Health H2020 Calls & Funding Network event

The Aletta Jacobs School of PublicHealth, the UG Strategy Department for Education and Research (Research and Funding Department- EU funding team) and the UMCG Grant Support Hub is organising a Health H2020 Calls & Funding Network event, a joint initiative of the above mentioned.

The main purpose of the meeting is to inform you about the next calls for proposals published under the last Health Work Program of Horizon H2020. The last Work Program of H2020 contains a large variety of funding opportunities with 35 different health related topics, with a total budget of 645 million euro, the highest until now. We will provide practical information on how to build a good proposal and will address the role of the social sciences and humanities in these calls.

Speakers include the Dutch National Contact Points for H2020 health topics (advisors of life science and health), and past year’s applicants.

We will promote opportunities to exchange your views to strengthen collaboration among researchers working on health issues from different disciplines. Snacks and drinks to accompany your discussions will be provided.

We selected the below listed calls with deadlines in April 2020. If you would like to join, please check the list  and tick the most interesting ones in your registration . The ‘most wanted’ calls will be explained in more detail during the event.

During the drinks you will have plenty of opportunity to exchange your views and expertise with your fellow researchers, join interesting networks or build new ones, and start innovative collaborations. We will promote opportunities to exchange your views to strengthen collaboration among researchers working on health issues from different disciplines. Snacks and drinks to accompany your discussions will be provided.

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Information about the selected calls:

Digital diagnostics – developing tools for supporting clinical decisions by integrating various diagnostic data
( SC1-BHC-06-2020 )

Research and Innovation action, budget between 8-15 million.
Deadline 07 April 2020.
Priorities: Gender and Open Science.

The availability of appropriate decision support tools for healthcare practitioners that can promote uptake of personalised medicine in health care.

• Applicant should develop tools, platforms or services that will use information provided by most relevant diagnostic means for a particular area, resulting in an accurate, detailed, structured, systemic and prioritised assessment of the health status in a patient.
• The proposed solutions should integrate various data sources, and should be tested and validated in real-life settings in pilot centres.
• Th ese tools/platforms/services should contribute to improving diagnosis and clinical decision, not only integrate existing data, and should involve intelligent human-computer interface solutions to facilitate its daily use in clinical practice.
  

Use of Real-World Data to advance research on the management of complex chronic conditions
( SC1-DTH-12-2020 )

Research and Innovation action, budget between EUR 4 to 6 million.
Deadline 07 April 2020.
Priorities: Open Innovation and Gender.

A patient with complex chronic conditions presents to the health care system with unique constellation of needs, disabilities, or functional limitations.
Real World Data can fill the knowledge gap between controlled clinical trials results and clinical practice needs.

• The research focus will be on the use of real world data to improve the clinical management of adults with complex chronic conditions. The use of new technologies for data analytics and interpretation such as artificial intelligence and computer modelling are encouraged.
• The proposed intervention should allow better treatment or monitoring of the person and thus changes in disease progression and/or therapy response
• The proposed intervention must add clinical value as well as societal benefits and show feasibility and sustainability in real-life settings
  

New approaches for clinical management and prevention of resistant bacterial infections in high prevalence settings
( SC1-BHC-34-2020 )

Research and Innovation action, budget between EUR 10 to 15 million.
Deadline 07 April 2020.
Priorities: Open Innovation, International cooperation and Gender.

Within the last decades antimicrobial resistance has increased considerably in many clinically important pathogenic bacteria. The challenge is to address this threat via a multi-disciplinary approach by developing suitable clinical management and infection prevention plans detailing how to deal with resistant bacterial infections in high prevalence settings.

• Applicants should focus on the identification of best practices, and the development and validation of interventions, infection prevention and clinical management plans for dealing with resistant bacterial infections in high prevalence settings.
• The costs and benefits of the infection prevention and clinical management plans to be developed should be assessed as well as the feasibility of their implementation.
• The potential challenges in the uptake of interventions/management plans by national health systems should be researched and addressed.
  

Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) - Prevention and/or early diagnosis of cancer
( SC1-BHC-17-2020 )

Research and Innovation action, budget between EUR 1 to 3 million.
Deadline 07 April 2020.
Priorities: International cooperation and Socio-economic science and humanities.

• The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) call will focus on implementation research proposals for the prevention and/or early diagnosis of cancer in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) and/or in vulnerable populations in High- Income Countries (HIC). Applicants should focus on implementation research addressing strategies derived from existing knowledge about effective and/or promising interventions.
• Include a strategy to test the proposed model of intervention and to address the socioeconomic and contextual factors of relevance to the targeted region and community.
• Include health economics assessments as an integral part of the proposed research, including considerations of scalability and equity.
• Propose a strategy to include policy makers and local authorities, as well as other relevant stakeholders such as community groups, patient groups, formal and informal carers from the beginning of the project.
  

Advancing the safety assessment of chemicals without the use of animal testing
( SC1-BHC-11-2020 )

Research and Innovation action, budget between EUR 10 and 20 Million.
Deadline 7 April 2020

Efforts are needed to progress on the development, validation and translation of scientifically sound methods that not only decrease the reliance on animal testing but which also deliver more relevant, reliable and cost-effective means to facilitate decision-making to support regulation, innovation and competitiveness.

