Call for proposals to pilot and implement cancer screening programmes for gastric cancer

The EU4Health Programme has initiated a call for proposals to pilot and implement cancer screening programs specifically for gastric cancer, identified as EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-01. The funding opportunity outlines the opening date as September 23, 2025, with a submission deadline of January 6, 2026, and a total budget of €3,000,000 allocated for this initiative.

Eligible applicants for this grant encompass a range of organizations and institutions involved in health and cancer screening. This includes academia, research institutes, national and regional health authorities, hospitals, civil society organizations, expert networks, and established public health networks. Notably, proposals can be submitted by single applicants rather than necessitating a consortium, which provides flexibility for specialized organizations.

The funding, categorized as an EU4H Project Grant with a budget-based model, aims to support public health initiatives without the expectation of repayment. The project focuses on the geographic scope of EU Member States and European Economic Area countries, emphasizing the implementation of gastric cancer screening programs within these jurisdictions.

Projects are expected to be in the implementation stage, concentrating on practical healthcare delivery rather than research. The initiative aims to further the rollout of gastric cancer screening in alignment with European health policies, particularly following the 2022 Council Recommendation on cancer screening. The budget reflects the complexity of implementing these health interventions across various healthcare systems.

Applications will be submitted through a single-stage process, allowing complete proposals to be submitted directly. A virtual information session is scheduled for October 9, 2025, to guide potential applicants through the submission process.

The support will be in the form of direct monetary grants, eligible for expenses related to project implementation, including costs for personnel, equipment, and research. Success rates have not been specified, which could suggest a competitive yet focused field of applicants likely to possess relevant experience in healthcare program implementation.

While co-funding requirements were not explicitly detailed, applicants are encouraged to check the full call documentation for specific conditions. The overarching goal of this EU4Health call is to advance gastric cancer screening across Europe, harmonizing practices and ensuring access to innovative screening technologies, including the potential integration of artificial intelligence for enhanced detection and reduced disparities in cancer care.

In summary, this funding opportunity presents a significant investment geared toward better cancer screening solutions in Europe, particularly targeting gastric cancer and demonstrating a commitment to improving public health through effective and evidence-based practices.

The EU4Health Programme (EU4H) has announced a call for proposals to pilot and implement cancer screening programmes for gastric cancer under the EU4H SANTE Action Grants 2025 (EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ). The call is for EU4H Project Grants (EU4H-PJG) with a budget-based EU4H Action Grant (EU4H-AG) mechanism. The deadline model is single-stage. The planned opening date is 23 September 2025, and the deadline is 6 January 2026 at 17:00:00 Brussels time.

The expected impact of this call is to achieve regularly updated reporting and gap analysis to guide Member States, enhance knowledge on the current state and feasible and successful modalities of gastric cancer screening programmes, including the integration of new AI-based screening technologies to improve detection and reduce disparities across Member States, further roll-out of gastric cancer screening, and further availability of gastric cancer screening programmes in relevant Member States based on European Guidelines, as available.

The objective of this action is to contribute to the implementation of gastric cancer screening programmes in a stepwise approach to ensure the gradual and appropriate planning, piloting, and roll-out of the screening programmes within national priorities, as called for in the 2022 Council Recommendation on cancer screening. The use of AI in ongoing (pilot) programmes shall be assessed, and the potential use of AI, where feasible, further be explored. Potential synergies with the project stemming out of the “Call for proposals on advancing the adoption of artificial intelligence in health” (DI-g-24-76 of 2024 EU4Health work programme) shall be explored.

The scope of the action may include facilitating implementation research via new pilots and programme rollout initiatives through monitoring and assessment of on-going implementation studies, defining needs for and planning of new implementation studies based on gap analyses, building on deliverables of the TOGAS project, supporting, coordinating and running implementation studies within Member States, linking regional/national implementations studies within Member States to reduce duplication and human/financial resources as well as to increase study impact, regular quality assessment and improvement of implementation research, collection and assessment of benefits/harms data and other data on outcomes, quality assurance and cost-effectiveness relating to gastric cancer screening programmes from the national level based on the established methods, infrastructure, and networks within the previous EU4Health Programme funded projects, linking relevant experts and representatives from European medical societies and patient organisations to ensure broad outreach to corresponding national partner societies and patient organisations, effective dissemination as well as bidirectional knowledge exchange with all Member States relating to gastric cancer screening, close collaboration with related projects, such as those covering lung and prostate cancer screening, and the Joint Action Implementation of cancer screening programmes (‘EUCanScreen’) from the 2023 EU4Health work programme action CR-g-23-38, close collaboration with the Commission’s Joint Research Centre, and the alignment with the outputs of the planned Commission Initiative on Gastric Cancer, and exploration of the potential of AI in gastric cancer screening.

The conditions for this call are as follows:

1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout are described in section 5 of the call document and Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.
2. Eligible Countries are described in section 6 of the call document.
3. Other Eligible Conditions are described in section 6 of the call document.
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion are described in section 7 of the call document.
5a. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes are described in section 8 of the call document and the Online Manual.
5b. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in section 9 of the call document.
5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement are described in section 4 of the call document.
6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants are described in section 10 of the call document.

