Horizon Europe: Opportunities for Digestive Health 

At UEG, we're passionate about advancing research in digestive health and want to support your innovative ideas. Our mission is to engage a greater number of digestive health researchers in Horizon Europe-funded projects. 

Have you found your relevant topic?
Contact us to discuss your project ideas and proposals. UEG is ready to evaluate your project proposal, join a consortium or help in the search for partners.

Horizon Europe is the European Union’s main funding instrument for research and innovation. The goal is to ensure Europe produces world-class science, removes barriers to innovation and makes it easier for the public and private sectors to work together in delivering innovation. 

Several calls are currently open in Horizon Europe that could be of interest to the digestive health community. We encourage you to explore the list of funding opportunities, as these calls for proposals present chances to advance research and innovation in digestive health. 

Pre-publication of the Horizon Europe work programme 2025

The European Commission has published drafts of the Horizon Europe work programme 2025 and the amended Horizon Europe work programme 2023-2025. These drafts, unapproved by the European Commission and subject to change, offer early insight into upcoming EU research and innovation funding opportunities. The adoption of the Horizon Europe work programme 2025 and the amended Horizon Europe work programme 2023-2025 is planned for May 2025.

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Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025

• HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF-01-01 single-stage with submission deadline September 10, 2025, Type of action: HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF / HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships / European Fellowships 

The MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 call is now open for submissions. It supports postdoctoral researchers from any country, of any nationality and career stage (with up to eight years of research experience after their PhD), to pursue research in any scientific field within an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe associated country.
Applicants proposing a European Fellowship with a host organisation in a “widening country” may also be considered for funding under the ERA Fellowships call (WIDERA Work Programme), promoting more balanced participation across Europe. The call, with a total budget of € 404.3 million and an expected funding capacity of nearly 1,650 projects, closes on September 10, 2025.

Calls under the European Partnership on transforming health and care systems instrument (THCS)  

THCS is a “cofund action” under the Horizon Europe Programme, which is designed to support coordinated national and regional research and innovation programmes along with capacity building, networking, dissemination, and other key activities to support health and care systems transformation.  

• THCS cascade funding, multiple cut-off deadline model, with an opening date of November 26, 2024, as published on EU Funding and Tenders portal: Better care closer to home: Enhancing primary and community care HORIZON-HLTH-2022-CARE-10-01 - European partnership on transforming health and care systems 

There is a two-step submission and evaluation procedure for joint transnational applications. Pre-proposals are to be submitted by the deadline of January 30, 2025. For more details and the application template, visit the THCS website. For full proposals via electronic submission system no later than June 19, 2025. The minimum project duration is 12 months, and projects must be designed to be achievable during a maximum funding period of 36 months.

Calls under the partnership Fostering a European Research Area for Health Research (ERA4Health)  

• Fostering Pragmatic Comparative-Effectiveness Trials in Non-communicable Diseases (EffecTrial), multiple cut-off deadline model, HORIZON-HLTH-2022-DISEASE-03-01 - European partnership fostering a European Research Area (ERA) for health research

The focus of the multi-country Investigator-Initiated Clinical Studies should primarily address at least one of the following principal diseases/conditions:  

1. Be a pragmatic comparative effectiveness trial, designed as randomised interventional trial.  
2. Compare the use of currently approved healthcare interventions either to each other or to the current standard of care.  
3. They shall consider healthcare interventions which could include but would not be limited to: diagnostic, screening, prevention and treatment interventions. The interventions can be pharmacological as well as non-pharmacological procedures like nutrition and/or lifestyle interventions, surgery, prognosis methods, use of medical devices, eHealth and digital interventions and other health interventions.  
4. These interventions shall have high public relevance only in the fields of these specific diseases or conditions (that are of equal importance):  
   • Cardiovascular diseases 
   • Metabolic disorders 
   • Nutrition and lifestyle-related diseases 
   • Non-communicable respiratory diseases 

For all details on the scope and the requirements of the call, as well as national/regional specific requirements, refer to the full call text published on ERA4Health website (EffecTrial 2025).

Call under European Innovation Council (EIC) Pathfinder Challenges 

• Generative-AI based Agents to Revolutionize Medical Diagnosis and Treatment of Cancer HORIZON-EIC-2025-PATHFINDERCHALLENGES-01-02, Type of action: HORIZON-EIC HORIZON EIC Grants 

The forthcoming call opens on July 24, 2025, with a submission deadline of October 29, 2025; it is a single-stage process.  

The Challenges are predefined thematic areas where bold proposals are expected to address ambitious scientific and technological goals. 

Proposals must target one of eight specified cancer types: breast cancer, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, brain cancer, stomach cancer or colorectal cancer, and address both: (1) advanced GenAI techniques for integrating and augmenting multimodal medical data, and (2) clinical applications such as predictive diagnosis or personalized treatment, ensuring transparency, ethical compliance, and proof of concept in real-world settings.  

Call under European Research Area (ERA) Widening Participation and Strengthening the ERA (WIDERA) 

• ERA Fellowships HORIZON-WIDERA-2025-TALENTS-01-01, Type of action: HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships  

Call for proposals with a deadline of September 10, 2025; single-stage. The forthcoming call has a delayed opening date, now provisionally set for May 8, 2025. 

