Towards a better understanding and anticipation of the impacts of climate change on health

The Horizon Europe grant opportunity ID HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-ENVHLTH-01 focuses on "Towards a better understanding and anticipation of the impacts of climate change on health." This call specifically is a Research and Innovation Action (RIA) and utilizes a Lump Sum Grant approach. The submission process is single-stage, with the planned opening date on February 10, 2026, and the deadline for proposals set for April 16, 2026. The total budget for this initiative is €55 million, with expectations to fund around seven projects, each receiving between €7 million and €8 million.

Eligible applicants include legal entities established in EU member states, associated countries, and certain non-EU entities such as those from the United States. Categories of eligible participants encompass research organizations, higher education institutions, private companies (both SMEs and large enterprises), healthcare institutions, public health authorities, NGOs, and government bodies. The consortium requirement mandates that all proposals selected for funding must form a cluster, ensuring collaborative activities across projects, with approximately 2% of the total requested budget allocated for such coordination.

Geographically, the call primarily targets EU member states and associated countries, as well as encouraging participation from low- and middle-income countries as international cooperation partners. The sectoral focus is on health, specifically examining the impacts of climate change on non-communicable diseases, mental health, and infectious diseases, while integrating considerations around environmental and occupational health. The proposals should aim to increase understanding of climate-health interaction pathways and the societal impact of climate-related health challenges.

The application process is designed to be straightforward, requiring a complete submission during the single-stage proposal period. The funding mechanism aims to facilitate streamlined administration through lump-sum grants, which alleviate detailed cost reporting demands. Although no co-funding is required from applicants, leveraging additional funding is encouraged.

The anticipated outcomes include improved understanding of climatic health risks, enhanced resilience and response strategies, and the development of evidence-based policies. Successful projects are expected to contribute substantially to the European Climate and Health Observatory and influence future climate risk assessments. Overall, this initiative seeks to equip citizens, healthcare practitioners, and policymakers with essential tools and knowledge to address health impacts arising from climate change.

This is a Horizon Europe (HORIZON) call under Cluster 1 Health (Single stage 2026) (HORIZON HLTH 2026 01). The topic is titled "Towards a better understanding and anticipation of the impacts of climate change on health" with topic ID HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 ENVHLTH 01. It is a HORIZON RIA (Research and Innovation Actions) with a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON AG LS] type of Model Grant Agreement (MGA). It is a forthcoming call with a single stage deadline model. The planned opening date is 10 February 2026, and the deadline date is 16 April 2026 at 17:00:00 Brussels time.

The expected outcome of this topic is to support activities that enable or contribute to several expected impacts of destination "Living and working in a health promoting environment". Proposals should aim to deliver results that contribute to the following expected outcomes:

Citizens, patients, public authorities, social care services, healthcare practitioners, and policymakers have a better understanding of climatic health risks and determinants of disease and are better equipped to address health outcomes through enhanced and inclusive prevention, resilience, adaptation, preparedness, and response, including better diagnosis and treatment.

Governments, public health authorities, researchers, and civil society organizations are supported to tackle societal challenges linked to the health impacts of climatic factors.

Public authorities, organizations, and the research community can rely on data collection and sharing according to FAIR principles and leveraging of data availability and quality.

Policymakers and public authorities develop evidence based climate change and health policies and interventions that are nature positive, inclusive, and responsive to diverse population needs.

The scope of this topic is as follows:

The climate crisis poses an existential challenge to planetary and human health with larger effects on populations, groups, and regions in a vulnerable situation. Climate change increases the incidence of non communicable diseases and the prevalence of mental health conditions and facilitates the emergence and spread of infectious diseases. Climate change can act as a risk multiplier and exacerbates existing health conditions and vulnerabilities.

Applicants should explicitly state in their proposal which of the following broad focus areas is targeted, and the proposed work should address only this specific broad focus area:

Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and/or individual safety (e.g., injuries or fatalities), excluding mental health aspects: proposals should explore evidence on the complex interactions between climate change (e.g., changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events) and NCDs and individual safety, which often involve multiple climate exposure pathways and compound and cascading climatic events.

