Upcoming and open funding calls

The full text for Innovative Health Initiative call 6 may be found here. EU4Health calls may be found in full here.

Calls for Funding 

• EC-ENER/LUX/2024/OP/0020: SAMIRA study on criteria for acceptability of medical radiological equipment
• EU4H-2024-PJ-02-1: Call for proposals to support integration of cancer images into the federated pan-European infrastructure to foster screening programmes
• HORIZON-HLTH-2024-DISEASE-13-01: Implementation research for management of multiple long-term conditions in the context of non-communicable diseases (Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases – GACD)
• HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-01: Use cases for the UNCAN.eu research data platform
• HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-02: Support dialogue towards the development of national cancer data nodes
• HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-03: Accessible and affordable tests to advance early detection of heritable cancers in European regions
• HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-05: Improving the understanding and management of late-effects in adolescents and young adults (AYA) with cancer
• CR-g-24-42: Call for proposals on radiation safety and quality of computed tomography imaging of children, adolescents and young adults
• HORIZON-JU-IHI-2024-06-01-two-stage: Support healthcare system resilience through a focus on persistency in the treatment of chronic diseases
• HORIZON-JU-IHI-2024-06-02-two-stage: Development of evidence based practical guidance for sponsors on the use of real-world data / real-world evidence
• CR-p-24-38: Development of European guidelines and quality assurance scheme for gastric cancer prevention and care and preparing the third report on the status of implementation of the Council Recommendations on cancer screening
• CR-p-23-41: Development of EU guidelines and quality assurance scheme for lung, prostate and gastric cancer screening
• CR-p-23-44-02: To support the implementation of the strategic agenda for medical ionising radiation applications (SAMIRA) – study on the implementation of the EURATOM and the Union legal bases with respect to medical devices used in medical applications of ionising radiation

EC-ENER/LUX/2024/OP/0020

SAMIRA study on criteria for acceptability of medical radiological equipment

Indicative budget: € 200,000
Opening: 18 June 2024
Deadline(s): 31 July 2024

Keywords: medical radiological equipment, acceptability criteria, health screening, diagnostic and interventional procedures, Basic Safety Standards Directive

Expected Outcome

The purpose of this study is to review and revise publication Radiation Protection 162 (RP 162), in view of updating and upgrading the criteria for acceptability of medical radiological equipment contained therein. The revised guidance will define essential parameters relevant to the assessment of the performance of radiological medical equipment and will set up up-to-date criteria for acceptability of this equipment, considering developments in technology, standards and requirements that occurred since the publication of RP 162.

Scope

The contractor must propose criteria for acceptability that are achievable throughout the EU Member States and provide advice on their  implementation and verification in practice. The revised document will rely, to the extent possible, on the methodology for defining and applying criteria for acceptability of equipment established in section 1 of RP 162. Any change of the proposed methodology shall be substantiated and approved by DG ENER before progressing with Task 2 of the study as described in the tender specifications. The contractor will develop criteria for acceptability of equipment that came on the market after 2010 or was too new to be addressed in RP 162. This should include radiological and nuclear medicine imaging systems used for health screening, diagnostic and interventional procedures, and treatment planning and guidance. The contractor will make an effort to define, to the extent possible, criteria for modern and advanced computed tomography (CT) systems, including cone beam CT, advanced image acquisition and reconstruction, and multidetector and dual-energy CT, as well as for other modern imaging equipment, including digital breast tomosynthesis, hybrid imaging systems (SPECT-CT, PET-CT, etc.), and bedside and mobile radiological imaging equipment. Similarly, the work should cover modern radiotherapy equipment, including stereotactic radiosurgery, stereotactic body radiation therapy, and proton radiotherapy. The updated guidance should further include advice on how to deal with situations where criteria for acceptability could not be defined, or where there is rapid innovation in equipment. Special emphasis shall be put on equipment used for paediatric radiology since safety and performance standards may be different from those accepted for adults. Similarly, the revised guidance should deal, where practical, with the implications for equipment used in health screening, in high-dose interventional procedures, and other special issues noted in the BSS Directive. For the essential parameters to be investigated, the guidance will delineate methods relying on non-invasive measurements performed at regular intervals by the operating personnel using test equipment where necessary. The guidance should benefit the holder of the radiological installations by helping them set up protocols for quality control to demonstrate that the equipment installed is fit for use and indicate the need for remedial action. In addition, it will support bodies responsible for technical surveillance and relevant public authorities in verifying the compliance of equipment with regulations on technical safety. Special attention should be paid to the fact that all references describing test procedures should be either freely available to the public or test procedures shall be described in detail in order to enable application of the results by end users.

