European Rare Diseases Research Alliance (ERDERA) Joint Transnational Call (JTC) 2026

Change to ECR requirements:

Early Career Researchers (ECRs) listed in an application must now nominate a mentor and provide a letter of support and CV from this mentor. Please refer to the section below on ‘Early Career Researchers’.

Introduction of Host Institution Sign off:

We have introduced a sign-off process for Host Institutions (HIs) to align with other HRB schemes. The ‘HI JTC sign off form’ must now be signed by the authorised signatory (Dean of Research or equivalent person authorised to endorse research grant applications for the Host Institution). Please refer to the section below on ‘Host Institution Sign Off’.

A brief summary of the call is provided below along with additional information on eligibility for applicants requesting funding from HRB. Please refer to the ERDERA webpage for all call documents.

Topics List:

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.

Research proposals should cover at least one of the following focus areas:

• Functional validation to classify variants of uncertain significance 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 (e.g. CRISPR modified cells, iPSCs, organoids, etc.)
• 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 settings, including biostatistics, advanced bioinformatics, and mathematics approaches (e.g. variant effect predictors, AI-based annotation platforms, etc.)
• 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 (graph ML, probabilistic causal models).

Call Scope:

Excluded approaches and topics:

• Pre-clinical therapy development studies 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. 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, infectious diseases are eligible.

Partner(s) from Ireland are not eligible to use HRB funding for:

• Proposals involving basic biomedical research[1]
• Research intended to create human embryos solely for the purposes of research or for the purposes of stem cell procurement, including by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer
• Applications from individuals applying for, holding, or employed under funding received from the tobacco industry[2]
• Applications from individuals applying for, holding, or employed under funding received from the alcohol industry and related actors[3]

[1] Basic biomedical research refers to very early stage, fundamental research. HRB permits pre-clinical research within this call on the understanding that pre-clinical studies represent an important stage of research that occurs before testing in humans to find out if a drug, treatment or procedure is likely to be useful. Work with animal models and human samples is eligible under this call.

[2] Any company, entity, or organisation involved in the development, production, promotion, marketing, or sale of tobacco in any country of the world. The term also includes any companies that are a subsidiary or a holding company or affiliate of the above. This also includes e-cigarette companies and non-tobacco related companies which are fully or partially owned by the tobacco industry

[3] Including social aspects/public relations organisations (SAPROs) funded by alcohol companies or trade associations in which such companies are members.

Projects are expected to start in 2027. Grants will have a duration of up to 36 months.

Please note: Project partners will be funded by their relevant national/regional funding organisations. Eligible costs and funding rules may vary between the respective funding organisations.

For applicants based in Ireland, the HRB will provide funding for projects up to a maximum of €330,000 direct costs per grant.

Additional funding of up to €75,000 direct costs will be made available for coordination activities (cannot be used to cover equipment and consumables) bringing the total to €405,000 direct costs for coordinators. The maximum total grant, including overhead contribution, will be €430,000, for a partner and €530,000 for applicants who take on the role of coordinator.

Funding available is inclusive of overheads and pension contributions.

The HRB plans to commit up to €530,000 to the ERDERA JTC2026 grants. Quality permitting a minimum of one grant will be funded.

The grant will offer research-related costs for:

• Personnel: (i) Salary-related costs in line with the most recent IUA (or other most applicable) scale for funded personnel; (ii) Salary related costs for Lead Applicants in contract positions up to a maximum of 0.5 FTE protected time for research funded by HRB; (iii) Postgraduate stipends and fees (Master’s students only).
• Direct running costs (including travel, mobility costs, patient-related costs, and costs to support interventional studies)
• PPI costs
• Small equipment costs (not to exceed €10k)
• FAIR data management costs: Data stewardship costs (e.g. service/fees from data steward, access to secondary data, costs of making data FAIR, etc.)
• Dissemination and knowledge exchange activities (including open access scientific publications, dissemination-related travel, etc.)
• Sub-contracting costs for the provision of a service can be covered up to a maximum of 20% of direct costs. This would need to conform with the Host Institution, National and EU procurement rules. These costs should be necessary, specific to the project and proportionate and they should normally constitute only a limited part of the project.
• Overheads contribution

Please refer to “HRB JTC Budget Guidance 2026” for further details.

Note: The ERDERA JTC2026 grant will not fund PhD stipends and fees, nor the salary and related costs of tenured academic staff within research institutions (including buy-out from teaching time etc.). The latter does not apply to contract researchers, as outlined above.

