European Partnership for Brain Health

Expected Outcome

This topic aims at supporting activities that are enabling or contributing to one or several expected impacts of destination “Tackling diseases and reducing disease burden”. To that end, proposals under this topic should aim to deliver results that are directed, tailored towards and contributing to all the following expected outcomes:

• The position of the EU and Associated Countries is strengthened as an internationally recognised driver of research and innovation on brain health[1], thereby contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals related to neurological and mental health.
• Research funders align, adopt and implement their brain health research policies allowing for the optimal generation and translation of knowledge into tailored health products and interventions to (i) promote brain health throughout the lifetime, (ii) prevent neurological and mental disorders, and (iii) improve diagnosis, treatment and care to enhance the quality of life of those living with brain disorders, as well as their caregivers, whilst also considering cultural, ethical, legal and social aspects.
• Research funders, policymakers, relevant agencies and authorities, researchers, innovators, citizens, people living with brain disorders and their caregivers and advocates enhance their collaboration forming a strong, structured and integrated research and innovation ecosystem with shared evidence, tools and methodologies cutting across sectors.
• The brain health research community at large benefits from and uses an improved comprehensive knowledge framework integrating the EU, national/regional data and information infrastructures to improve transnational research.
• People living with a brain disorder benefit from (i) a more timely, equitable access to accurate diagnosis and tailored care and treatment options in an innovative, sustainable and high-quality healthcare system that is well integrated with the research community, and from (ii) less discrimination and stigma, and social inclusion.
• Public and private actors, including civil society (e.g. Non-Governmental Organisations, charities), establish coordinated and efficient multi-stakeholder collaborations at national level in the EU and Associated Countries, allowing for more effective basic and clinical research and enhanced translation into tailored products and interventions.

Scope

The partnership should contribute from the research and innovation angle to priorities set in the “Healthier Together - EU Non-Communicable Diseases Initiative” (2022-2027), which includes a focus area on mental health and neurological disorders[2], as well as to the “Communication on a comprehensive approach to mental health” (COM(2023) 298 final)[3].

The partnership should also contribute from the research and innovation angle to achieving the objectives of the Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe[4], in terms of fulfilling unmet medical needs (numerous in the fields of neurological and mental disorders) and to ensuring that the benefits of innovation reach patients in the EU and Associated Countries. Moreover, it should support the objectives of the EU4Health Programme[5].

Additionally, the partnership should contribute from the research and innovation angle to the “Communication on the European Care Strategy” (for caregivers and care receivers; COM(2022) 440 final)[6], which aims to ensure high quality, affordable and accessible care services for all ages. By fostering data sharing and boosting FAIR[7] and open data, the partnership should also contribute to the implementation of the European Health Data Space (EHDS)[8].

Thanks to its capacity to bring together different stakeholders (e.g. research funders, health authorities, citizens, healthcare providers, innovators, policymakers), the partnership will create a critical mass of resources to implement a long-term Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), based on the work of the Coordination and Support Action BrainHealth[9].

The co-funded European Partnership for Brain Health should be implemented based on the priorities identified in the SRIA and through a joint programme of activities ranging from coordinating and funding transnational research to integrative activities aimed at structuring and enhancing the broader research and innovation ecosystem and facilitating the way research and innovation is carried out, and also delivering impact. Examples include (i) facilitating the sharing and analysis of data and samples, (ii) promoting harmonisation and standardisation efforts, (iii) providing input to shape the services provided by research infrastructures (based on the needs of the research community), as well as (iv) networking, training and dissemination activities.

It should be structured along the following main objectives:

• Strengthening collaboration, strategic alignment and global dialogue: engage and collaborate with key stakeholders, not only those participating in existing EU-supported brain research initiatives but also beyond them, whilst also seeking alignment with these and international initiatives, including other European partnerships.
• Jointly supporting research and innovation: launch joint transnational calls underpinning the brain health research and innovation priorities, as defined in the SRIA, and based on annual work plans. Calls include research calls, networking calls, and those that relate to ethical, legal and social/societal aspects.
• Facilitating the use of infrastructures and platforms in the EU and Associated Countries: improve access to and use of these infrastructures and platforms (e.g. ECRIN[10], EATRIS[11], EBRAINS[12], BBMRI[13], EuroBioImaging[14], European Genomic Data Infrastructure[15], etc.), whilst also providing input for shaping the services for the brain health research and funding community. This also covers the facilitation of data sharing by boosting FAIR and open data and improving interoperability and harmonisation.
• Bridging with healthcare providers, the private sector, regulators, and policymakers: enable the translation of research results into accessible, tailored products, technologies, interventions and policies through collaborations, including with institutionalised European partnerships (e.g., Innovative Health Initiative).
• Empowering citizens, people living with brain disorders and patients, families and caregivers (including informal): enable them to be active in their health trajectories via the dissemination of good practices and scientific outputs, as well as trainings to engage them along the whole spectrum of the research process.
• Capacity building in research: support networking and training of scientists, healthcare practitioners, health policy experts, innovators and other professionals contributing to preserve and improve brain health.