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EU4H-2024-PJ-02-1

Call for proposals to support integration of cancer images into the federated pan-European infrastructure to foster screening programmes

Indicative budget: € 8 million
Opening: 18 June 2024
Deadline(s): 10 October 2024

Keywords: cancer imaging data

Expected Outcome

The action will support hospitals and other imaging repositories, for example those involved in conducting cancer screening, in creating enabling conditions for becoming a node in the European federated infrastructure of cancer imaging data. Short-term improvements include strengthening the collaboration between national and regional screening programmes for breast, lung and prostate cancers, with the European Cancer Imaging Infrastructure in particular regarding the management of the screening data and opportunistic screening (as opposed to organised, population-based screening programmes) and with the relevant infrastructures of the proposed European Health Data Space, such as HealthData@EU. The project beneficiaries are expected to represent a wide range of relevant stakeholders such as researchers, NGOs, experts, Member States institutions and industry. In the mid-term, this action is expected to increase the geographical reach of the European Cancer Imaging Initiative. It will also contribute to the alignment of the European Cancer Imaging Infrastructure with the proposed EHDS infrastructures and processes. Close collaboration of projects participants is expected with the European Cancer Imaging Initiative, in particular the EUCAIM project, and with relevant stakeholders involved in the implementation of the proposed EHDS regulatory framework. Links should be established with EU4Health actions on screening, Comprehensive Cancer Centres in Member States and other relevant actions under the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and Cancer Mission, as well as with other relevant actions concerning the proposed EHDS. The action shall contribute to other relevant actions under the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and the Cancer Mission.

Scope

The action will provide enabling support for cancer imaging data providers, to contribute to and benefit from the European Cancer Imaging Initiative. The action will improve readiness of national, regional or local imaging data repositories to connect and make available their data via the European infrastructure of cancer images data established under the DIGITAL programme (EUCAIM project) and to use this infrastructure for data enrichment and insights by accessing the nodes, tools and methodologies offered by EUCAIM. This action is relevant for the proposed European Health Data Space. In order to contribute to the planned EHDS, this action will seek alignment with the relevant EHDS infrastructures (MyHealth@EU and HealthData@EU). Where applicable, it will link cancer imaging databases with the relevant bodies and infrastructures in the proposed EHDS, particularly health data access bodies and HealthData@EU. This action will also explore ways to leverage on the EHDS interoperability specifications for the European Electronic Health Record exchange Format, including relevant eHealth Network guidelines, as well as minimum specifications for datasets to be used for research and innovation.

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HORIZON-HLTH-2024-DISEASE-13-01

Implementation research for management of multiple long-term conditions in the context of non-communicable diseases (Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases – GACD)

Indicative budget: € 3-4 million
Opening: 25 April 2024
Deadline(s): 26 November 2024

Keywords: health interventions, quality of life, disadvantaged populations, chronic disease, health policy

Expected Outcome

This topic aims at supporting activities that are enabling or contributing to one or several expected impacts of destination 3 “Tackling diseases and reducing disease burden.” To that end, proposals under this topic should aim for delivering results that are directed, tailored towards and contributing to some of the following expected outcomes:

• Health care practitioners and providers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and/or those in high-income countries (HICs) serving disadvantaged populations have access to and use specific guidelines to implement health interventions that improve  the availability of effective, equitable, efficient, integrated, patient-centred, safe, and timely care and the overall quality of life for people living with multiple long-term conditions including non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
• Public health managers and authorities, including from other relevant sector (e.g., social, culture) have access to improved insights and evidence on how to decrease the fragmentation of care for patients living with multiple chronic conditions, and ensure continuity of care across all stages of disease progression. They use this knowledge to design policies to reduce health inequities.
• Adopting an implementation science approach to studying interventions for management of long-term conditions in the context of NCDs, researchers, clinicians and authorities have an improved understanding how the proposed interventions could be adopted in LMICs and/or disadvantaged populations of HICs setting, taking into account specific social, political, economic and cultural contexts.
• Communities and local stakeholders and authorities are fully engaged in implementing and taking up interventions for management of multiple long-term conditions in the context of NCDs and thus contribute to deliver better health.

