DIGITAL-2026-AI-PILOTING-10-SCREENING

Apply AI: Piloting AI-based image screening in medical centres

Status
open for submission
Programme
Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL)
Action type
DIGITAL Simple Grants
Opens
21 Apr 2026
Deadline
1 Oct 2026
Fetched
15 Jul 2026, 07:18 UTC
Plain-language summary

Pilot scalable cloud-based AI/GenAI systems for medical image screening integrated into clinical workflows in EU healthcare settings.

This call funds projects to develop and test AI systems for medical image screening in hospitals. Projects must integrate AI into clinical workflows and validate performance with real patient data. The goal is to improve cancer and cardiovascular disease screening using trustworthy AI.

Likely relevant for

  • AI developers in healthcare
  • Medical imaging researchers
  • Healthcare IT system integrators
  • Medical centres and hospitals
  • Health data scientists
  • Regulatory and compliance experts in health AI

Project signals

Focus on cancer or cardiovascular screeningUse of large patient datasetsDevelopment of privacy-preserving AI systemsPlans for cost-efficiency and HTA analysisStakeholder engagement and dissemination plansSustainability and post-market follow-up plans

What it funds

  • Development and piloting of scalable cloud-based AI/GenAI systems for medical image screening
  • Integration of AI systems into clinical workflows in healthcare settings
  • Use of trustworthy AI algorithms trained on large patient datasets
  • Secure, privacy-preserving cloud environments with controlled access
  • Interoperability with health IT infrastructure (EHR, PACS, RIS)
  • Technical and clinical validation with real patient cases
  • Evidence generation on cost-efficiency for regulatory and HTA purposes
  • Organisation of events/workshops for European AI-powered screening centres network
  • Plans for regulatory approval, risk management, and clinical evaluation
  • Data protection and cybersecurity measures
  • Sustainability plans for EU-wide uptake
  • Stakeholder engagement and dissemination activities

Expected outcomes

  • Proofs-of-concept of replicable, scalable AI/GenAI systems for medical imaging analysis
  • Demonstration of clinician validation roles and seamless clinical integration
  • Evidence-based analysis of cost-efficiency for healthcare systems
  • Regular events/workshops with participant satisfaction measurement
  • Medical centres joining the European AI-powered screening centres network
  • Regulatory approval plans including risk and compliance activities
  • Detailed data protection and cybersecurity plans
  • Sustainability plan for system uptake across the EU
  • Stakeholder engagement and dissemination reports with KPIs

Who can apply / participate

  • Medical centres and hospitals
  • Research organisations
  • SMEs and industry partners
  • Healthcare IT providers
  • Consortia including clinical and technical partners
  • Consortium must include medical centres for clinical validation
  • Collaboration between AI developers and healthcare providers expected
  • Eligible countries as per call document section 6
  • Proposals must comply with admissibility and eligibility conditions in call document
  • Applicants must demonstrate financial and operational capacity
  • Exact consortium size and composition requirements
  • Specific country eligibility details

Must check before shortlisting

  • Eligibility criteria in call document section 6
  • Consortium composition and roles
  • Budget limits and funding rates
  • Specific clinical settings and disease focus
  • Data protection and cybersecurity requirements

Money

Total budget of approximately €9 million for 2 grants in 2027 under DIGITAL Simple Grants.

  • Total budget — 9000000EUR
    For 2 expected grants combined

Application notes

  • Single-stage submission model.
  • Proposal page limits and layout as per call document section 5 and application form Part B
  • Eligibility and admissibility conditions as per call document section 6
  • Financial and operational capacity requirements as per call document section 7
  • Evaluation criteria and award process as per call document sections 8 and 9
  • Legal and financial set-up as per call document section 10
  • Prepare proposal following call document and application form templates
  • Submit proposal via Funding & Tenders Portal before deadline
  • Ensure compliance with eligibility and admissibility criteria
  • Prepare required supporting documents including ownership and capacity declarations
  • Check detailed eligibility and consortium requirements in call document
  • Ensure compliance with data protection and cybersecurity regulations
  • Budget and funding rates must be verified in official documents

Derived from official EU Funding portal source · updated 22 Jun 2026, 14:11 UTC. Use this as a shortlisting aid; the official call text remains authoritative.

