Understanding how infections foster and induce non-communicable diseases
Funds research to uncover how infections contribute to neurodegenerative and cardiometabolic diseases by identifying causal links, biomarkers, and mechanisms to improve prevention and treatment.
This grant is no longer accepting proposals
European Commission has archived this opportunity.
Funder: European Commission
Due Dates: October 9, 2025: Short proposal (stage 1) submission deadline (two-stage call) | April 29, 2026: Full proposal (stage 2) submission deadline (two-stage call)
Funding Amounts: Up to €7,127,000 IHI JU contribution; expected in-kind and financial contributions from industry: €8,167,000; from philanthropic partner: €1,020,000; project duration up to 60 months.
Summary: Supports research to uncover how infections contribute to neurodegenerative and cardiometabolic diseases, aiming to identify causal links, biomarkers, and mechanisms to improve prevention and treatment strategies.
Key Information: UK and Canadian participants are not eligible to receive funding for this topic.
Description
This call funds collaborative, cross-sectoral research to advance understanding of how infectious agents (IAs) foster and induce non-communicable diseases (NCDs), with a particular focus on neurodegenerative and cardiometabolic diseases. The action aims to identify causal relationships, novel biomarkers, and mechanisms of action (MoA) that link infections to the onset and progression of NCDs. The funded projects should develop robust methodologies for demonstrating non-carcinogenic IA-NCD causality, consolidate data into comprehensive repositories, and employ advanced techniques such as multi-omics, artificial intelligence, and pre-clinical models. Emphasis is placed on mining existing research cohorts and biobanks, integrating diverse data sources, and ensuring rigorous methodological, ethical, and data privacy standards.
The outcomes are expected to inform early diagnostic, preventative, and therapeutic strategies, improve quality of life, and support innovative healthcare approaches in the EU. Proposals should address all expected outcomes and objectives as outlined in the call text, including developing methodologies for causal inference, identifying and validating biomarkers, and elucidating mechanisms of action.