Scope

The European Commission is a member of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD), an alliance of international funding agencies representing over 80% of the world’s public health research funding and the first collaboration of its kind to specifically address NCDs. The GACD supports implementation science to improve health outcomes. This topic is launched in concertation with the other GACD members and aligned with the 9th GACD call.

The topic is focused on implementation research for management of multiple long-term conditions in the context of NCDs (MLTC NCD) in LMICs and/or disadvantaged populations in HICs. Proposals should focus on implementation science around interventions that will generate evidence about when, for whom, and under what circumstances, patient-centred approaches can improve integrated care for patients with MLTC NCD.

MLTC NCD refers to the co-occurrence of multiple chronic conditions, at least one of which is an NCD. NCDs include for example cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, cancers, musculoskeletal disorders, diabetes, hypertension, haematological disorders, sleep disorders, and mental health disorders. The high prevalence of MLTC NCD is projected to rise with the ageing population and the increasing burden of NCDs. MLTC NCD has a profound impact on patients, and is associated with premature death, physical disability, substance abuse, poor quality of life, mental health issues, and financial difficulties from high costs of care. It is also associated with difficulties in adherence to and high rates of adverse effects from treatment with multiple medications. In addition, due to poor health and the complexity of managing their conditions, patients with MLTC NCD are high utilisers of health care systems, which is especially challenging in low-resourced contexts.

Addressing MLTC NCD demands a shift from fragmented models of care, which treat individual health issues separately as they occur, to a more holistic integrated care model that provides a whole person focus on health management. The current evidence suggests that primary healthcare, integrated and coordinated care, patient-centred interventions, digital health technology, and optimised medication therapy are key to improved management of MLTC NCD. However, implementing patient-centred strategies for treating MLTC NCD remains challenging and largely unexplored in disadvantaged contexts, especially in LMICs. Adapting and scaling such models is critical to improving quality of life; reducing disability; reducing the burden of caretaking on (typically female) family members and reducing health system costs.

The proposed implementation research must focus on one or more evidence-based interventions (or complex interventions) known to promote integrated management of multiple long-term conditions, including NCDs. It should assess patient-centred interventions focused on patient management or self-management, or interventions that transform communities, clinical practice, and/or health systems. Applicants should justify the choice of intervention(s) and provide evidence of the intervention’s effectiveness, acceptability, feasibility, and potential for long-term health and other impacts. Ideally, evidence of the intervention’s real-world effectiveness should be supported by a well-conducted systematic review where available. As the evidence for how to manage MLTC NCD is still emerging, particularly in LMICs, a limited period of testing the effectiveness of an intervention that the applicant’s team has adapted for local implementation is therefore usually appropriate.

Applicants must explore the implementation of proposed intervention(s) for a selected study population(s) taking into account the unique social, political, economic, and cultural context(s) in which the study will take place. Applicants should justify why any adaptation
will not compromise the known effectiveness of the selected intervention(s).

Proposals should address all of the following activities:

• Provide a research plan using validated implementation research frameworks or hybrid design research;
• Have an appropriate strategy for measuring implementation research outcomes and real-world effectiveness outcomes and indicators;
• Specifically address health equity and the principles of Universal Health Coverage; In keeping with the principles of Universal Health Coverage, the World Health Organization advocates that health systems move towards offering a continuum of quality NCD preventative, diagnostic, curative, rehabilitative, and palliative care services, that are available and accessible to all, independent of economic circumstances.
• Engage an appropriately expert and skilled research team which can ensure a suitable multidisciplinary approach and that demonstrates equitable partnership and shared leadership between HIC-LMIC, and/or non-Indigenous–Indigenous members of the project team and external stakeholders through a clear governance strategy;
• Provide a stakeholder engagement strategy with evidence of support/engagement from key stakeholders for delivering patient-centred care and a pathway to sustain the proposed intervention after the funding ends;
• Provide opportunities for implementation research capacity building for early career researchers and team members from lower resourced environments, such as LMICs or disadvantaged communities.
• Ensure meaningful involvement of early career team members, including at least one early career member as a co-investigator.

