The European call on high-burden, under-researched conditions will likely be renewed in the 2025 work program of Horizon Europe. Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is prominently mentioned as an example. This call could provide a new funding opportunity for ME/CFS researchers.
The call is similar to the one in the previous Horizon Europe work program. It has a total budget of €30 million. It aims to fund 5 projects with a target budget of €6 million each.
The scope of the call are illnesses with a high disease burden that remain under-researched. The description is still quite broad (we argued that it should be more specific). Nonetheless ME/CFS is explicitly mentioned as the first example.
The previous call had a budget of €25 million and only funded 4 projects, so it seems that there was a (minor) budget increase to fund one extra consortium. The results from the last call can be found here. The call now also has a one-stage application (the previous one had two stages), which will hopefully make it easier and less burdensome to submit proposals.
All this information comes from a draft published by the European Commission that has not yet been formally approved. Some changes are still possible but large ones are unlikely. The final version of the 2025 work program will be published in May 2025.
We hope that ME/CFS researchers (and their international partners) will prepare to submit strong applications for this call. Upcoming conferences form an ideal opportunity to network and explore collaborations.
- On May 10, there is a scientific symposium called “Demystifying PEM” at the University of Vienna. It’s organized by WE&ME and the National Reference Center for Post-viral Syndromes.
- The ME/CFS Research Foundation is organizing an International ME/CFS Conference, in Berlin on 12-13 May. More info can be found here.
- Invest in ME Research is organising a 5-day of conferences and meetings in the UK for ME/CFS researchers from 26 – 30 May 2025. More information about this conference is available here.
We hope that these conferences will lay the foundation for a Europe-wide collaboration of ME/CFS researchers and a strong application for the European call. Nonetheless we should mention that these calls are highly competitive and have a low rate of success. Last time there were more than 100 applications of which only 4 received funding.