Mental health, considering interactions with brain health if relevant: in the broad focus area of mental health and psychosocial well being, proposals should increase the evidence on the acute and long term impacts of climate change and the understanding of new syndromes related to climate stress.

Infectious diseases, including vector borne and non vector borne: proposals should increase the understanding of the factors driving climate related burden from infectious diseases.

In general, proposals should develop approaches to prevent and reduce the impacts of climate factors in the studied health outcomes and increase population and workforce resilience. A One Health approach should also be applied where relevant.

More specifically, research actions under this topic should include several of the following activities, depending on the relevance of each group of activities to the broad focus area targeted in the proposal:

Increase the understanding of correlations, causal pathways, and mechanistic effects between climate change and disease/health outcomes, developing unified and standard methodologies and metrics to assess short and long term positive and negative impacts of climate change with an adequate level of granularity. Consider individual and/or cascading climatic events and exposure patterns, and risks and drivers of vulnerability and inequality.

Develop longitudinal studies to better ascertain differential effects of climatic stressors on health including multiple scales of impacts, ranging from the molecular level to population health outcomes. Consider variability across populations, generations and life phases, regions and occupations, and collect real world exposure and health data in living and occupational settings, considering the use of emerging ecosystems such as the European Health Data Space (EHDS) and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

Study differential acute and long term health impacts of climate (including a wide range of factors and cumulative effects) on vulnerable, sensitive, or exposed population groups. Consider also differences in geographical vulnerabilities including, when relevant, geographical settings outside of urban areas, in overseas regions, and in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Understand the role of inequalities and societal vulnerability in determining climate related health impacts and adaptive capacity.

Advance the knowledge on the climate, ecological, and environmental drivers of pathogen abundance, including mechanisms and determinants of distribution, life cycle patterns, transmission, virulence, and survival. Consider climate change drivers of disease severity. Study host/pathogen and vector/host interactions clarifying the role of secondary reservoir hosts such as sylvatic, wildlife, and livestock in the maintenance of pathogen life cycle. Assess the efficacy, cost effectiveness, and impact of control measures.

Explore the role of climate driven human and wildlife mobility (e.g., bird migration patterns, human migration) in enhancing the global spread of pathogens and creating opportunities for their local establishment. Collect better field data and develop tools for disease modelling, risk and scenario projections that encourage interoperable data systems and cross border collaboration.

Increase the availability, accessibility, quality, and standardization of diagnostic testing for early diagnosis of infections and determining immune responses and vaccine efficacy. Increase the capacity for pathogen subtyping and genomic surveillance for early warning and investigations of climate related outbreaks. Develop rapid, portable, and affordable standardized diagnostic tools that can withstand climate extremes.

Increase the understanding of the factors that strengthen health resilience to climate change at the individual, local, and societal levels. Investigate the role of individual mechanisms, community resilience, and local solutions in mitigating the health impacts of climate change and related environmental degradation.

International cooperation, in particular with LMICs, is strongly encouraged.

In order to maximise synergies and increase the impact of the projects, all proposals selected for funding from this topic will form a cluster and be required to participate in common networking and joint activities. Guidance on the potential activities to be developed can be obtained by consulting the clusters of projects ongoing under the Environment, Climate and Health research portfolio.

Proposals should make sure that relevant activities, outcomes, and outputs are shared with the European Climate and Health Observatory through the cluster that will be formed after the approval of the proposals. Actions’ results should also contribute to future European Climate Risk Assessments. When relevant, proposals should build on the outcomes of the projects that are part of the European Climate Health Cluster.

Proposals are encouraged to consider, where relevant, the data, expertise, and services offered by European research infrastructures in the environment, climate, and health domain.

This topic requires the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities (SSH) disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions, as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.

Applicants envisaging to include clinical studies should provide details of their clinical studies in the dedicated annex using the template provided in the submission system.

