HORIZON-MISS-2027-02-CANCER-02

Clinical research by Comprehensive Cancer Infrastructures for the benefit of patients with common cancers

Status
forthcoming
Programme
Horizon Europe (HORIZON)
Action type
HORIZON Innovation Actions
Opens
10 Feb 2027
Deadline
21 Sep 2027
Fetched
15 Jul 2026, 07:18 UTC
Plain-language summary

Support clinical research by comprehensive cancer infrastructures to improve diagnosis and treatment of common cancers across EU and Associated Countries.

This call funds clinical research projects focused on lung, bowel, breast, or prostate cancer. It aims to improve diagnosis and treatment through collaboration among cancer infrastructures across multiple EU countries. Projects should involve patients and diverse stakeholders and address inequalities in cancer care access.

Likely relevant for

  • Comprehensive cancer infrastructures
  • Clinical researchers in oncology
  • Healthcare providers in EU/Associated Countries
  • Patient advocacy groups
  • Medical SMEs and innovators
  • Policy makers in healthcare

Project signals

Focus on lung, bowel, breast, or prostate cancerClinical research with patient-centered designCross-border pilot and upscale activitiesUse of European health data infrastructures

What it funds

  • Clinical research on lung, bowel, breast, or prostate cancer
  • Innovative diagnostics and treatments including radiotherapy, surgery, chemotherapy, therapeutic cancer vaccines
  • Implementation of clinical practice guidelines in less developed infrastructures
  • Piloting and upscaling clinical research programs in at least four EU/Associated countries
  • Use of participative research models involving patients and caregivers
  • Data management aligned with European Health Data Space and open science principles

Expected outcomes

  • Improved diagnosis and treatment for patients with common cancers
  • Reduced inequalities in cancer care across EU Member States and Associated Countries
  • Enhanced capacity and collaboration of comprehensive cancer infrastructures
  • Evidence to support healthcare providers and policymakers in implementing clinical research outcomes
  • Creation of accessible, affordable, and innovative clinical research programs

Who can apply / participate

  • Comprehensive cancer infrastructures
  • Research organizations
  • Healthcare providers
  • Patient organizations
  • SMEs and innovators
  • Charities and foundations
  • Policy and public authorities
  • Consortia must include comprehensive cancer infrastructures from at least four different EU Member States or Associated Countries
  • At least one participating country should have less developed cancer infrastructure
  • Eligible participants from EU Member States and Associated Countries
  • Special provisions may apply for non-EU/non-Associated countries
  • Applicants must address all scope requirements including multi-country clinical research
  • Projects should include patient and caregiver involvement
  • Data management must comply with EU Health Data Space standards
  • Specific eligibility criteria for each applicant type
  • Exact consortium size and composition requirements

Must check before shortlisting

  • Eligibility of applicant types and countries
  • Capacity to coordinate multi-country clinical studies
  • Ability to include diverse stakeholders and patient involvement
  • Compliance with lump sum funding model

Money

Total indicative budget around €20 million for 2027, with expected grants of €7-10 million each.

  • Total budget for 2027 — 20000000EUR
    Indicative budget for this call in 2027
  • Expected grant size per project — 7000000-10000000EUR
    Range of funding per successful proposal

Application notes

  • Single-stage submission model.
  • Proposal page limits and layout as per Annex A and E of Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes
  • Eligible countries listed in Annex B of Work Programme General Annexes
  • Evaluation criteria thresholds: Excellence, Impact, Implementation each minimum 4, cumulative 12
  • Eligible costs covered by lump sum funding model
  • Prepare proposal using provided application form templates
  • Include detailed clinical study information in dedicated annex
  • Submit proposal by deadline 21 September 2027
  • Participate in evaluation process following Horizon Europe guidelines
  • Applicants must ensure compliance with lump sum funding and eligibility conditions
  • Proposals must include budget for networking and joint activities within EU Cancer Mission cluster
  • Data must be managed according to European Health Data Space requirements

Derived from official EU Funding portal source · updated 7 Jul 2026, 12:22 UTC. Use this as a shortlisting aid; the official call text remains authoritative.

