Horizon Europe Cluster 1: Health
‘Health’ is the first cluster under the Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness Pillar of the European Union’s Horizon Europe Work Programme. Read more about Horizon Europe’s pillars, the health cluster and its aims.
What are Horizon Europe’s Global Challenges?
The Horizon Europe R&I Programme is built around three pillars. Pillar 2, Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness focuses on the major challenges that not only the EU, but the whole world, is facing. This pillar is divided into six thematic clusters, all aimed at tackling societal challenges in different areas, while strengthening key industrial technologies and the EU’s competitiveness on a global stage. The six clusters are:
- Health
- Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society
- Civil Security for Society
- Digital, Industry and Space
- Climate, Energy and Mobility
- Food, Bio-economy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
The goal of Horizon Europe Cluster 1: Health
The goal of Horizon Europe Cluster 1: Health is to strengthen the health and well-being of people in Europe, while supporting a modern, innovative, and competitive health sector.
Between 2025 and 2027, the cluster’s priorities focus on social cohesion and inclusion, modernising and developing health technologies, and addressing the growing health risks of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. Through targeted research and innovation (R&I) investments, it aims to better understand all of these health-related challenges and develop strategies to reduce their impact, while protecting populations and mitigating health risks.
Cluster 1 – Key Strategic Orientations
To better understand the aims of the Health cluster, the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan for 2025-2027 has set out three different Key Strategic Orientations (KSOs), namely:
- The Green Transition: aiming to support Europe in becoming the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050.
- The Digital Transition: focusing on reinforcing Europe’s competitiveness and strategic autonomy through research in core digital technologies.
- A More Resilient, Competitive, Inclusive, and Democratic Europe: aiming to bolster Europe’s social rights and democratic values.
According to the Horizon Europe work prgoramme: “The Health Cluster will support these KSOs by enhancing the understanding of climate change impacts on health, developing tools to protect against global health challenges, and reducing the sector’s carbon footprint. It will promote technological and digital advancements to improve healthcare systems, focusing on disease prevention, personalised treatment, and equitable access to health services. Additionally, it will foster inclusive and resilient healthcare systems capable of responding to cross-border health threats and demographic changes, leveraging digital technologies such as AI to accelerate health research and improve health outcomes.”
Expected impacts of the Health Cluster: six destinations
To support the KSOs defined by the strategic plan, Horizon Europe Cluster 1 will contribute to the following six expected impacts (or ‘destinations’):
Destination 1: Staying healthy in a rapidly changing society
Citizens of all ages stay healthy and independent in a rapidly changing society thanks to healthier lifestyles and behaviours, healthier diets, healthier environments, improved evidence-based health policies, and more effective innovative solutions for promoting good health, disease prevention, monitoring and rehabilitation.
Destination 2: Living and working in a health-promoting environment
Homes, workplaces and communities foster good health and are environmentally sustainable, thanks to a deeper understanding of the environmental, occupational, social, sex- and gender-related, and economic factors that shape health outcomes.
Destination 3: Tackling diseases and reducing disease burden
Public health systems and professionals are better equipped to prevent, diagnose, manage and cure diseases, tackle poverty-related diseases, in order to reduce the burden on patients and improve the performance of healthcare systems. It can be achieved through better understanding, prevention, diagnostics, treatment, management, and cure of diseases and their co- and multi-morbidities, more effective and innovative health technologies and medical countermeasures, better ability and preparedness to manage pandemic and/or epidemic outbreaks, and improved patient safety.
Destination 4: Ensuring equal access to innovative, sustainable, and high quality health care
Everyone has fair access to high-quality, sustainable and innovative healthcare, supported by people-centred, safe and cost-effective solutions. This is to be accompanied by management models focusing on population health, health systems resilience, and health equity and patient safety, and also improved evidence-informed health policies.
Destination 5: Developing and using new tools, technologies and digital solutions for a healthy society
Cutting-edge health technologies, data-driven tools and digital solutions are designed and applied in ways that are inclusive, ethically sound, secure and sustainable, ensuring their effective integration into healthcare delivery and public health policy.
Destination 6: Maintaining an innovative, sustainable, and competitive EU health industry
Europe’s health industry remains globally competitive, sustainable and innovative by adopting breakthrough and social innovations. This strengthens resilience across the EU, its Member States and Associated Countries, and reduces dependence on imports of critical health technologies.
Cluster: Health Calls
Horizon Europe supports the aims of the Health Cluster through funding of research and innovation that address the different destinations. Proposals and partnerships are invited to apply for a variety of topics and ‘calls for proposals’, including topics such as brain health, implementations of artificial intelligence in health care systems, and the impact of pollution. All of these calls come with different total budgets and contributions per project. The total budget of Horizon Europe Cluster 1 in 2025 is around €850 million.
More information on destinations, topics and calls for proposals of the Health Cluster.
Who can apply?
Horizon Europe Cluster calls are open to a wide range of organisations, provided they meet the programme’s eligibility rules. Universities, research institutes, companies of all sizes (including start-ups and SMEs), public bodies, and non-profit organisations can all participate.
Most calls require a consortium of at least three independent entities from three different EU Member States or countries associated to Horizon Europe. Some specific calls may allow a single applicant or smaller partnerships. Organisations from non-EU countries can often join as additional partners. Certain topics can set extra conditions or limit participation to protect EU strategic interests.
How to apply for funding
Applications for funding go through Horizon Europe’s Funding and Tenders Portal.
Further reading on Horizon Europe
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