The partnership is open to all EU Member States, as well as to countries associated to Horizon Europe and will remain open to third countries wishing to join. Importantly, the EU contribution will not be increased should countries join after signing of the grant agreement.

The partnership should include or engage with the following actors: (i) Ministries in charge of R&I policy, as well as national and regional R&I and technology funding agencies and foundations; (ii) Ministries in charge of health and care policy, as well as national and regional healthcare authorities, organisations and providers; (iii) academic researchers; (iv) research infrastructures; (v) patients organisations; (vi) industry; (vii) research and technology organisations; (viii) private sector; and (ix) charities.

The partnership may also encourage engagement with other relevant Ministries (e.g., related to employment, education, etc.) and research funders. It should involve other key actors from civil society and end-users, research and innovation community, innovation owners, health and care systems owners/organisers and health and care agencies.

The partnership should build on and go beyond existing and previous initiatives, including the ERA-NET actions under (i) the EU Joint Programme for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND)[16], (ii) the Network of European Funding for Neuroscience Research (NEURON)[17], and (iii) the Human Brain Project[18] (HBP, a FET Flagship project), as well as the digital research infrastructure EBRAINS[19], which was put in place by HBP, and the Coordination and Support Actions (CSAs) BrainHealth[9] and European Brain Research Area (EBRA)[21].

The partnership’s governance structure should engage upfront the relevant actors to coordinate, steer and frame the research and innovation activities, and facilitate the use and uptake of the results. The governance should involve key stakeholders, including but not limited to the research and innovation community, patients and citizens, health and care professionals, formal and informal care organisations, and innovation owners. Transparency in governance should be secured (e.g. in calls, governing bodies, etc.).

To ensure coherence and complementarity of activities and leverage knowledge and investment possibilities, the partnership is expected to establish relevant collaborations with other Horizon Europe partnerships (institutionalised and co-funded) and missions, as set out in the working document on ‘Coherence and Synergies of candidate European Partnerships under Horizon Europe’[22], as well as to explore collaborations with other relevant activities at EU and international level. The proposal should also elaborate on possible synergies with other EU programmes, including EU4Health and the Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL). The Partnership should align with EU-wide initiatives on open access and FAIR data, including the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)[23].

To tackle the ambitious challenges, cooperation with international organisations, private sector and non-European institutions and experts may be considered. Participation of third countries is encouraged. Applicants should describe in their proposal the methodology for their collaboration and the aims they want to achieve with this kind of collaboration.

Proposals should pool the necessary financial resources from the participating national research programmes with a view to implementing joint calls for transnational proposals resulting in grants to third parties. Financial support provided by the participants to third parties is one of the activities of this action in order to be able to achieve its objectives.

When defining calls for proposals, this partnership needs to consider the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities (SSH) disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities. In addition, this partnership needs to integrate robust sex and gender considerations, applying an intersectional lens to investigate variations in mental, neurological and neurodegenerative conditions. This includes examining how characteristics such as sex, gender, age, racial/ethnic background, and disability intersect to influence disease/disorder prevalence, prevention, and outcomes.

The expected duration of the partnership is seven to ten years.

Projects funded by the European Partnership for Brain Health will be strongly encouraged to participate in networking and joint activities with relevant projects at European and national levels.

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The total indicative budget for the topic is EUR 150 million committed in annual instalments over the 3 years, 2025-2027 (EUR 56.5 million from the 2025 budget, EUR 46.5 million from the 2026 budget and EUR 47 million from the 2027 budget).

[1] In the context of the partnership, ‘brain health’ should be interpreted along the lines of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) definition (‘Brain health is the state of brain functioning across cognitive, sensory, social-emotional, behavioural and motor domains, allowing a person to realise their full potential over the life course, irrespective of the presence or absence of disorders’) and includes both neurological and mental health.

[2] https://health.ec.europa.eu/publications/eu-non-communicable-diseases-ncds-initiative-guidance-document_en

[3] https://health.ec.europa.eu/publications/comprehensive-approach-mental-health_en

[4] https://health.ec.europa.eu/medicinal-products/pharmaceutical-strategy-europe_en

[5] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32021R0522

[6] https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=89&furtherNews=yes&newsId=10382

[7] See definition of FAIR data in the introduction to this work programme part.

[8] https://health.ec.europa.eu/ehealth-digital-health-and-care/european-health-data-space_en

[9] https://www.brainhealth-partnership.eu

[10] https://ecrin.org

[11] https://eatris.eu

[12] https://www.ebrains.eu

[13] https://www.bbmri-eric.eu

[14] https://www.eurobioimaging.eu

[15] https://gdi.onemilliongenomes.eu

[16] https://www.neurodegenerationresearch.eu

[17] https://www.neuron-eranet.eu

[18] https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en

[19] https://ebrains.eu

[20] https://www.brainhealth-partnership.eu

[21] https://www.ebra.eu

[22] https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/document/download/846561ef-7696-4957-802a-69d19ea6b739_en?filename=ec_rtd_coherence-synergies-of-ep-under-he.pdf

[23] https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/strategy/strategy-2020-2024/our-digital-future/open-science/european-open-science-cloud-eosc_en