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HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-01

Use cases for the UNCAN.eu research data platform

Indicative budget: € 30 million
Opening: 18 April 2024
Deadline(s): 18 September 2024

Keywords: uncan.eu platform, EU Cancer Mission, use cases, data analysis tools, FAIR data

Expected Outcome

The aim of this topic is to operationalise the UNCAN.eu research data platform foreseen in the Cancer Mission implementation plan, through a series of use-cases. To this goal, proposals are expected to develop tools supporting researchers to access, manage and analyse cancer digital data, building among others on resources developed by EOSC4cancer.

Proposal(s) under this topic are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• The UNCAN.eu platform is developed by federating a network of cancer data nodes built on European and national computing infrastructures that link different cancer data holders across European countries.
• Use-cases focusing on the understanding of cancer initiation and progression are designed and implemented by multidisciplinary teams to develop tools and services for working with FAIR data.
• Researchers and clinicians use the electronic resources provided by the UNCAN.eu platform to access, manage and analyse data of heterogeneous types and belonging to different research domains at an unprecedented scale.

Scope

The successful proposal should:

• Develop the UNCAN.eu platform by integrating and, where relevant, complementing existing or planned data nodes of European research infrastructures or other national infrastructures that may link various cancer data holders across Member States and Associated Countries (e.g., hospitals, research centres, comprehensive cancer centres, etc.). The number of Member States involved should be sufficient to demonstrate scalability and flexibility of the UNCAN.eu platform while allowing for stepwise onboarding of more countries.
• Provide tools, services and workflows to researchers across data nodes for dataset creation, standardisation, data discovery, secure access, management, visualization, harmonization, analysis and other functions as appropriate. This task should capitalise on EOSC4cancer’s achievements, integrating and expanding as appropriate the available tools and solutions. It should also take advantage of the European Health Data Space and the European Open Science Cloud frameworks.
• Design and implement a rich and diverse portfolio of use-cases to inform, steer the development and demonstrate the validity of the UNCAN.eu platform. Use cases should focus on research questions that are in line with the Cancer Mission objectives and that may advance the understanding of mechanisms involved in cancer development and progression beyond the current state of the art. At least one use-case should target a cancer type with a 5-year overall survival of less than 50% from the time of diagnosis. A second use-case should target paediatric cancer.
• At the same time, use-cases should be functional to the design and implementation of UNCAN.eu to increase the diversity of digital tools and services available for cancer researchers. The mobilisation and integration of a large amount of research and real word data beyond current practice and a balanced participation of clinicians, disease experts and data scientists will be essential to achieve the objectives of this topic. Due attention should be paid to sex and gender, disaggregating the data as appropriate.
• The successful consortium should develop innovative approaches, to integrate and analyse heterogeneous data from multiple sources and different research domains, including the participation of the necessary interdisciplinary set of European infrastructures and national data nodes. In this regard, at least one use-case should integrate imaging, digital pathology and genomic data, using and/or contributing with new data sources to the Genomics Data Infrastructure (GDI) and Cancer Image Europe (EUCAIM).
• Give emphasis to data being managed and shared in line with the FAIR principles, and the concept of FAIR-by-design is applied wherever possible. The applicants must demonstrate that the necessary data sources are, or will be, effectively and timely available. During the project lifetime, new data sources that might become available at a later stage can be accommodated as well as allowing additional data holders to join the UNCAN.eu platform. Results must be open source and made available through a public repository under a permissive license. Open access data should be provided whenever possible.
• Give due consideration to, and establish appropriate links with, EU-funded initiatives such as EHDS-related governance and implementation actions, the European Network of Cancer Registries.
• Foresee to establish links with the successful proposal resulting from the topic HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-02 ‘Support dialogue towards the development of national cancer data nodes.’

This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.

The Commission will facilitate coordination. Therefore, proposals should include a budget for networking, attendance at meetings, and potential joint activities without the prerequisite to give details of these at this stage. Examples are 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.

Successful proposal will be asked to join the ‘Understanding’ cluster for the Mission on Cancer established in 2022. The details of joint activities will be defined during the grant agreement preparation phase and during the life of the project.

