COST is a European instrument that serves to network national research activities at European level and aims to reduce the fragmentation of the research landscape. Funding is not provided for research, but for networking activities such as conferences and exchanges of scientists.

Further information can also be obtained from the German COST office.

Calls for proposals are open to all topics. Before submitting an application, please check whether a COST Action already exists for your area of interest. Existing COST Actions are open to further participating organisations, more information can be found here.

COST has annual calls, normally with deadline in autumn. Further information on how to apply can be found here.

EU4Health, the EU's fourth health programme, serves to implement the EU health strategy. To this end, annual work programmes are drawn up with priorities and funding schemes. The financial volume of the programme amounts to 5.3 billion euros. It is intended to pave the way for a European Health Union, contribute to the recovery after the COVID-19 crisis and make healthcare systems more resilient.

Further information on the health programme can be found here.

Calls are published in the EU Participant Portal.

ERA-NETs are initiated on specific topics in order to better link research at European level. Members of an ERA-NET are initially national funding organisations, which can then issue joint calls for proposals. European consortia can apply for these, with funding taking place at national level. Please note: the same European countries are not represented in every ERA-NET.

Below is a selection of ERA-NETs with health-related topics and German participation. A complete overview of current ERA-NETs and other European networks can be found on the EU platform ERA-LEARN.

• ERA-CVD - cardiovascular diseases
• EuroNanoMed - Nanomedicine
• M-ERA - Materials science and engineering
• NEURON - Neurosciences

Erasmus+ is the European Union's programme for education, youth and sport with a budget of around 14.8 billion euros. Erasmus+ combines the previous EU programmes for lifelong learning, youth and sport as well as the European cooperation programmes in the field of higher education. The programme is divided into three key actions, as well as supporting measures for teaching and research in the field of EU studies (Jean Monet measures) and sport.

Key actions:

1) Learning mobility of individuals

2) Cooperation to promote innovation and the exchange of best practice

3) Support for policy reform

Further information can be found on the German ERASMUS+ website, on the Commission's website on this topic or in the ERASMUS+ Programme Guide.

EDCTP aims to accelerate the development and evaluation of new vaccines and drugs for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, negelected infectious diseases, diarrhoeal diseaes, lower respiratory tract infections, and emerging and re-emerging infections of particular relevance to sub-Saharan Africa through the integration of European research and in partnership with African countries. EDCTP is co-financed by the European Union and the participating countries.

The partner countries involved in EDCTP include 14 European member states (Germany, Sweden, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal, Luxembourg, Austria, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy) and 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia). One focus of the funded work is on Phase II and III clinical trials in sub-Saharan Africa. Further information can be found here.

The HFSP is an international programme to promote pioneering research on living organisms, funding research at all levels, from biomolecules to the interaction of organisms.

The programme funds international, innovative collaborative research projects as well as individual fellowships for postdocs with annual submission deadlines. You can find out more about the programmes here.

The Innovative Health Initiative is joint programme of the European Union as a public partner with various partners from the private sector, which has set itself the goal of promoting research and innovation in the healthcare sector.

The partners from the private sector are EFPIA (European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations), COCIR (European Coordination Committee of the Radiological, Electromedical and Healthcare IT Industry), EuropaBio (European Association for Bioindustrie) and MedTech Europe (European trade association for the medical technology industry including diagnostics, medical devices and digital health).

Calls are issued at irregular intervals throughout the year. We inform you about them in our Newsletter. Further information can be found on the IHI-Website, where you will also find the IHI's strategic research and innovation agenda, which provides an insight into the call topics.

The member states of the EU have joined together to form programme initiatives in order to jointly fund certain research projects, with the focus on research to solve the "grand challenges". As with ERA-NETs, funding is provided via a European call for proposals with national funding for the respective programme partners.

The joint programme initiative on neurodegenerative diseases served as a pilot for this new funding instrument. Since then, further programme initiatives have been launched in two stages. An overview of these can be found on the corresponding pages of the EU.

JPIs related to health topics:

• JPI on Neurodegenerative Disease Research
• JPI A healthy diet for a healthy life
• JPI More years, better lives
• JPI Antimocrobial resistance
• JPI Agriculture, food security and climate change