ERA Fellowships should take place in a Widening Country. Fellowships are open to researchers of any nationality who wish to engage in R&I projects by either coming to the EU from any country in the world or moving within the EU to a Widening Country. Widening countries include member states of the European Union (EU) and associated countries. These countries are identified as having lower research and innovation (R&I) performance.

Calls under Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Co-Funding of Regional, National and International Programmes (MSCA COFUND) 

• MSCA COFUND 2025 HORIZON-MSCA-2025-COFUND-01-01, Type of action: HORIZON TMA MSCA Cofund Postdoctoral programme  

Open for submission with a deadline of June 24, 2025, in a single stage.  

MSCA COFUND co-finances new or existing doctoral programmes and postdoctoral fellowship schemes with the aim of spreading the best practices of the MSCA including international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary research training, as well as international and cross-sectoral mobility of researchers at all stages of their career. 

In practice, MSCA COFUND provides complementary funding for doctoral or postdoctoral programmes managed by entities established in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries. 

Calls under the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) on different topics 

IHI published draft information on the Future Opportunities a few months prior to the official call launch. This is to provide you with additional time to find or build a consortium and prepare a strong proposal. Please note that since draft topics are still under development, the texts may change considerably between the versions published here and the call launch. It is essential to check the final, approved topic texts once the calls are launched (mid-June 2025 or later). 

IHI call 11
 
Five topics are being considered for IHI Call 11, a two-stage call set to launch in Q2 2025. Two topics could be of interest to the GI community; however, they may not fully align with UEG’s priorities. There might still be opportunities to join a consortium for one of these calls.

• Understanding how infections foster and induce non-communicable diseases
• AI-powered signal detection in pharmacovigilance  

The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) is a public-private partnership (PPP) between the European Union and the European life science industries, and these partners sit on our Governing Board. 

Digital Europe Programme Call for Proposals 

• DIGITAL-2025-AI-08-COMPLIANCE with submission deadline September 2, 2025, Type of action: DIGITAL-SIMPLE DIGITAL Simple Grants, 50% funding rate 

For those involved in digital health innovation or regulatory aspects of clinical research, particularly in data-driven fields, the call Digital solutions for regulatory compliance through data under the Digital Europe Programme (see page 12) may be of interest. 

The 8^th call under the Digital Europe Programme was launched on April 15. For nine topics across the focus areas AI Continent, Digital Skills, and Accelerating the Best Use of Technologies, an EU funding budget of over € 130 million is available.
Targeted stakeholders: National and EU authorities (as data users)/ regulatory agencies public and private entities, businesses, farmers, etc/providers of compliance data (data holders), data sharing organisations, universities. 

The European Commission’s information sessions provide details and background on the published topics. The info webinar Info Day - Call for proposals "Digital solutions for regulatory compliance through data" is planned for May 5, 2025.
 
A matchmaking platform managed by DEP4ALL, the network of National Contact Points for Digital Europe programme at B2match Digital Europe Programme Matchmaking Platform offers a space to connect with like-minded organisations, explore synergies, and form consortia to advance Europe’s digital transformation. 

Didn’t find the right call for your project idea? Contribute to shaping future funding opportunities!

If none of the current Horizon Europe or related calls fit your research, there’s still a way to move your idea forward. The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) invites input from the wider health and research community, including the digestive health field, through their Ideas Incubator.

By submitting a topic suggestion, you can help shape future IHI calls and highlight the research needs of our community. IHI offers clear guidance on what makes a strong idea and how submissions are reviewed.

Submit your idea or learn more on the IHI website   

UEG provides start-up grants of up to €10,000 for initiatives focused on forming pan-European project consortiums. 

UEG is also interested in participating in EU-funded projects. To project consortia, the UEG can offer comprehensive partnership, aiding in the development and execution of their project dissemination strategies. UEG would be an excellent choice as a dissemination partner for research projects related to digestive health.

Project proposal coordinators have to contact UEG at least 8 weeks before the submission deadline for single-stage application processes or 4 weeks before the deadline for the second-stage phase of the application procedure. UEG commits to responding to your inquiry within a maximum of two weeks. 

We accept applications on an ongoing basis until UEG's capacity to participate in projects is reached. There is no set deadline. All applications will be treated confidentially and evaluated by experts from various disciplines within the UEG Research Committee specializing in digestive health. 

How to apply: 
To consider your application, we kindly request initial information to be sent via email to . 

Please use the UEG start-up grant application template, including the basic information and details outlined in the template necessary for assessing your application, such as: 

• Information on the project management team structure, work package topics, and their leaders. 
• A project description, its innovativeness, and the implementation roadmap from idea to impact. 
• Activities involving UEG and your expectations regarding UEG's active role as a dissemination partner in your project. 
• How your project aligns with UEG's strategic priorities and the priorities of UEG's member societies. 

UEG is actively engaged in advancing research within the digestive health field by participating as a key dissemination partner for various project consortia. Our role focuses on developing and executing effective dissemination strategies that communicate critical project results to the digestive health community, particularly targeting clinicians. As an expert in the field, UEG is ideally positioned to ensure that the impact of these projects is maximised by reaching the right audience.

A strong communication and dissemination strategy is essential for submitting a competitive project proposal, and UEG’s involvement can significantly enhance the chances of success. By planning a clear path to impact from the very early stages of your project, you increase its potential for long-term success. Discover more about the research projects UEG is currently supporting and how we are contributing to the future of digestive health.

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