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HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-02

Support dialogue towards the development of national cancer data nodes

Indicative budget: € 3 million
Opening: 18 April 2024
Deadline(s): 18 September 2024

Keywords: national cancer data nodes, European Health Data Space, EU Cancer Mission, platform integration

Expected Outcome

Data is an essential resource to improve our understanding of cancer, advance prevention and early detection strategies, facilitate the delivery of personalised care, and better address the quality of life of cancer patients and survivors.

The Cancer Mission supports the creation of the European Initiative to Understand Cancer (UNCAN.eu, a federated European cancer research data infrastructure) and the European Cancer Patient Digital Centre (ECPDC, a European network of national digital infrastructures for cancer patients).

The proposal under this topic is expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• Advance the process of establishing National cancer data nodes, by the scaling-up or improvement of existing national health data infrastructures and by fostering their links to the European Health Data Space infrastructures for primary and secondary data uses.
• Potential barriers that may prevent the effective implementation of UNCAN.eu and ECPDC digital platforms are identified and a way forward to address them proposed.

Scope

The proposal should address all of the following:

• Foster the development of national cancer data nodes through policy dialogues at national level with relevant actors in the research and innovation community, digital health and public health policy.
• Identify and build synergies between European infrastructures related to health data access and health data sharing for primary and secondary data uses (e.g., MyData@eu, HealthData@eu, ELIXIR, BBMRI, and others), and other initiatives relevant for the UNCAN.eu and ECPDC platforms.
• Identify challenges and barriers to the effective future implementation of the UNCAN.eu and the ECPDC platforms at national and European levels and propose operational solutions to overcome them.
• Identify population subgroups with poor digital skills and geographical areas with limited digital resources that might prevent the use of those platforms and propose solutions to reduce the digital divide.

The involvement of cancer research centres, digital infrastructures, public health bodies, policy makers and cancer patient organisations will ensure that the UNCAN.eu and ECPDC platforms will deliver effective outcomes for researchers, clinicians, healthcare providers, cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers.

Due consideration should be given to EU-funded initiatives, infrastructures and projects such as: EOSC4cancer, canSERV, the European Cancer Information System, and the successful proposals resulting from the topics; HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-01, HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-06.

This topic requires 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, to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.

The Commission will facilitate coordination. Therefore, successful proposals should include a budget for networking, attendance at meetings, and potential joint activities without the prerequisite to give details of these at this stage. Examples are: 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. Successful proposals will be asked to join the ‘Understanding’ and ‘Quality of Life’ clusters for the Mission on Cancer established in 2022 and 2023. The details of joint activities will be defined during the grant agreement preparation phase and during the life of the project.

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HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-03

Accessible and affordable tests to advance early detection of heritable cancers in European regions

Indicative budget: € 35 million
Opening: 18 April 2024
Deadline(s): 18 September 2024

Keywords: regional cancer incidence, early detection and diagnosis tests, accessiblity and affordability, heritable risk, national/regional authorities

Expected Outcome

For an increasing number of cancers with underlying heritable genetic risk, early detection and diagnosis are possible. Moreover, cancer incidence and mortality across Europe are increasing and show substantial variation, with Central and Eastern European regions and countries particularly affected. Decisive action on early detection using easy-to-use, specific and sensitive, affordable and accessible genetic multi-omics or other biomarker-based tests will contribute to diagnosing and treating cancer with an underlying heritable genetic risk at an earlier, potentially curable stage, and with fewer side-effects.

Proposals should aim to deliver results through validating, piloting, and upscaling genetic, multi-omics, or other biomarker-based tests for early detection of cancers with underlying heritable genetic risk in routine healthcare, which are directed and tailored towards and contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• People and their families at heritable genetic risk of developing cancer, will benefit from the outcomes of evidence-based, tailored, affordable and accessible early detection, based on accessible and affordable tests;
• Civil society, foundations, and innovators will seize opportunities to respectively co-create, support or commercialise early detection programmes based on genetic, multi-omics or other biomarker-based tests.
• Regional and national policymakers and authorities in Member States and Associated Countries will engage in piloting, scaling up or implementing suitable early detection and treatment of people and their families with underlying heritable genetic risk in European regions based on genetic, multi-omics or other biomarker-based accessible and affordable tests, including legislative policies.

