ERDERA - 2nd co-funded call for proposals

Research

Funding organisation:

Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen

What?

The European Rare Diseases Research Alliance (ERDERA) has been established to further help in coordinating the research efforts of European, Associated and non-European countries in the field of rare diseases and implement the objectives of the International Rare Disease Research Consortium (IRDiRC).

ERDERA announces the launch of the 2026 Joint Transnational Call, focused on diagnosing undiagnosed or complex rare conditions using advanced functional, genomic, multi-omics, modelling, and AI-based approaches.

The goal of this call is to solve Undiagnosed Rare Genetic diseases and to address complex, multifactorial Rare Non-Genetic diseases by identifying causative variants in patients with no molecular diagnosis after prior genetic or genomic testing and providing diagnostic clarity for conditions of unknown or mixed pathogenesis.

Suggested focus areas are:

• Functional validation to classify variants of uncertain significance (VUS) and increase the diversity of functional genomics research, or validation of candidate VUS to improve outcomes for a broader range of patients using in silico, in vitro or animal model systems;
• Use of multi-omics or integrative methods (e.g. transcriptomics, epigenomics, etc.) to resolve ambiguous or complex variants;
• New tools/methodologies not yet validated in clinical setting, including biostatistics, advanced bioinformatics, and mathematics approaches;
• Systems biology and disease mechanism modelling;
• Integration of clinical, environmental, lifestyle, and sensor-derived data;
• Development of knowledge graphs or disease maps to link phenotypic and mechanistic
• insights;
• Use of advanced AI and modelling tools.

The following diseases, approaches and topics are excluded from the scope of the JTC 2026:

• Pre-clinical therapy development studies as covered in ERDERA JTC2025 topic.
• Interventional clinical trials to prove efficacy of drugs/treatments/surgical procedures/medical procedures. This includes studies comparing efficacy, e.g., two surgical techniques or therapies, and projects whose main objective is the implementation of a clinical phase IV pharmacovigilance study.
• Projects focusing only on rare neurodegenerative diseases that are within the focus of Brain Health Partnership. These are: Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias; Parkinson’s disease (PD) and PD-related disorders; prion diseases; motor neuron diseases; Huntington’s disease; spinal muscular atrophy and dominant forms of spinocerebellar ataxia. However, childhood dementias/neurodegenerative diseases are eligible.
• Rare infectious diseases, rare cancers and rare adverse drug events in treatments of common diseases. Rare diseases with a predisposition to cancer are eligible. Diseases with inborn errors of immunity/genetic predisposition to rare infectious disease are eligible.

Translatability into humans should be the key focus of the project, and applicants should demonstrate access to relevant scientific or regulatory expertise (e.g., through innovation task forces or competent national authorities).

Funding will come via FWO through the fundamental (FO) or Strategic Basic Research (SBO) channel. The type and scope of the proposed research project will determine the choice of funding channel for the research performed within Flanders (e.g. more fundamental in nature, or more aimed at economical/societal valorisation). Non-compliance with the specific requirements per funding channel might lead to non-eligibility.

For the fundamental funding channel the respective regulations apply. For the SBO channel the SBO regulations have to be taken into account: these imply projects with a primarily economic and/or societal finality, forwhich ‘valorisation’ is a key - and mandatory - aspect.

The FWO can support 2 projects for a 36 months duration, with an available maximum applicable budget of 350.000 EUR (overhead included) per project/consortium. (to be confirmed)

Who?

Partners belonging to one of the following categories may request funding under a joint research proposal (according to country/regional regulations) :
• Academia (research teams working in universities, other higher education institutions or research institutes),
• Clinical/public health sector (research teams working in hospitals/public health and/or other health care settings and health organisations),
• Enterprises (all sizes of private companies). Participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is encouraged when allowed by national/regional regulations,
• Patient advocacy organisations (PAOs).

Only transnational projects will be funded. Each consortium submitting a proposal must involve four to six eligible principal investigator partners from at least four different participating countries. 

Application?

Research proposals are submitted to the ERDERA call secretariat, after registration and by making use of the submission platform which can be found on the submission website, by consortia of European and international researchers, according to the applicable procedures and eligibility criteria included in the call documents.

Deadline pre-proposals: 12 February, 2026 

The FWO requires pre-registration on a national/regional level as well by filling in an application form on the FWO e-portal before the deadline for submission of the pre-proposals (12 February, 2026). When you're logged on to the e-portal, you can find it under "Researcher".
It is strongly recommended to contact the FWO administration about your pre-registration at the latest one week before submission in order to verify admissibility.

For the fundamental funding channel the respective regulation applies. For the SBO channel the SBO regulation has to be taken into account: these imply projects with a primarily economic and/or societal finality, of which ‘valorisation’ is a key - and mandatory - aspect.

Deadline pre-proposal with the FWO and ERDERA: 12 February, 2026 

Given the pre-proposal already has to be OK in terms of budget, OBI has an internal deadline to check your proposal.
Internal deadline: 30 January 2026
In case the consortium includes more than one partner requesting funding from FWO, a single online form should be submitted containing all relevant information from the different Flemish partners.

around early May 2026: communication of the results and invitation for full proposal
8 July, 2026: deadline full proposal

More information?

You can find more information, like the call documents, the submission platform, the pre-proposal template, the slides from the webinar, ... on the ERDERA website.

Concerning the FWO regulations, you can consult the FWO website:
for the fundamental funding channel
for the SBO channel

Please contact research@uhasselt.be if you want to apply.

Deadline intern

30.01.2026, 12.02.2026

Contact Hasselt University?

E-mail sarah.szyr@uhasselt.be

Tel. +3211269052