The general conditions for this topic include:

Admissibility Conditions, proposal page limit and layout are described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Proposal page limits and layout are 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 Eligibility Conditions: In recognition of the opening of the US National Institutes of Health’s programmes to European researchers, any legal entity established in the United States of America is eligible to receive Union funding. If projects use satellite based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used). Other eligibility conditions are described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

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

Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds: To ensure a balanced project portfolio covering the broad focus areas targeted in this topic, grants will be awarded (within available budget) to proposals not only in order of ranking but at least also to those proposals that are the highest ranked within different broad focus areas targeted, provided that the proposals attain all thresholds. Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes: The thresholds for each criterion will be 4 (Excellence), 4 (Impact) and 4 (Implementation). The cumulative threshold will be 12. Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.

Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Legal and financial set up of the grants: In order to maximise synergies and increase the impact of the projects, all proposals selected for funding from this topic will form a cluster and be required to participate in common networking and joint activities (and in determining modalities for their implementation and the specific responsibilities of projects). These activities will be included in a dedicated work package, having sufficient budget allocated to it (around 2% of the total requested budget). Depending on the scope of proposals selected for funding, these activities may include: Attendance of regular joint meetings (e.g. common kick off meeting and annual meetings), Periodic report of joint activities (delivered at each reporting period), Common dissemination and communication activities (which may include, for example: a common dissemination and communication strategy, web portal and visual identity, brochure, newsletters), Common Data Management Strategy and Common Policy Strategy (including joint policy briefs), Thematic workshops/trainings on issues of common interest, Working groups on topics of common interest (e.g. data management and exchange, communication and dissemination, science policy link, scientific synergies). The granting authority may, up to 4 years after the end of the action, object to a transfer of ownership or to the exclusive licensing of results, as set out in the specific provision of Annex 5. Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021 2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021 2025). Legal and financial set up of the grants are described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions are described in the specific topic of the Work Programme.

Application and evaluation forms and additional documents include: Standard application form (HE RIA, IA), Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA), HE Programme Guide, Model Grant Agreement (MGA), Lump Sum MGA, Call specific instructions, Information on clinical studies (HE), Detailed budget table (HE LS), Guidance: "Lump sums what do I need to know?", HE Main Work Programme 2026 2027 – 1. General Introduction, HE Main Work Programme 2026 2027 – 4. Health, HE Main Work Programme 2026 2027 – 15. General Annexes, HE Programme Guide, HE Framework Programme 2021/695, HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764, EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509, Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme, 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.

The budget overview for the year 2026 includes several topics, each with its own budget, stage, opening date, deadline, contribution amounts, and indicative number of grants. The topic HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 ENVHLTH 01 has a budget of 55,000,000 EUR. It is a single stage call, opening on 2026 02 10 and closing on 2026 04 16. The contributions range from 7,000,000 to 8,000,000 EUR, and the indicative number of grants is 7.

There are partner search announcements available, and LEARs, Account Administrators, or self registrants can publish partner requests for open and forthcoming topics after logging into the 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.

To get support, applicants are advised to read all provisions carefully before preparing their application. The Online Manual is a guide on the procedures from proposal submission to managing the grant. The Horizon Europe Programme Guide contains detailed guidance on the structure, budget, and political priorities of Horizon Europe. The Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ provides answers to frequently asked questions on submission of proposals, evaluation, and grant management. The Research Enquiry Service can be used to ask questions about any aspect of European research in general and the EU Research Framework Programmes in particular. National Contact Points (NCPs) provide guidance, practical information, and assistance on participation in Horizon Europe. The Enterprise Europe Network can be contacted for advice to businesses with special focus on SMEs. The IT Helpdesk can be contacted for questions such as forgotten passwords, access rights and roles, technical aspects of submission of proposals, etc. The European IPR Helpdesk assists with intellectual property issues. CEN CENELEC Research Helpdesk and ETSI Research Helpdesk advise on how to tackle standardisation in the project proposal. The European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for their recruitment should be consulted for the general principles and requirements specifying the roles, responsibilities, and entitlements of researchers, employers, and funders of researchers. Partner Search can help find a partner organisation for the proposal.