Scope

There is a need to validate, pilot, and upscale easy-to-use genetic, multi-omics or other biomarker-based tests for early detection of cancers with an underlying heritable genetic risk, for uptake in regional or national healthcare systems. Proposals should address all of the following:

• Validate easy-to-use, affordable and accessible genetic, multi-omics or other biomarker-based cancer tests for early detection of cancers with an underlying heritable genetic risk for uptake in regional or national healthcare systems. Validation may include for example clinical studies, socio-economic or technological feasibility studies.
• Stratify the to-be-tested population by sex, gender, age or other determinants.
• Be compliant with GDPR and take into account socio-economic status, limited health literacy, limited awareness of disease symptoms and access for people in remote and rural areas.
• Tests can be based on, for example, polygenic cancer risk scores, algorithms, machine learning, biomarkers, cell lines, organoids, liquid biopsies, medical devices, or wearables and other digital applications.
• Co-create with end-users, including (citizens, and health professionals, such as psychologists) living in the targeted regions, aspects such as the innovation life cycle, priority definition, design, development, testing and piloting stages as well as risk assessment, counselling, health education, and acceptability.
• Extensively pilot and upscale genetic, multi-omics or other biomarker-based testing for use in early detection programmes in at least three regions across at least three different Member States or Associated Countries. One of the three targeted regions should be within the following Member States: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia or Slovenia.
• Preferably work together with one of the EIT-Health KIC networks to establish appropriate contacts, and support relevant entrepreneurship, education, training, capacity building or innovation aspects for interested stakeholders in the targeted regions.

This topic requires 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.

Successful results are expected to be communicated to the Knowledge Centre on Cancer (KCC) to foster their uptake within the EU.

The Commission will facilitate coordination. Therefore, successful proposals will be asked to join the ‘Prevention and Early Detection’ cluster for the Mission on Cancer established in 2022 and should include a budget for networking, attendance at meetings, and potential joint activities without the prerequisite to give details of these at this stage. Examples are: 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. The details of joint activities will be defined during the grant agreement preparation phase and during the life of the project.

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HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-05

Improving the understanding and management of late-effects in adolescents and young adults (AYA) with cancer

Indicative budget: € 36 million
Opening: 18 April 2024
Deadline(s): 18 September 2024

Keywords: AYA cancer survivors, cancer data, late effects, regional disparities, quality of life

Expected Outcome

Proposals under this topic should aim to deliver results that are directed and tailored towards and contribute to the following expected outcomes:

• Increased awareness and improved understanding of the incidence, severity, and impact of late effects in AYA cancer survivors among healthcare providers, patients, caregivers and the general public;
• Researchers, innovators, and professionals from different disciplines and sectors ensure accessibility and re-usability of their data, models, tools and technology to support the UNCAN.eu platform, which is currently in preparation;
• Identification of effective interventions and best practices to support AYA patients and survivors in preventing, reducing and better managing late-effects, promoting optimal health outcomes and overcoming disparities between regions;
• Improved quality of life and long-term outcomes for AYA cancer survivors, including improved physical, emotional, and social well-being.

Scope

This topic will contribute to the achievement of the Mission’s objective to improve the quality of life of cancer patients, survivors and their families. The focus should be exclusively on adolescent and young adult (AYA, age range 15-39) cancer patients and survivors.

Each year, more than 150,000 AYA cancers are diagnosed in the EU, and over 1.2 million worldwide. About 300,000 AYA patients live with or beyond cancer in the EU; the majority experience late-effects due to their cancer treatment, including chronic pain, cardiovascular disease, organ and skin alterations, cosmetic sequelae, fertility problems, cognitive and functional impairment, and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. Survivors may also be at increased risk of second cancers due to the long-term effects of radiation and chemotherapy. The negative impact on education and employment of AYA survivors and in general the financial burden borne by them is also commonly observed.

Late effects are particularly challenging for AYA cancer survivors, who often experience them during a critical phase of their lives. Late effects are also challenging for caregivers. The considerable progress made in treating AYA cancers has further exposed gaps in the understanding, prevention and management of late-effects, which warrant more targeted pan-European research on AYA cancer survivorship.

