Published: 29 September 2021

€5 billion in EU funding for health

Significant funding focus on translating research into benefits for people’s health and patient care.

COVID-19 has highlighted the need to be prepared and resilient to tackle universal health challenges. To address this and other urgent health needs, the European Commission’s new EU health programme will provide funding for structural reforms of national health systems, healthcare accessibility, cross-border cooperation between Member States and decisive EU action in the fight against cancer.

With investment of over €5 billion, the EU4Health 2021-27 budget is more than 12 times higher than the previous EU Public Health programme. It is also the most diverse health programme ever launched, presenting significant new funding possibilities for healthcare and research institutions, the business community, government agencies and non-governmental organisations. 

The next wave of calls are due to open on October 14, when a total of 13 calls will open for applications across a broad range of areas including cancer screening, genomics, health data for research, and mental health. Details on upcoming calls are available on our dedicated EU4Health information page. 

Although EU4Health does not directly fund research activities, it does support the translation and best use of research evidence to improve healthcare systems and patient outcomes. At EU level, it will complement the research activities of Horizon Europe in achieving mutually supportive goals - from increasing innovative health technologies and digital solutions for the medical sector, to tackling infectious and non-infectious diseases. 

Key priorities under EU4Health 

The 2021-27 programme will go beyond pandemic responsiveness to support the EU’s goal of mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 on other health priorities. They include:     

• Non-communicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes.
• Disease prevention including screening and early diagnosis for cancer and health promotion programmes. 
• European networks on rare and non-communicable diseases.
• Access to diagnosis and the provision/ availability of high-quality healthcare.  
• Uptake, scale-up and deployment of health innovation in healthcare systems and clinical practice.

"EU4Health presents great opportunities to strengthen the Irish healthcare system. As the National Contact Point for EU4Health, I look forward to helping healthcare professionals and researchers to find the right funding call and share best practice tips for applying."

Amanda Daly, Programme Manager for EU4Health and International Cooperation at the Health Research Board 

2021 Work Programme

The first annual work programme has a combined budget of €312 million in the form of grants, prizes and procurement to fund ambitious actions across four key strands - all of which have a cross-cutting focus on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The main priorities that will be funded this year are:

• Crisis preparedness and preventing shortages of medicines.
• Disease prevention, early detection and health promotion. 
• Reforming and strengthening health systems, research that supports the Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe and enhanced European Reference Networks for rare diseases.
• Digitalisation and preparing for a European Health Data Space. 
• Research that supports Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. 

For dedicated advice and guidance on EU4Health:

Contact Amanda Daly, National Contact Point (NCP) for EU4Health by email to amanda.daly@hrb.ie or call +353 85 8620938. 

To find out more: 

Visit the HRB EU4Health information page.