The call document and annexes include the Call document, Application form templates (Standard application form (EU4H) available in the Submission System, Detailed budget table (EU4H)), Model Grant Agreements (MGA) (EU4H MGA), EU4H Work Programme, EU4H Regulation 2021/522, 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, and Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement.

The budget overview for the year 2025 is as follows:

EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-01 EU4H Project Grants 3 000 000 EUR single-stage 2025-09-23 2026-01-06
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-02 EU4H Project Grants 7 440 000 EUR single-stage 2025-09-23 2026-01-06
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-03 EU4H Project Grants 7 440 000 EUR single-stage 2025-09-23 2026-01-06
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-04 EU4H Project Grants 20 000 000 EUR single-stage 2025-09-23 2026-01-06
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-05 EU4H Project Grants 2 000 000 EUR single-stage 2025-09-23 2026-01-06
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-06 EU4H Project Grants 750 000 EUR single-stage 2025-09-23 2026-01-06
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-07 EU4H Project Grants 1 200 000 EUR single-stage 2025-09-23 2026-01-06
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-08 EU4H Project Grants 14 386 810 EUR single-stage 2025-09-23 2026-01-06
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-09 EU4H Project Grants 600 000 EUR single-stage 2025-09-23 2026-01-06

LEARs, Account Administrators, or self-registrants can publish partner requests for open and forthcoming topics after logging into this Portal, as well as any user having an active public Person profile. The submission system is planned to be opened on the date stated on the topic header. For help related to this call, contact HaDEA-HP-CALLS@ec.europa.eu. Additional support is available through the Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ Submission of proposals, the IT Helpdesk for technical questions, and the Online Manual for step-by-step guidance.

In summary, this EU4Health Programme call invites proposals for projects aimed at piloting and implementing gastric cancer screening programs across EU Member States. It emphasizes a phased approach, integrating AI technologies, and fostering collaboration among various stakeholders to improve early detection and reduce disparities in cancer screening. The call provides a significant funding opportunity for projects that can demonstrate a clear plan for implementation research, data collection, dissemination, and alignment with EU health initiatives.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly stated in the provided text. However, based on the nature of the EU4Health Programme and the types of activities described, it can be inferred that eligible applicants could include: research institutes, universities, healthcare providers, public health organizations, medical societies, patient organizations, and other relevant entities involved in health and cancer screening.

Funding Type: The funding type is a grant, specifically an EU4H Project Grant (EU4H-PJG) under the EU4Health Programme. The Model Grant Agreement (MGA) type is EU4H Action Grant Budget-Based [EU4H-AG].

Consortium Requirement: The text does not explicitly state whether a single applicant or a consortium is required. However, the scope of the action, which includes activities such as coordinating implementation studies within Member States and linking relevant experts and representatives from various organizations, suggests that a consortium approach might be beneficial or even necessary to successfully address the call's objectives.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The action aims to guide Member States and ensure the availability of gastric cancer screening programmes in relevant Member States. Therefore, the geographic eligibility is primarily focused on EU Member States.

Target Sector: The target sector is health, specifically focusing on cancer screening and the implementation of gastric cancer screening programmes. The call also targets the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in health technologies for improved detection and reduced disparities in cancer screening.

Mentioned Countries: The call is primarily focused on EU Member States, as the objective is to guide and support these countries in implementing gastric cancer screening programmes.

Project Stage: The project stage is focused on implementation, piloting, and roll-out of gastric cancer screening programmes. This includes facilitating implementation research, supporting new pilots, and monitoring ongoing implementation studies. The call also considers the assessment and potential use of AI in existing or new screening programmes.

Funding Amount: The funding amounts vary by topic, as indicated in the budget overview. The individual project grants range from EUR 600,000 to EUR 20,000,000. Specifically:
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-01: EUR 3,000,000
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-02: EUR 7,440,000
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-03: EUR 7,440,000
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-04: EUR 20,000,000
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-05: EUR 2,000,000
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-06: EUR 750,000
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-07: EUR 1,200,000
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-08: EUR 14,386,810
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-09: EUR 600,000

Application Type: The deadline model is single-stage, meaning applicants submit a full proposal in one stage. The call for proposals is an open call.

Nature of Support: The beneficiaries will receive money in the form of grants to support the implementation of gastric cancer screening programmes and related activities.

Application Stages: The application process is single-stage.

Success Rates: The success rates are not mentioned in the provided text.

Co-funding Requirement: The text does not explicitly state whether co-funding is required.

Summary: This EU4Health Programme call for proposals aims to implement and pilot gastric cancer screening programmes across EU Member States. The call encourages the use of AI technologies to improve detection and reduce disparities in cancer screening. The projects should focus on facilitating implementation research, collecting and assessing data on outcomes and cost-effectiveness, linking relevant experts and organizations, and disseminating knowledge. The call is structured as a single-stage application process, with grants ranging from EUR 600,000 to EUR 20,000,000. Eligible applicants could include research institutes, healthcare providers, medical societies, and patient organizations within EU Member States. The overall goal is to support Member States in gradually planning, piloting, and rolling out effective gastric cancer screening programmes based on European guidelines.