Proposals should focus on one or more cancer types and address only one of the following interventions:

• Building on data from existing or newly established AYA patient cohorts, ensuring comparability of data across participating countries as appropriate, obtain a thorough assessment by cancer type of the prevalence, specific effect(s), severity, time of onset, relative risk, and risk factors associated to late effects in AYA cancer patients. Attention should be paid also to social and health determinants, including sex, gender, age and other relevant variables, including socio-economic status, living in rural or remote areas and education;
• Develop, test and scale-up evidence-based screening methods for the early detection of late-effects in AYA cancer patients;
• Develop, test and scale up in real-life settings, innovative, holistic approaches and tools (including digital tools), optimising cancer treatment and follow-up regimens to prevent, reduce and/or effectively manage late-effects, including psycho-social aspects. Approaches could focus on education, sports, nutrition, medical follow-up and counselling, for example on mental and physical health, pain management, and wellbeing in general, as well as reproductive matters, including infertility, onco-fertility and fertility options in general and development of effective methods for fertility preservation and guidelines on related counselling.

This topic requires direct involvement of cancer patients and survivors, survivor representative organisations, caregivers, and the effective contribution of 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 results, enhancing the impact of the related research activities.

The use of participative research models, such as oncology-centred living labs or other approaches to deliver (social) innovation should be considered.

Due consideration should be given to EU-funded initiatives such as: EU-CAYAS-NET, ERN PaedCan, PanCareFollowUp, PanCareSurPass, EUonQoL, e-Quol, and STRONG-AYA.

The Commission will facilitate coordination. Therefore, successful proposals will be asked to join the ‘Quality of Life’ cluster for the Mission on Cancer established in 2023 and should include a budget for networking, attendance at meetings, and potential joint activities without the prerequisite to give details of these at this stage. Examples: 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. The details of joint activities will be defined during the grant agreement preparation phase and during the life of the project.

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CR-g-24-42

Call for proposals on radiation safety and quality of computed tomography imaging of children, adolescents and young adults

Indicative budget: € 3 million
Opening: 17 September 2024
Deadline(s): 22 January 2025

Keywords: Radiation safety, imaging, nuclear medicine

Expected Outcome

As an expected outcome of the activities and in line with the SAMIRA objective to ensure that  applications of ionising radiation in Member States operate in line with high standards for  quality and safety, medical staff should have improved tools to ensure justification and optimisation of medical procedures involving ionising radiation in children and young adults. This should take various forms of technical/practical tools, like improved imaging referral and clinical guidelines, guidance, protocols and tools for specific exams and equipment, education and training curricula and material. Trainings for the hospital staff and information campaigns should also be organised. This will benefit paediatric, adolescents, and young adult patients, and parents and young adults accessing imaging services in Member States. The actions are expected to bring short-term improvements in radiation safety and quality of CT imaging in children and young patients and reduction of avoidable exposure to ionising radiation. In the mid- to long- term, this is expected to translate into reduced avoidable secondary effects, such as brain cancer linked to head CT exams.The outcomes of these activities should also reduce discrepancies in Europe to current radiation technology in medical applications through a coordinated approach.

Scope

The aim of the action is to enhance the quality and radiation safety of medical applications of ionising radiation in children, adolescents and young adults. Actions taken should in particular focus on computed tomography procedures in children and young adults and aim to reduce the associated risk of adverse secondary effects, such as brain and other types of cancer.
This action should cover in priority head CT exams in children, adolescents and young adults. It can be extended to other body regions, as well as other imaging modalities involving ionising radiation, if there is a frequent clinical indication for paediatric imaging and improved justification and optimisation is considered achievable. This action could include conventional and interventional radiology, CT and nuclear medicine and could also include imaging procedures performed as part of radiotherapy treatments.