Related calls

These funding calls are closely related and may be worth considering as part of the same funding landscape.

Official source text

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

Topic description

Expected Outcome: Proposals under this topic should aim to deliver results that are directed and tailored towards, and contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: Patients afflicted by lung, bowel, breast or prostate cancer [1] , will benefit from the outcomes of evidence-based, tailored, innovative, affordable and accessible diagnosis- and treatment-centred clinical research programmes by comprehensive cancer infrastructures [2] . Researchers, physicians, patient representatives, civil society, charities, foundations, insurance companies, SMEs and innovators [3] will seize opportunities to respectively co-create, support, upscale or commercialise outcomes of evidence-based, tailored, affordable and accessible clinical research programmes for the diagnosis and treatment of patients afflicted by lung, bowel, breast or prostate cancer. National and regional healthcare providers, healthcare payers, policymakers and authorities in European regions, EU Member States and Associated Countries have the evidence to engage in piloting, upscaling or implementing appropriate clinical research programmes for the diagnosis and treatment of patients afflicted by lung, bowel, breast or prostate cancer. Scope: Lung, bowel, breast and prostate cancer incidence, mortality and prevalence across EU Member States and Associated Countries are increasing while showing substantial variation, with Central and Eastern European communities, regions and countries particularly affected [4] . At the same time, the level of development of comprehensive cancer infrastructures continues to vary considerably across EU Member States and Associated Countries, contributing to inequalities, in particular in terms of clinical research capacity as well as quality of and access to innovative diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. Applicants should address all of the following: Comprehensive cancer infrastructures across the EU Member States and Associated Countries come together to conduct clinical research on lung, bowel, breast or prostate cancer focusing on at least one of the following areas: Innovative diagnostics; Radiotherapy, surgery, chemotherapy; Therapeutic cancer vaccines for the treatment of cancer patients with early-stage, advanced, metastatic or minimal residual disease (e.g. after debulking by surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or immunotherapy); Implementation of appropriate clinical practice guidelines for diagnosis and treatment in countries without or with limited Comprehensive Cancer Infrastructures; Comprehensive cancer infrastructures should extensively pilot and upscale innovative diagnostic or treatment programmes in at least four different EU Member States or Associated Countries. One of the four targeted EU Member States should represent a country without or with a less developed comprehensive cancer infrastructure. To ensure that together they address - and whenever feasible - overcome challenges because of the national, regional, or local research and healthcare context (e.g. those faced by small(er) EU Member States, or due to a large rural population, or particular cancer burden, socio-economic or environmental situation, or limited clinical research capacity [5] ), when designing and conducting innovative clinical research programmes with added value for the timely diagnosis and treatment of patients with lung, bowel, breast or prostate cancer; Identify additional resources through the European Research Development Fund (ERDF), the Technical Support Instrument [6] , the Resilience and Recovery Facility (RRF), philanthropy, the European Investment Bank Group (EIB [7] , EIF [8] ) or any other initiative; Innovative clinical research programmes should be defined together with patients and their caregivers/families using participative research models and adapted to the needs of the target population and the specificities of healthcare provision at local, regional, or national level, duly reflecting the (cultural) diversity and available resources across EU Member States and Associated Countries; Data should be disaggregated by sex, gender, age and other relevant variables, such as by measures of socio-economic status or ethnicity; All datasets produced should be described with metadata records in the EU dataset catalogue of the European Health Data Space, while all tools and models should take advantage of current European research infrastructures, should follow the principles of open science and made available through the future UNCAN.eu platform; Applicants should include an appropriate mix of stakeholders from various disciplines and sectors [9] and provide details of the clinical study(ies) in the dedicated annex using the template provided in the submission system. Successful proposals will be asked to join the 'Diagnosis and treatment” cluster [10] for the EU Cancer Mission and should include a budget for networking, attendance at meetings, and joint activities [11] . The Commission will facilitate coordination of these activities. The successful proposals are expected to build on relevant networks launched under the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan that could facilitate cross-border clinical trials [12] , resources made available by relevant ESFRI Research Infrastructures [13] , and the Knowledge Centre on Cancer (KCC) to foster EU alignment and coordination [14] . [1] Any age group or cancer subtype [2] National or regional infrastructures that provide resources and services to support, improve and integrate cancer care, research, training of care professionals and education for cancer patients, survivors and their families/carers of any age group. Hence, comprehensive cancer infrastructures could consist of any combination, number or type of -public or private- cancer centre, hospital, university medical centre, research department or institute, company, public health facility, etc. [3] Innovators turn research results into new and better services and products, to remain competitive in a global marketplace and to improve the quality of life of Europe’s citizens. [4] Cancer inequalities registry: https://cancer-inequalities.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ [5] research laboratories, diagnostics and clinical trial infrastructures [6] Technical Support Instrument (TSI) , DG REFORM [7] Homepage | European Investment Bank [8] eif.org/index.htm [9] such as physicians, academia, patients and their caregivers, patient representatives, engineers, behavioural scientists, SMEs, business networks, insurance companies, charities and foundations, research organisations, civil society. [10] In order to address the objectives of the EU Cancer Mission, participants will collaborate in project clusters to leverage EU-funding, increase networking across sectors and disciplines, and establish a portfolio of EU Cancer Mission R&I and policy actions. [11] Examples of those activities are research or research capacity, organising joint workshops, establishing best practices, joint communication or citizen engagement activities with projects funded under other clusters and pillars of Horizon Europe, or other EU programmes, as appropriate. Proposals are not required to include details of these activities, as they will be defined during the grant agreement preparation and during the life of the project. [12] Such as the EU Network of comprehensive cancer centres EUNetCCC [13] Such as BBMRI, EATRIS, ELIXIR, ECRIN. [14] Hosted by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). Especially through the ’European Guidelines and Quality Assurance Schemes for Breast, Colorectal and Cervical Cancer Screening and Diagnosis‘, and the ’European Cancer Information System (ECIS)’ and the ’European Cancer Inequalities Registry (ECIR), see https://knowledge4policy.ec.europa.eu/cancer_en.

