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

The EU4Health Programme has announced a funding opportunity under the identifier EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-02 for piloting and implementing cancer screening programs for lung cancer. The total budget for this call is €7,440,000, targeting the enhancement of early detection and efficiency of lung cancer screening across EU Member States and relevant candidate countries.

This funding is structured as an EU4H Project Grant and follows a single-stage application process scheduled to open on September 23, 2025, and close on January 6, 2026. Eligible applicant types are likely to include public health organizations, research institutions, universities, hospitals, and other entities involved in healthcare and cancer screening; however, specific eligibility criteria can be found in section 6 of the call document.

The geographic scope covers EU Member States and candidate countries, focusing on the health sector, specifically cancer screening, medical imaging, and artificial intelligence in health. The project is aimed at implementation, piloting, and rolling out lung cancer screening programs, indicating a focus on practical application rather than basic research.

Support for these projects will be provided through grant funding at a standard rate of 60% of eligible costs, with potential for coverage up to 80% for projects deemed to have exceptional utility. Projects must demonstrate a commitment to co-funding a portion of the costs, which is standard for EU grants.

Activities under this initiative may include conducting implementation research, monitoring ongoing projects, aggregating and analyzing cancer imaging datasets, and facilitating collaboration among various stakeholders such as hospitals, research institutions, and medical societies to ensure effective knowledge transfer and dissemination.

The call emphasizes a collaborative approach and supports cross-border multi-centric cooperation to enhance the impact of screening programs. This aligns with broader EU initiatives to create a unified approach to cancer care across Europe.

In summary, the EU4Health Programme call EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-02 seeks comprehensive proposals to implement and pilot lung cancer screening programs that utilize advanced technologies and collaborative strategies, providing considerable financial resources to advance public health initiatives across Europe. Interested parties are advised to review the detailed application guidelines and eligibility criteria outlined in the call document and annexes.

This EU funding opportunity is part of the EU4Health Programme (EU4H) and falls under the EU4H SANTE Action Grants 2025 (EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ) call. It is specifically for EU4H Project Grants (EU4H-PJG) with a budget-based EU4H Action Grant (EU4H-AG) mechanism. The call is forthcoming and follows a single-stage submission process. The planned opening date is September 23, 2025, and the deadline for submission is January 6, 2026, at 17:00:00 Brussels time.

The objective of this call is to contribute to the implementation of lung cancer screening programs to enhance early detection and program efficiency. This involves gradual and appropriate planning, piloting, and roll-out of screening programs that align with national priorities and the latest scientific advancements, as outlined in the 2022 Council Recommendation on cancer screening. A key aspect is the assessment and exploration of AI use in ongoing and pilot programs, where feasible. The call also emphasizes synergies with the European Cancer Imaging Initiative, particularly the Cancer Image Europe platform, and the "Call for proposals on advancing the adoption of artificial intelligence in health" (DI-g-24-76 from the 2024 EU4Health Work Programme).

The expected impact includes: regularly updated reporting and gap analysis to guide Member States, enhanced knowledge on feasible and successful modalities of lung cancer screening programs including the integration of new AI-based screening technologies to improve detection and reduce disparities across Member States, further roll-out of lung cancer screening, and further availability of lung cancer screening programs across the Member States.

The scope of activities may include: facilitating implementation research via new pilots and 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 SOLACE 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, and regular quality assessment and improvement of implementation research. It also includes facilitating aggregation and analysis of the cancer imaging datasets allowing crossborder multi-centric cooperation on AI studies including research and development of replicable AI algorithms for lung cancer screening and for strengthening the evidence base for AI uptake in lung cancer screening programmes, collection and assessment of benefits/harms data and other data on outcomes quality assurance and cost-effectiveness relating to lung 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 and relevant candidate countries relating to lung cancer screening, close collaboration with related projects such as those covering prostate and gastric 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 and alignment with the Commission’s Joint Research Centre and the outputs of the planned Commission Initiative on Lung Cancer, and exploration of the potential of artificial intelligence (‘AI’) in lung cancer screening in synergy with the activities under the European Cancer Imaging Initiative.

The admissibility conditions cover proposal page limits and layout, which are described in section 5 of the call document and Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. Eligible countries and other eligible conditions are described in section 6 of the call document. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion criteria are detailed in section 7 of the call document. The evaluation and award processes, including submission, evaluation, award criteria, scoring, and thresholds, are described in sections 8 and 9 of the call document and the Online Manual. The indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement is in section 4 of the call document. The legal and financial setup of the grants is described in section 10 of the call document.

