Call for proposals to support the development of innovative medical countermeasures for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats (HERA) - Medicinal products

Expected Impact

This action is expected to increase the preparedness of the Union to respond to CBRN threats and improve the availability of medical countermeasures against these threats. It should advance one or more medical countermeasures against CBRN threats along the steps towards regulatory approval and market readiness. In particular:

• For countermeasures against biological threats, this includes vaccines, therapeutics (such as antivirals, small molecules, antimicrobials, monoclonals and polyclonals).
• For countermeasures against chemical agents, this includes antidotes, supportive treatments, and innovation in application devices or techniques.
• For countermeasures against radio-nuclear agents, treatments against acute radiation syndrome, against bone marrow suppression, and decorporation agents after exposure to radioactive substances.

Expected Outcome

The range of activities include an end-to-end approach to bridge the gap between advanced research, innovation, market access and deployment by supporting:

• Advanced research and development (‘R&D’) to support the development of medical countermeasures;
• Involving end users and security practitioners to bring the research products closer to market readiness; and
• Support research into market readiness or facilitate tech and entrepreneurial skills development.

Objective

The objective is to improve the Union’s readiness to respond to intentional health threats, including cross-border ones, by supporting the development of medical countermeasures to biological, chemical and radio-nuclear agents for which there currently are no or only limited treatment options.

Scope

This action will focus on supporting advanced research on threat-agnostic medical countermeasures against CBRN agents and platform approaches to treat injuries from CBRN agents.