• Applicants should consider integrative approaches that build on advances in all relevant fields of science and technology, including elements such as novel in vitro (this may include animal-derived material) and in silico tools and the understanding of human biology and related toxicity pathways, with the aim of proposing and demonstrating scientifically valid means for comprehensive safety assessment of chemical substances without resorting to animal testing. Priority should be on systemic health effects in humans.
  

AI for Genomics and Personalised Medicine
( DT-TDS-04-2020 )

Research and Innovation action, budget EUR 10 Million.
Deadline 22 April 2020.

Several national and regional initiatives already support the pooling of genomic and other health data to advance research and personalised medicine. The next step is to make use of the existing infrastructures and initiatives for the successful exploitation of genomic data to facilitate personalised medicine.

• Applicants should demonstrate the potential and benefits of AI technologies for advancing research and personalised medicine through the linking of relevant genomics data and repositories.
• Proposals should develop and test AI solutions for linking genomics repositories across the EU, with the view of supporting clinical research and decision making. By combining sequenced genomic data and other medical data, physicians and researchers can understand better diseases at a personal level and can determine the most appropriate treatment for a particular person.
• The focus should be to reduce the burden of diseases for which a treatment exists and to apply such treatments in a more targeted way, to identify new evidences on the predictive value of the AI solutions and to enhance the diagnostic capacity e.g. for rare or low prevalence and complex diseases.
  

Personalised early risk prediction, prevention and intervention based on Artificial Intelligence and Big Data technologies
( SC1-DTH-02-2020 )

Research and Innovation action, budget between EUR 4 and 6 million.
Deadline 22 April 2020.
Priorities: Socio-economic science and humanities, Open Science and Gender.

The ageing of the population together with the rising burden of chronic conditions (incl. mental diseases) and multi-morbidity bring an ever increasing demand to strengthen disease prevention and integrate service delivery around people's needs for health and social care.

• Applicants should build on results of previous projects and the state of the art in ICT for early risk prediction and introduce innovative ICT solutions that lead to more effective health and care systems.
• Proposals should build on the use of already existing and/or new data generated by individuals, health professionals and other service providers by citizens, healthcare professionals, public authorities and industry, with a view to developing personalised early risk prediction, prevention and intervention approaches that meet the needs of individuals.
• Proposals are expected to be built on realistic scenarios for new health and care pathways, and should integrate multi-disciplinary research involving behavioural, sociological, medical and other relevant disciplines.
  

Reliable and accessible information on cell and gene-based therapies
( SC1-HCO-19-2020 )

Coordination and support action, budget between 1.5 and 2 million.
Deadline 07 April 2020.
Priorities: Socio-economic science and humanities and Open Innovation.

Cell and gene-based therapies have the potential to treat many debilitating diseases and conditions. However, they face difficulties reaching patients because inter alia the complexity and costs of product development, regulatory hurdles and the non-harmonized procedures for reimbursements.

• Applicants should offer well-structured and detailed strategies to convey accurate and up-to-date information on cell and gene-based therapies using multiple contemporary modalities, including a website.
• The consortium should consist of diverse actors and could include experts in science communication, patients’ representatives, industry, SMEs, clinical and academic researchers as well as the major European learned societies in the field. They should provide expertise across the field of human stem cells, regenerative medicine, genome-editing and gene therapy.
• Proposals should provide a one-stop shop on where to seek further information and guidance relating to manufacturing guidelines, regulatory requirements, intellectual property rights, market acceptability and ethical matters.
  

International cooperation in smart living environments for ageing people
( SC1-DTH-04-2020 )

Research and Innovation action, budget between EUR 2 and 4 million, in collaboration with Japan or Canada.
Deadline 22 April 2020.
Priorities: Gender, International cooperation, Socio-economic science and humanities and Open Science.

Demographic change and the ageing of the population create new heterogeneous challenges for society and, in particular, for ageing people. On top of the health-related age impairments, ageing people are at risk of facing situations leading to potential social exclusion with considerable negative consequences for their independence, quality of life, those who care for them, and for the sustainability of health and care systems.

• Applicants should develop and validate new solutions leading to smart living environments for ageing people, supporting independent active and healthy lifestyles.
• The proposed solutions should provide personalised advice, guidance and follow-up for key age and health related issues in daily life which impact the person's ability to remain active, healthy and independent.
• Proposals should pay particular focus to measures aimed at fostering social participation and avoiding social exclusion.
• Proposed solutions should make use and further develop user interaction, including voice-based, taking into account Artificial Intelligence methods for understanding the users' intentions, knowledge extraction and learning.
  

Micro- and nano-plastics in our environment: Understanding exposures and impacts on human health
( SC1-BHC-36-2020 )

Research and Innovation action, budget between EUR 4 and 6 million.
Deadline 7 April 2020.
Priorities: Open Innovation, Blue Growth, Gender and Socio-economic science and humanities.

Risk assessments and reviews carried out in recent years have concluded that there is evidence that humans are exposed to micro- and nano-plastics. However, our understanding of the fate and toxicity of these plastic particles in humans constitutes a major knowledge gap, rendering it difficult to carry out proper science-based risk assessment and management.

• Applicants should use innovative approaches to provide policy relevant scientific data in support of improved human health hazard and risk assessment of micro and/or nano-plastics.
• Applicants should consider joint activities with projects selected under other topics in the European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy, and topics in the Horizon 2020 supporting the Plastics Strategy.

Proposals could consider the involvement of the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) to provide added value.