Health Destination 3 – Tackling diseases and reducing disease burden

There are six destinations under the ‘Health’ cluster in the ‘Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness’ pillar of the Horizon Europe programme. On this page you can find summaries of the two-stage calls under the ‘Health’ cluster’s Destination 3 – Tackling diseases and reducing disease burden.

‘Health’ Cluster: Destination 3

Calls under Destination 3 of the ‘Health’ cluster focus on addressing the major health, societal and economic threats of communicable and non-communicable diseases. In particular, non-communicable diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases and mental illnesses, are responsible for 80% of EU health care costs. However, despite the huge cost of treatment, to a large extent such diseases are in fact preventable. Yet only 3% of health care budgets are currently spent on preventative measures.

Therefore, Research and Innovation Action under this destination will contribute to the impact area ‘Good health and high-quality accessible health care’, through development of new prevention measures and strategies, public health interventions, diagnostics, vaccines, therapies and alternatives to antimicrobials.

Together with the Coordination and Support Actions, Destination 3 will lead to:

• Reduced burden of disease in the EU and worldwide through effective disease management
• A one third reduction in premature mortality from non-communicable diseases, promotion of mental health
• Improved healthcare systems supported by strengthened research and innovation expertise
• Citizens benefit form reduced health threat of epidemics in EU and worldwide
• Patients and citizens have greater knowledge of disease threats and empowerment to make personal health decisions

Destination 3 – Calls 2022:

HORIZON-HLTH-2022-DISEASE-06-02-two-stage: Pre-clinical development of the next generation of immunotherapies for diseases or disorders with unmet medical needs (RIA)

Subsidy: €6M

Total budget: €60M

Deadline: First stage: 1 February 2022; second stage: 6 September 2022

Scope: Immunotherapy is defined as a treatment able to stimulate or restore the ability of the immune (defence) system to fight infection, disease or disorder. It has proved to be a valuable medical treatment notably when preventive interventions are not available. Passive and active immunotherapies (such as antibody-based, RNA-based and cell-based therapies, respectively) are covered by this topic. The aim is the pre-clinical to first-in human development of next generation immunotherapies for unmet needs.

The next generation of immunotherapies are needed in order to improve and diversify the capabilities of health care for several communicable and non-communicable diseases that cannot be effectively tackled with the currently available treatments.

Read the call infosheet to learn more

HORIZON-HLTH-2022-DISEASE-06-03-two-stage: Vaccines 2.0 – developing the next generation of vaccines (RIA)

Subsidy: €8M

Total budget: €40M

Deadline: First stage: 1 February 2022; second stage: 6 September 2022

Scope: Infectious diseases, including antimicrobial resistant (AMR) infections, remain a major threat to health and health security in the EU and globally. The availability of more effective, accessible and affordable vaccines would provide the most cost-effective preventive measure against the health threat of epidemics and AMR pathogens.

Proposals should aim to diversify and accelerate the global vaccine research and development pipeline, and to strengthen the current leading role of the EU in vaccine research and development. Moreover, proposals should cover those pathogens, which still lack vaccines of sufficient efficacy, but where earlier efforts have already produced promising vaccine candidates.

Read the call infosheet to learn more

HORIZON-HLTH-2022-DISEASE-06-04-two-stage: Development of new effective therapies for rare diseases (RIA)

Subsidy: €8M

Total budget: €60M

Deadline: First stage: 1 February 2022; second stage: 6 September 2022

Scope: Despite the considerable amount of knowledge that has been accumulated and the new orphan medicines developed in recent years, the number of available therapies for rare diseases remains low, as fewer than 6% of rare diseases have an approved treatment option. There is an urgent unmet medical need for the development of therapies for rare diseases, where there is still no approved therapeutic option available.

Therefore, proposals should aim to develop therapies for rare diseases with no approved therapeutic option. Moreover, proposals should focus on group(s) of rare diseases with commonalities, such as shared biological features, possibly within the same and/or across different medical areas within the rare diseases landscape[1]. Thus, proposals should not address a single disease only (for example with an Orphacode representing a single disease).

Read the call infosheet to learn more

Return to Cluster 1 – ‘Health’ overview

Further reading:

• Horizon Europe Cluster 1 Health reference document
• All Horizon Europe work programme reference documents
• Overview of Horizon Europe
• Learn about the Horizon Europe Missions