IHI’s call 13 is looking for innovative solutions across three topics: boosting health innovation through a network; using AI to reduce animal use in drug safety studies; and decoding diseases related to ageing and the immune system.
A budget of 84 824 750 EUR has been earmarked to tackle these three issues within IHI public-private partnerships; 53 200 000 EUR from the EU’s Horizon Europe programme for research and innovation, 27 196 000 EUR from IHI’s industry members and 4 428 750 EUR from IHI contributing partners.
“Europe urgently needs both health innovation and health innovators,” says Niklas Blomberg, executive director of IHI. “With the new round of financing launched today we continue to support public-private partnerships taking on major health challenges: healthy ageing, reducing animal trials and boosting early-stage health innovation.”
The topics are:
A network to boost the next wave of European innovations in healthcare
Although Europe conducts world-class research, the pathway to commercialisation is not always straightforward. This leads to knock-on negative impacts for patients, such as reduced access to the latest health technologies and treatments. In addition, the landscape of resources and initiatives for early-stage companies is fragmented and not easily accessible for all. By supporting the establishment of a network that can boost European health innovation, IHI hopes to smooth the path towards commercial uptake and aid the outputs of early-stage healthcare companies to scale up and find success in Europe.
An AI foundation toxicology model and framework to support waiving a second species in drug safety studies
Historically, regulations for nonclinical safety assessment of new small molecule medicines have required toxicity studies in two species, a rodent and a non-rodent. However, this two-species approach is increasingly challenged by ethical considerations, especially since the advancement of sophisticated in vitro systems, multi-omics technologies and AI-based modelling. A weight-of-evidence approach could eliminate unnecessary animal tests.
This call for proposals seeks a way to address and standardise the process of waiving a second species by developing an AI-driven model that will predict whether testing in a second species will provide additional safety-relevant information. If toxicity predictions are equal across rodent and non-rodent species, priority will then be given to the reduction of non-rodent chronic toxicity testing. Consequently, through this approach, the AI-model will allow for the selection of the most appropriate single species to be used.
Decode the immuno-science of age-related immune-mediated diseases
The transition to an ageing society is accompanied by a rise in chronic diseases and years lived in poor health, placing immense strain on healthcare systems worldwide. Central to this phenomenon is the progressive decline of immune function with age which not only increases susceptibility to infections and malignancies, but also drives chronic low-grade inflammation, known as "inflammaging".
Despite their clinical significance, elderly-onset immune diseases remain poorly understood compared to their younger adult-onset counterparts. The goal of this call for proposals is to identify the key biological determinants that drive healthy ageing and immune-mediated disease, focusing on how age-associated immune system remodelling shapes these outcomes.
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Notes to editors
Details of the topics and how to apply can be found at: IHI call 13 | IHI Innovative Health Initiative
Deadline for short proposals: 08 October 2026
Press contact
Catherine Collins
Tel: +32 484572940| E-mail: catherine.collins@ihi.europa.eu
About IHI
The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) aims to translate health research and innovation into real benefits for patients and society, and ensure that Europe remains at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary, sustainable, patient-centric health research. Health research and care increasingly involve diverse sectors. By supporting projects that bring these sectors together, IHI will pave the way for a more integrated approach to health care, covering prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and disease management.
IHI is a partnership between the European Union and European industry associations representing the pharmaceutical, medical technology, biotechnology, digital health and vaccine industries, namely COCIR, EFPIA, EuropaBio, MedTech Europe and Vaccines Europe. IHI’s total budget is EUR 2.4 billion. Half of this comes from Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation programme. The IHI industry partners have committed EUR 1 billion to IHI, and a further EUR 200 million can be committed by other organisations that decide to become Contributing Partners.
IHI builds on the successes of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), and the IHI Programme Office continues to manage the IMI project portfolio.