The call document and annexes include the call document itself, application form templates (standard EU4H application form available in the Submission System, detailed budget table), model grant agreements (EU4H MGA), the EU4H Work Programme, EU4H Regulation 2021/522, EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509, rules for legal entity validation, LEAR appointment and financial capacity assessment, the EU Grants AGA (Annotated Model Grant Agreement), the Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual, Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions, and the Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement.

The budget overview lists the following topics: EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-01 with a budget of 3,000,000 EUR, EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-02 with a budget of 7,440,000 EUR, EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-03 with a budget of 7,440,000 EUR, EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-04 with a budget of 20,000,000 EUR, EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-05 with a budget of 2,000,000 EUR, EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-06 with a budget of 750,000 EUR, EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-07 with a budget of 1,200,000 EUR, EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-08 with a budget of 14,386,810 EUR, and EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-09 with a budget of 600,000 EUR. All topics are single-stage and have the same opening and deadline dates.

LEARs, Account Administrators, and self-registrants can publish partner requests for open and forthcoming topics after logging into the portal. The submission system is planned to open on the date stated in the topic header. For help related to this call, contact HaDEA-HP-CALLS@ec.europa.eu. Additional support resources include the Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ, the IT Helpdesk, and the Online Manual.

In summary, this EU4Health Programme call focuses on implementing and piloting lung cancer screening programs across Member States. It encourages the use of AI and collaboration with other relevant initiatives. The call aims to improve early detection, reduce disparities, and enhance the overall efficiency of lung cancer screening through various research, data analysis, and knowledge exchange activities. The total budget is divided across nine specific project grant topics, each with a defined scope and expected outcomes. Applicants should carefully review the call documents and annexes for detailed information on eligibility, evaluation criteria, and submission procedures.

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 focus on implementing cancer screening programs, eligible applicants could include public health organizations, research institutions, universities, hospitals, healthcare providers, medical societies, patient organizations, and other relevant entities involved in healthcare 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 linking regional/national implementation studies and collaboration with various experts and organizations, suggests that a consortium approach may be beneficial or even necessary to achieve the desired impact.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility is not explicitly stated, but the text mentions "Member States and relevant candidate countries" in the context of knowledge exchange and dissemination. This suggests that the primary geographic focus is on EU Member States and EU candidate countries.

Target Sector: The target sector is health, specifically focusing on cancer screening, lung cancer, artificial intelligence in health, and medical imaging.

Mentioned Countries: The text refers to EU Member States and relevant candidate countries.

Project Stage: The project stage appears to be focused on implementation, piloting, and roll-out of lung cancer screening programs. This includes monitoring ongoing implementation studies, planning new studies, supporting and coordinating implementation within Member States, and quality assessment and improvement of implementation research. Therefore, the project stage is primarily at the implementation and piloting stage, with elements of research and development related to AI applications.

Funding Amount: The funding amounts vary by topic, ranging from €600,000 to €20,000,000. Specifically:
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-01: €3,000,000
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-02: €7,440,000
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-03: €7,440,000
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-04: €20,000,000
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-05: €2,000,000
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-06: €750,000
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-07: €1,200,000
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-08: €14,386,810
EU4H-2026-SANTE-PJ-09: €600,000

Application Type: The application type is an open call, with a single-stage submission process.

Nature of Support: The beneficiaries will receive money in the form of grants to support the implementation of lung cancer screening programs 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 opportunity is a call for proposals under the EU4Health Programme, specifically targeting the implementation and piloting of lung cancer screening programs across EU Member States and relevant candidate countries. The call aims to enhance early detection and improve the efficiency of these programs by leveraging the latest scientific advancements and integrating AI-based screening technologies. The scope of the action includes facilitating implementation research, aggregating and analyzing cancer imaging datasets, collecting and assessing benefits/harms data, linking relevant experts and organizations, and disseminating knowledge. The call is structured as a single-stage application process, with grants ranging from €600,000 to €20,000,000 available for selected projects. The EU4Health Programme is seeking projects that will contribute to regularly updated reporting and gap analysis to guide Member States, enhanced knowledge on the current state of play and feasible and successful modalities of lung 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 lung cancer screening and further availability of lung cancer screening programmes across the Member States. Applicants should carefully review the call document and annexes for detailed information on eligibility criteria, proposal requirements, and evaluation processes. The call emphasizes collaboration with related projects and alignment with the Commission's initiatives on cancer. The planned opening date for submissions is September 23, 2025, with a deadline of January 6, 2026.