Conditions and documents

General conditions

1. Admissibility conditions: Proposal page limit and layout

described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.

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

2. Eligible countries

described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

3. Other Eligibility Conditions

described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion

described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.

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

described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.

5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes

The thresholds for each criterion will be 4 (Excellence), 4 (Impact) and 4 (Implementation). The cumulative threshold is 12.

described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.

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

described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants

Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025) [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf]].

The granting authority may, up to 4 years after the end of the action, object to a transfer of ownership or to the exclusive licensing of results, as set out in the specific provision of Annex 5.

described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Specific conditions

described in the specific topic of the Work Programme

Support information

Online Manual is your guide on the procedures from proposal submission to managing your grant. Horizon Europe Programme Guide contains the detailed guidance to the structure, budget and political priorities of Horizon Europe. Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ – find the answers to most frequently asked questions on submission of proposals, evaluation and grant management. Research Enquiry Service – ask questions about any aspect of European research in general and the EU Research Framework Programmes in particular. National Contact Points (NCPs) – get guidance, practical information and assistance on participation in Horizon Europe. There are also NCPs in many non-EU and non-associated countries (‘third-countries’). Enterprise Europe Network – contact your EEN national contact for advice to businesses with special focus on SMEs. The support includes guidance on the EU research funding. IT Helpdesk – contact the Funding & Tenders Portal IT helpdesk for questions such as forgotten passwords, access rights and roles, technical aspects of submission of proposals, etc. European IPR Helpdesk assists you on intellectual property issues. CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk and ETSI Research Helpdesk – the European Standards Organisations advise you how to tackle standardisation in your project proposal. The European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for their recruitment – consult the general principles and requirements specifying the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers, employers and funders of researchers. Partner Search help you find a partner organisation for your proposal.

Raw budget overview
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