants.

Co-funding Requirement: The information does not explicitly state a co-funding requirement. However, the mention of "in-kind contributions to additional activities (IKAA)" suggests that applicants may need to contribute resources to the project, potentially in the form of personnel, equipment, or other resources.

Summary: This is a call for proposals under the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) Joint Undertaking, part of the Horizon Europe program. It aims to boost innovation in the health industry by funding research and innovation actions that integrate fragmented health R&I efforts. The focus is on developing novel tools, methods, and technologies to improve the prediction, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management of diseases. The call encourages collaborative public-private partnerships to address unmet public health needs and strengthen the competitiveness of the EU’s health industry. Projects should contribute to the EU’s Life Sciences Strategy and consider relevant EU programs and policies. Applicants must form a consortium and submit a single-stage proposal, with funding amounts varying depending on the specific topic. The call emphasizes patient-centricity, regulatory impact, and open access to research outputs.