The budget requested and the grant duration must reflect the scale and nature of the proposed research.

Funded Personnel

Alignment between personnel requested and the proposed project should be demonstrated. Roles and responsibilities of funded personnel must be differentiated and clear.

This scheme is not framed as a training initiative for higher degree candidates. It will not cover costs for PhD students. Where candidates for a Master’s degree are proposed to work on projects, Lead Applicants must carefully consider:

• The complexity, scale, objectives, and dependencies of the project.
• The suitability of such project in terms of delivering a clearly identifiable original research project or the potential difficulties in clustering various pieces of work packages for a Master’s thesis. The skills, expertise and experience level required to carry it out.
• Any requirements and/or restriction relating to the Master’s candidate’s registration with the Host Institution, and this should be accounted for when determining the start date of the grant.

This call is open for HRB Host Institutions in Ireland. Applicants from HRB Host Institutions based in Northern Ireland are not eligible to apply to this call.

Only transnational projects will be funded, and consortia must meet specific criteria as detailed in the call text.  Please refer to the ERDERA JTC2026 webpage for all details.

Lead Applicants requesting HRB funding:

Note that HRB use the term ‘Lead Applicant’ to refer to a coordinator or partner applying for HRB funding.

The following will apply to partners seeking HRB funding – i.e., Lead Applicants.[4] If there is more than one Irish partner/coordinator and they are based in different Host Institutions (see below), they must apply as separate partners.

Where more than one Irish coordinator/partner exists, each must meet the Lead Applicant eligibility criteria. However, the HRB will only contract with the Host Institution of one Lead Applicant (this must be the coordinator if an Irish coordinator exists).[5] This Lead Applicant will serve as the primary point of contact for the HRB during the review process and on the grant, if successful. They will be responsible for the scientific and technical direction of the Irish research programme. They have primary fiduciary responsibility and accountability for carrying out the research within the funding limits awarded and in accordance with the terms and conditions of the HRB. Where applicable, they must distribute the funds appropriately to the second Irish partner via collaboration and/or consortium agreements.

Each applicant can participate in more than one application but can only be a coordinator on one.

Lead Applicants must:

Hold a post (permanent or a contract that covers the duration of the grant) in a HRB recognised Host Institution in the Republic of Ireland (the “Host Institution”) as an independent investigator. For clinicians, an adjunct position in a HRB recognised Host Institution is acceptable (an accompanying letter of support is required in these cases, as well as in the case of contract positions – see ‘How to apply’ below).

OR

Be an individual who will be recognised by the Host Institution upon receipt of a grant as an independent investigator who will have a dedicated office and research space for the duration of the grant, for which they will be fully responsible. The Lead Applicant does not necessarily need to be employed by the Host Institution at the time of the application submission (an accompanying letter of support is required in these cases – see ‘How to apply’ below).

They must show evidence of achievement as an independent researcher in their chosen research field by:

• Demonstrating a record of research output, with at least three publications of original research in peer reviewed journals. Where appropriate, they should also provide evidence of other outputs (e.g., published book chapters, reports to government, research data and datasets, research materials, databases, audio/video products, national and/or international reports, patents, models and protocols, software production, evidence of influence on health policy and practice, outreach and/or knowledge exchange activities, media coverage or other relevant activities) and/or any other relevant outputs that have resulted in a significant impact in their field.
• Demonstrating record of independence by showing that they have secured at least one independently peer-reviewed research grant for a research project, as either the Lead Applicant or a Co-Applicant. Funding received for travel to seminars/conferences and/or small personal bursaries will not be considered in this regard.
• Show evidence that they possess the capability and authority to manage and supervise the research team.

Partners who are marked in the application as Early Career Researchers should also refer to the section below on Early Career Researchers.

Coordinators are expected to have relevant experience in grant management as Lead Applicant on large grants or as Work Package lead in consortium grants (e.g., Horizon Europe).

Host Institution:

The Host Institution for the grant is normally that of the Lead Applicant based in Ireland, but it may be another organisation/institution designated by the research team, where it is clearly justified. To be eligible to apply for funding, an Institution must be an approved HRB Host Institution no later than two calendar months before the closing date of a call. A list of currently approved HRB Host Institutions can be found on the HRB website.

[4] In view of the overwhelming evidence that both active and passive smoking of tobacco are injurious to health, the HRB is unwilling to fund applications from individuals applying for, holding, or employed under a research grant from the tobacco industry.