The activities carried out in this action should include the following:
a) review of referral guidelines for imaging, clinical guidelines, and clinical decision support systems in use in Member States for justification of head CT in children, adolescents and young adults and recommendations for improvement of these guidelines to the relevant actors;
b) review of the equipment base and the access to dedicated paediatric imaging in Member States for head imaging in children, adolescents and young adults and recommendations for improvement of the equipment base to the relevant actors;
c) development of guidance, protocols and tools for optimisation of paediatric head CT exams, for the CT devices and the clinical indications that are the most used in Europe;
d) the organisation of information and dissemination campaigns concerning recommendations, guidance, protocols and tools for justification and optimisation of paediatric imaging among the concerned hospitals and medical centres in all Member States;
e) development of education and training curricula, material, and tools on radiation protection of paediatric CT patients, for the applicable professional groups;
f) the organisation of a training of radiologists, radiographers, medical physicists, and radiology nurses in practical approaches to radiation protection of paediatric CT patients;
g) the organisation of information campaigns about the benefits, risks and radiation safety of CT imaging in paediatric, adolescent and young adult patients, targeted at parents and young adults.

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CR-p-24-38

Development of European guidelines and quality assurance scheme for gastric cancer prevention and care and preparing the third report on the status of implementation of the Council Recommendations on cancer screening

Indicative budget: € 6.5 million
Opening: TBD
Deadline(s): TBD

Keywords: guideline and quality assurance scheme, cancer prevention, cancer screening

Expected Outcome

The expected results are the following:

On gastric cancer prevention and care:
a) an established Working Group (expert panel) and conflict of interest assessments;
b) final results of the epidemiological analysis;
c) scoping of the development of the Commission’s initiative on gastric cancer;
d) development of risk assessment-model for gastric cancer guidelines;
e) mapping of healthcare questions, available requirements and indicators on gastric cancer care;
f) systematic reviews and evidence to decision frameworks;
g) risk-based gastric cancer guidelines for primary prevention, screening and diagnosis;
h) requirements and indicators covering the entire care pathway;
i) quality assurance scheme manual that defines the accredited certification process in line with EC Regulation 765/2008 and the service requirements and indicators.

All outcomes will be published on the Commission’s web hub hosted at the JRC for European guidelines and European quality assurance schemes within the context of organised and population-based screening programmes. This action will result in ‘European guidelines for gastric cancer prevention, screening and diagnosis’ and a ‘European quality assurance scheme for gastric cancer prevention, screening and care’ to support Member States to further design, plan, and implement population-based and targeted gastric cancer screenings and diagnosis where applicable.

As regards the cancer screening report:
a) an established Working Group (panel of experts from different countries having access to cancer screening data) and conflict of interest assessments;
b) Working Group members trained to be able to apply the data tools available through ECIS platform for data collection and submission;
c) the collection and validation of information and data from different Member States and associated countries to report status, organisation and performance of screening programmes for breast, cervical, colorectal and lung cancer screening;
d) collaboration with ongoing projects of the Commission established to collect information and data from the pilot prostate and gastric cancer screening programmes;
e) collaboration with ongoing projects of the Commission established to develop indicators and data collection tools for risk-based approach to cancer screening and data collected from any such pilots;
f) the 3rd report on the implementation of Council recommendation of 9 December 2022 on strengthening prevention through early detection: A new EU approach on cancer screening replacing Council Recommendation 2003/878/EC prepared to include status,
organisation and performance of breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, prostate and gastric cancer screening in the EU/EEA and associated countries;
g) status of utilization of quality assurance scheme and the certification process is included in the report.

Scope

The objectives and activities will cover:

On gastric cancer prevention and care:
The overall aim is the development of evidence-based European guidelines, and a quality assurance schemes for particular consideration by those Member States with highest gastric cancer incidence and death rates allowing for a step-wise and gradual roll-out. The methodology developed in previous initiatives such as the Commission Initiative on Breast Cancer and on Colorectal Cancer should be applied. Preliminary analysis should be conducted on the  epidemiological situation in Member States (and potentially also associated countries) to pursue a risk-based screening approach across the Union for the definition of the overall scope (e.g.,
indications of pathologies and targeted population) for the Commission Initiative on Gastric cancer.
On the cancer screening report:
The overall aim is the preparation of the 3rd Report on the Implementation of the Council Recommendation on cancer screening including to educate and guide the cancer screening programme managers to collect and submit cancer screening performance data using the new data collection tools to be able to estimate the new set of performance indicators. The project will target EU/EEA countries and associated countries to support collection of high-quality data across the cancer screening continuum for ongoing programme monitoring and quality improvement.

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