Horizon Europe calls 2021-2022

On 15 June, the European Commission approved the first work program of Horizon Europe for the years 2021-2022. In this article, we highlight several grants that may be relevant for scientists studying myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). We hope that our advocacy efforts will lead to better funding opportunities for ME/CFS research in future work programs of Horizon Europe.

Introduction: what is Horizon Europe?

Horizon Europe is the big research and innovation program of the European Union (EU). It has a budget of 95 billion euros for a period of seven years (2021 to 2027). The program includes investments to tackle climate change, boost economic growth and encourage digital innovation. A substantial part, around 8 billion dollars, is reserved for health research and this is what interests us here. 

Last month, the call for proposals of the first work program have been announced. For both the years 2021 and 2022, Horizon Europe will distribute approximately 1 billion dollars to scientific research to improve the health of EU citizens. In this article, we highlight the calls that provide the most interesting funding opportunities for ME/CFS researchers.

We advise researchers interested in applying for Horizon Europe grants to contact their National Contact Points as these provide guidance, practical information, and assistance on all aspects of participation in Horizon Europe.

Call 1: Personalized blueprint of chronic inflammation in health-to-disease transition

This call for proposals is part of the objective “staying healthy in a rapidly changing society”. It aims to support “data-driven, personalised approaches to identify the drivers of chronic inflammation that may determine the transition from health to pre-symptomatic and early stages of chronic diseases.” 

ME/CFS is often triggered by an infection and cytokine dysregulation has been reported early on in the illness. Many researchers suspect that low-grade inflammation is driving the symptoms of ME/CFS patients. This hypothesis ideally fits the objectives of this EU grant.

The call for proposals starts on 06 October 2021 and ends on 21 April 2022. A budget of 50 million euros has been reserved for this call. The Commission aims to fund 7 projects of approximately 7 million euros each.

More information here.

Call 2: Personalized medicine and infectious diseases: understanding the individual host response to viruses (e.g. SARS-CoV-2)

This call for proposals is part of the objective of “tackling diseases and reducing disease burden.” Proposals are expected to “characterize the host response and host-pathogen interaction to a virus (or viruses) at the level of genetic patterns, physiological mechanisms and molecular pathways involving different organs and systems to identify factors that predispose to different clinical symptoms, different progression of the viral disease and different clinical outcomes.” The description adds that proposals “should include patient follow-up to identify conditions (including long-term ones) that may appear after the patient has recovered from the viral disease.”

Multiple ME/CFS researchers are investigating the role of enteroviruses and herpesviruses such as Human Herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in the development of ME/CFS. Scientists from Ohio State University, for example, reported elevated antibodies against EBV deoxyuridine triphosphate nucleotidohydrolase (dUTPase) in ME/CFS patients. German researchers are investigating a connection between HHV-6 reactivation, mitochondrial fragmentation, and ME/CFS. These lines of research might fit the scope of this grant.

The opening date for this call was 22 June 2021. The deadline to submit proposals is short: 21 September 2021. So researchers only have two months left to submit a proposal. The Commission aims to fund 9 projects of approximately 7 million euros each with this grant.

More information here.

Call 3: Pre-clinical development of the next generation of immunotherapies for diseases or disorders with unmet medical needs

This call for proposals is also part of the destination “tackling diseases and reducing disease burden.” It focuses on pre-clinical to first-in-human development of new immunotherapies for disorders with a high disease burden and unmet medical needs. 

Since the immune system is thought to play an important role in ME/CFS and long covid, several companies have shown an interest in developing new immunomodulatory therapies for these conditions (example here, here, and here). Such research may fall under the scope of this call. 

This call for proposals starts on 06 October 2021. It has a two-stage deadline model with the first deadline on 01 February 2022. The Commission will fund 10 projects of 7 million euros each with this grant.

More information here.