In summary, this Horizon Europe call focuses on understanding and anticipating the health impacts of climate change. It encourages research and innovation actions that contribute to a better understanding of climatic health risks, support evidence based policy making, and promote data sharing and collaboration. The call is structured around three broad focus areas: non communicable diseases and individual safety, mental health, and infectious diseases. It emphasizes the importance of international cooperation, the involvement of social sciences and humanities, and the sharing of results with relevant European observatories and initiatives. The funding is provided as a lump sum, and successful projects will be required to participate in a cluster for networking and joint activities. The call aims to equip citizens, patients, public authorities, and researchers with the knowledge and tools needed to address the health challenges posed by climate change and to build more resilient and health promoting communities.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly stated in the provided text. However, based on the nature of Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and Coordination and Support Actions (CSA), eligible applicants typically include universities, research institutes, SMEs, large enterprises, and other legal entities carrying out research or innovation activities. The text also mentions public authorities, social care services, healthcare practitioners, policymakers, and civil society organizations as potential beneficiaries or stakeholders, suggesting they could also be eligible applicants depending on the specific call conditions. The inclusion of clinical studies suggests that hospitals and healthcare providers could also be eligible. The encouragement of international cooperation, particularly with LMICs, implies that entities from those countries may also be eligible, or at least participate as partners. The eligibility of legal entities established in the United States of America is explicitly mentioned.

Funding Type: The primary funding mechanism is a grant, specifically a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant, used for Research and Innovation Actions (RIA), Innovation Actions (IA) and Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) under the Horizon Europe Programme. There is also mention of Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions (PPI).

Consortium Requirement: The text does not explicitly state whether a consortium is required, but it is highly implied. The encouragement of international cooperation, the need for a balanced project portfolio, and the requirement to form a cluster with other funded projects suggest that a consortium of multiple applicants is preferred, if not required. Partner search tools are mentioned, further implying that consortia are expected.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): 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. In recognition of the opening of the US National Institutes of Health’s programmes to European researchers, any legal entity established in the United States of America is eligible to receive Union funding. International cooperation, in particular with LMICs, is strongly encouraged.

Target Sector: The program targets the health sector, with a specific focus on the impacts of climate change on health. This includes non-communicable diseases, mental health, and infectious diseases. It also touches on environment, climate, social sciences and humanities, and innovation.

Mentioned Countries: United States of America. The text also refers to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as defined by the World Bank, and non-EU/non-Associated Countries.

Project Stage: The project stage varies depending on the type of action. Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) typically support activities ranging from research to development and validation. Innovation Actions (IA) focus on demonstration and deployment. Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) support networking, coordination, and dissemination. The call also mentions Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions (PPI) which is a late stage project.

Funding Amount: The funding amounts vary widely depending on the specific topic and type of action. The budget overview lists indicative contributions ranging from €1,500,000 to €11,000,000.

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

Nature of Support: Beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a lump sum grant.

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

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned, but the indicative number of grants for each topic provides some insight.

Co-funding Requirement: The text does not explicitly mention a co-funding requirement. However, Horizon Europe grants often require some level of co-funding, which would be detailed in the specific call conditions.

Summary: This Horizon Europe funding opportunity aims to address the critical intersection of climate change and human health. The program seeks to support research and innovation activities that will lead to a better understanding of the health risks associated with climate change, improve prevention and preparedness strategies, and inform evidence-based policies. The scope is broad, encompassing non-communicable diseases, mental health, and infectious diseases, with a strong emphasis on vulnerable populations and international cooperation. Eligible applicants can include a wide range of organizations, from research institutions to public authorities, and projects are expected to contribute to a cluster of related initiatives to maximize synergies and impact. The funding is provided as lump sum grants, and the application process involves a single stage submission. The call encourages interdisciplinary approaches, data sharing, and the involvement of social sciences and humanities. The overall goal is to equip citizens, policymakers, and healthcare professionals with the knowledge and tools needed to mitigate the health impacts of climate change and build more resilient communities.