[5] For administrative purposes, the second partner will be recorded in HRB systems as a Co-Applicant.

Early Career Researchers (ECRs) are encouraged to join consortia as full research partners. If you have been marked as an ECR in the application, you must still meet the Lead Applicant criteria above with some additional conditions. These conditions are as follows:

• We would require that you have a mentor as a co-applicant on this award to take on joint responsibility of the management of this award.
• A letter of support and CV is provided from your Mentor. The letter should acknowledge their role on this application.

Your mentor should be an individual who has strong evidence of:

• Leadership experience.
• Experience in conducting research projects and programmes.
• Track record in scholarly publication and communication (peer-review articles, research data publications, national or international briefing/reports, etc.).
• Coaching and mentoring.

The letter should also state that the Mentor will provide support to the Applicant in the management of the grant and any other requisite guidance needed to ensure progress on the deliverables of the research project.

There will be a two-stage application procedure for joint applications. One joint proposal document (in English) shall be prepared by the partners and must be submitted by the Coordinator in electronic format no later than 13:00 GMT on 12 February 2026 via the electronic proposal submission system. No other means of submission will be accepted.

For further details, please refer to the respective submission forms available through the ERDERA JTC2026 webpage. If you need additional information, please contact the Joint Call Secretariat (JCS).

Lead Applicants based in Ireland will be required to provide additional information to the HRB at pre-proposal stage:

• New applicants to HRB’s Joint Transnational Calls must demonstrate that they meet the eligibility criteria by completing the Lead Applicant eligibility form by the submission deadline. This does not apply to previous applicants to JTCs.
• Host Institution Letters of Support must be provided for (1) all named Lead Applicants in a contract position and (2) Adjunct Professors not directly employed by the HI. These must be emailed to HRB-JTCs@hrb.ie or attached with your Lead Applicant eligibility form before the pre-proposal submission deadline. The formal letter on headed notepaper, dated and signed by the Head of School/Research Centre/Hospital must include the following information:
  • Case (1): [Host Institution – insert name] which is the host institution of [applicant – insert name] confirms that [applicant – insert name]: (i) holds an employment contract which extends until [insert date] or will be recognized by the host institution upon receipt of the HRB [scheme] grant as a contract researcher; (ii) has an independent office and research space/facilities for which they are fully responsible for at least the duration of the grant, and (iii) has the capability and authority to mentor and supervise the research team.
  • Case (2): [Host Institution – insert name] confirms that [applicant – insert name] has the authority and resources allocated to hold and manage a grant under their Adjunct status for at least the duration of the grant.
• You must send the final application to your Research Office (RO) who will complete the HI JTC sign-off form and return this along with the application to HRB (see ‘Host Institution sign off’ below). Note that the deadline for sign-off is three working days from the submission deadline so you should send your RO the application as soon as you have access to it. We also recommend that you notify the Host Institution signatory of your intention to apply as soon as possible in the application process. We require HI sign off for each project partner that is requesting funding from HRB.

At full proposal stage, applicants must submit a justification for their requested budget, and clarification on deliverables assigned to the partner from Ireland. Templates requesting this information will be provided by the HRB.

Please refer also to HRB Grant Policies.

We have introduced a sign-off process for Host Institutions (HIs) to align with other HRB schemes. The ‘HI JTC sign off form’ must now be signed by the authorised signatory (Dean of Research or equivalent person authorised to endorse research grant applications for the Host Institution).

As noted under ‘How to Apply’ the Lead Applicant must send the final application to their Research Office (RO). The RO should then facilitate the completion of the ‘HI JTC sign off form’ (available on this page). This will confirm that the Lead Applicant is eligible and that the HI is willing to participate as HI for the application. Note that if there are more than one project partners from your institution (i.e., more than one Principal Investigator, as listed in the application form), you must sign off for each if they are requesting HRB funds.

The completed form and application should be sent to HRB within three working days of the submission deadline.

For general information, please contact the Joint Call Secretariat (JCS):

Agency: French National Agency for Research (ANR)

Names: Dr Florence Guillot (PhD) and Dr Charlotte Lehericy (PhD)

E-Mail: ERDERAcall@agencerecherche.fr

For country-specific information for Irish Partners, please contact the HRB, Ireland:

Dr Aisling Rehill

Email: HRB-JTCs@hrb.ie