Official source text

Fine print from the EU source record. Expand when you need the original wording.

Topic description

Expected Impact: na Expected Outcome: Outcomes and deliverables One or more proofs-of-concept of replicable, scalable cloud-based AI/GenAI systems for analysis of medical imaging data in a healthcare setting, with demonstration of the role of the clinicians in validating AI/GenAI findings and reports showcasing seamless integration of the system into clinical workflows. Evidence-based analysis of (cost-)efficiency of the piloted solutions for healthcare systems for regulatory and HTA purposes. Two or more events or workshops organised per year and per project for the European network of AI-powered advanced screening centres. The agenda should include lessons learned from the project activities, as well as other items relevant to the network. Participant satisfaction rates should be measured for the events and workshops. Medical centres in the consortium joined the European network of AI-powered advanced screening centres under the Apply AI Strategy. A plan for obtaining regulatory approval for application of the AI/GenAI solutions in real life scenarios and clinical settings. This includes the required risk management and compliance activities, as well as clinical evaluation plans and post-market clinical follow-up. Detailed data protection and cybersecurity plan, with measures to secure sensitive health data, mitigate cybersecurity risks, and comply with EU legal and ethical frameworks. Sustainability plan for the uptake of the systems across the EU. Stakeholder engagement and dissemination report with measurable actions (KPIs). Scope: Each project awarded in this action should implement a scalable cloud-based AI/GenAI system running European trustworthy and safe AI/GenAI algorithms that were developed, trained and validated using very large sets of patient data. They should put in place a secure, privacy-preserving cloud environment required for the health data analysis tasks, with appropriate access and identification tools for authorised use only, and implement the whole system as described under this topic, seamlessly integrated in regular clinical workflows of the care settings involved. Interoperability and the need to communicate with the health IT infrastructure (e.g. the electronic health record (EHR) of the patient, Picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), Radiological Information Systems (RIS), etc.) need to be addressed. The projects should demonstrate the integration and large-scale validation of cloud-based AI/GenAI systems, following a thorough assessment and testing over a large number of patient test cases in real healthcare settings. The proposers are expected to choose the types of health data, the AI/GenAI algorithms that are trustworthy and secure, and the medical use cases, with the focus disease areas being cancer and cardiovascular. The projects should perform technical and clinical validation of the systems, generating evidence on AI systems’ performance and usability in different clinical settings. They shall use the AI systems for screening in clinical settings, perform local performance evaluation and post-deployment monitoring of the solutions, including evidence generation on cost-efficiency in view of regulatory requirements and health technology assessment (HTA). Whenever relevant, each project should deploy AI/GenAI solutions already tested and validated within the TEF for Health.

Conditions and documents

Conditions

1. Admissibility conditions: Proposal page limit and layout

described in section 5 of the call document.

Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.



2. Eligible countries

described in section 6 of the call document.

3. Other eligibility conditions

described in section 6 of the call document.

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion

described in section 7 of the call document.

5a. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes

described section 8 of the call document and the Online Manual.

5b. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds

described in section 9 of the call document.

5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement

described in section 4 of the call document.

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants

described in section 10 of the call document.

Support information

For help related to this call, please contact CNECT-A6@EC.EUROPA.EU Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ – Submission of proposals . IT Helpdesk – Contact the IT helpdesk for questions such as forgotten passwords, access rights and roles, technical aspects of submission of proposals, etc. Online Manual – Step-by-step online guide through the Portal processes from proposal preparation and evaluation to reporting on your ongoing project. Valid for all 2021-2027 programmes.

Raw budget overview
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