Other calls

Other calls include various topics. One focuses on the study of stem cells, genome editing, or RNA-based therapeutics for highly prevalent and high burden diseases with unmet medical needs. Another grant aims to support research on tools and technologies that improve the use of health data and make these more accessible to clinicians, researchers, and citizens. ME/CFS researchers involved in biobanking and symptom tracking apps may be interested in this. Another call for proposals aims to develop artificial intelligence tools for predicting the risk of developing a disease and/or the risk of disease progression once it is diagnosed. This is also an area where ME/CFS researchers have previously shown an interest in. 

  • The full Horizon Europe work program for the cluster Health for the years 2021-2022 can be read here
  • All calls for proposals can be searched using the Funding & Tenders portal of the EU, here.

Researchers in the US, UK, and Norway can also participate

Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, is eligible to participate in Horizon Europe projects. To be eligible for Horizon Funding, applicants must be established in an EU Member State or overseas territories linked to a Member State. There are, however, some interesting exceptions.

  • First, non-EU members can become associated countries of Horizon Europe. Norway and the United Kingdom, for example, two countries with a rich tradition of ME/CFS research, have announced plans to join Horizon Europe. The EU Commission has clarified that researchers and institutions from those countries can already participate and apply for grants under the first work program. 
  • Second, in recognition of the opening of the US National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) programs to European researchers, any legal entity established in the United States of America is eligible to receive Horizon Europe funding to support its participation in projects funded under the cluster “Health”. This is true for all calls mentioned above and important given the many ME/CFS researchers in the US.
  • Third, applicants from low- and middle-income countries (e.g. Argentina, South Africa, Indonesia) can also be eligible for funding. 

Although calls for EU grants normally target multi-beneficiary consortia made up of participants from different countries, we found no requirement for applicants of Horizon Europe grants to form a consortium or international collaboration.

How does an application work?

Applications must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal electronic submission system. Before submission, all beneficiaries and affiliated entities must be registered using a participant identification code (PIC). The PIC (one per participant) is required in the online application form and further correspondence with the EU services. Only if your proposal is successful, you will be contacted for the validation of your PIC registration data (such as your bank account, financial capacity, and official legal status). 

If the expertise of your research group is relevant to the call you can publish “partner requests”, either in searching or offering expertise for collaboration. 

The application form is made up of two parts. Part A contains administrative forms with data on participants, legal declarations, and contact persons. Part B (the narrative part) includes a technical description of the project with planned activities, work packages, costs, etc. These must be uploaded in PDF format.  Applications must also include a gender equality plan and a plan for the exploitation and dissemination of results.

  • A program guide on applying for Horizon Europe funding is available here.
  • An online manual to participate in EU grants and tenders is available here.

After submission, your proposal will be evaluated by an independent evaluation committee composed of outside experts. They will rank your proposal based on three criteria: “Excellence”, “Impact”, and “Quality and efficiency of the implementation”. Each criterion will be scored on a 5-point scale. The necessary threshold for individual criteria is 3 points. The overall threshold, applying to the sum of the three individual scores, is 10 points.

Better funding opportunities needed: the scoping study

Although the current work program provides some funding opportunities for ME/CFS research, the calls are not ideally suited. ME/CFS researchers cannot rely on large collaborations or established networks as is the case for other diseases. Stigma and preconceptions, diagnostic uncertainty, and lack of expert clinicians make it difficult to conduct scientific research on ME/CFS. Given the high disease burden of the illness, we believe that more incentives should be given to advance ME/CFS research.

Last year, following a successful petition, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on funding for biomedical research on ME/CFS. The European Commission responded by announcing plans to conduct a scoping study. This will investigate the needs of the field and the possible inclusion of a new category for under-researched illnesses such as ME/CFS in future work programs of Horizon Europe. This project should lead to better funding opportunities for ME/CFS researchers. Unfortunately, it will also take time to take effect. We recently sent a letter to EU officials to ensure that the scoping study proceeds as planned with as little delay as possible. Hopefully, there will be more interesting calls for proposals for ME/CFS researchers in future work programs of Horizon Europe.

International opportunities

In the meantime, you may be interested in our overview of internationally available funding sources for ME/CFS researchers. This overview includes charities that can provide small grants acting as a stepping stone to bigger grants, and, most importantly, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US, which opened its funding program to international researchers.

The overview can be found here.