IHI JU call 12 (early 2026)

Research

Funding organisation:

Europese Commissie

What?

The Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU) is a partnership for health research and innovation between the EU and Europe’s life science industries. It aims to enable the cross-sectoral integration of technologies, know-how, products, services and workflows for people-centred healthcare. Its ambition is to support the delivery of timely and well-substantiated prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. The partnership aims to help keep EU citizens in good health, decrease disease burden for patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals. It intends to contribute to the sustainability and resilience of healthcare systems and to the competitiveness of European health industries.

Who?

Every IHI project is formed by a collaborative public-private partnership consortium reflecting the integrative and cross-sectoral nature of the partnership. Scale is a key to success and is provided by the leveraging of IHI funding with industry contributions in the Full consortium.

Most IHI JU calls are two-stage calls and are devised as follows (infographic):

• Call launch: A pre-identified Industry consortium (optionally including contributing partners) aligns itself around a real challenge in health care, agrees to work together (across sectors) and commits resources
• Stage 1: Applicant consortia (research organisations, patient organisations, SMEs, other healthcare stakeholders etc.) propose new ideas to address the challenge
• Stage 2: The first ranked Applicant consortium is invited to prepare and submit a 'Full proposal' to be evaluated (go/no go) together with the pre-identified Industry consortium

The Full consortium consists of the pre-identified Industry consortium and the selected Applicant consortium. Additional partners could also join the consortium during or after the granting phase via amendments.

The pre-identified consortium:

• is responsible for the 45% in-kind contribution;
• is the main drivers of the topic definition;
• identifies their in-kind contributions through expertise and assets listed in the topic text;
• cannot participate with the applicant consortium.

Applicant consortia:

• are not involved in the topic definition;
• can be eligible for funding;
• do not contact the pre-identified Industry consortium during the application process;
• consist of at least 1 organisation from an EU Member State and 2 organisations from different Member states or Associated Countries.

Application?

Proposals have to: address an unmet public health need; require a large-scale, ambitious, cross-sector, public-private partnership; have clearly-described impacts on society, the economy and science; take account of the pre-competitive nature of IHI projects; and contribute to strengthening the competitiveness or the EU’s health industries and the implementation of relevant EU policies.

Call 12 (launched early 2026)
IHI Call 12 will be a single-stage, applicant-driven call with five topics aligned with the five specific objectives outlined in the IHI Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). Applicants will have to ensure that half of their project’s costs are covered by in-kind contributions from IHI’s industry members and (if relevant) IHI contributing partners. The future call topics are:

• HORIZON-JU-IHI-2026-12-01 Boosting innovation for a better understanding of the determinants of health
• HORIZON-JU-IHI-2026-12-02 Boosting innovation through better integration of fragmented health R&I efforts
• HORIZON-JU-IHI-2026-12-03 Boosting innovation for peopled centred integrated healthcare solutions
• HORIZON-JU-IHI-2026-12-04 Boosting innovation through exploitation of digitalisation and data exchange in healthcare
• HORIZON-JU-IHI-2026-12-05 Boosting innovation for better assessment of the added value of innovative integrated healthcare solutions

Please note that, as draft topics are still under development, the texts may change significantly between the versions published here and the call launch. Therefore, you should always check the final, approved topic texts once the calls are launched.

More information?

A brokerage event is organised on 4 and 5 November 2025 in Brussels. The deadline to present project proposals during the pitching sessions is 27 October.

Draft text of IHI call 12

IHI JU’s Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA)

Contact Hasselt University?

E-mail ward.ceunen@uhasselt.be

Tel. +3211268945