Integrated, multi-scale computational models of patient patho-physiology (‘virtual twins’) for personalised disease management
HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-HLTH-2023-TOOL-05-03
- Programme
- Tools and technologies for a healthy society (Single stage - 2023)
- Programme Period
- 2021 - 2027
- Status
- Closed (31094503)
- Opening Date
- January 11, 2023
- Deadline
- April 12, 2023
- Deadline Model
- single-stage
- Budget
- €40,000,000
- Keywords
- Health dataPersonalised medicine
Description
This topic aims at supporting activities that are enabling or contributing to one or several expected impacts of destination 5 “Unlocking the full potential of new tools, technologies and digital solutions for a healthy society”. To that end, proposals under this topic should aim for delivering results that are directed towards and contributing to several of the following expected outcomes:
- Clinicians and other healthcare professionals have access to and/or use validated multi-scale computational models of individual patients for delivering optimised and cost-effective patient management strategies superior to the current standard of care.
- Healthcare professionals benefit from enhanced knowledge of complex disease onset and progression by recourse to validated, multi-scale and multi-organ models.
- Clinicians and patients benefit from new, improved personalised diagnostics, medicinal products, devices, and therapeutic strategies tailored to the individual patient patho-physiology.
- Citizens and patients have access to validated ‘virtual twin’ models enabling the integration of citizen-generated data with medical and other longitudinal health data, and benefit from early detection of disease onset, prediction of disease progression and treatment options, and effective disease management.
This topic will contribute to the consolidation of existing virtual twin models and support research to move towards a more integrated human virtual twin, with the aim to accelerate translational research towards cost-effective development of new health technologies. Furthermore, ‘virtual twin’ patient models hold the potential of transforming clinical processes and healthcare with longitudinal monitoring, making personalised medicine, disease prevention and individualised patient management a reality.
Proposals are expected to contribute to the virtual human twin roadmap and ecosystem supported under the Digital Europe Programme[1], with models aligned and interoperable with those linked to the repository developed thereunder.
The proposals should address all of the following activities:
- Develop multi-scale and multi-organ, dynamic, interoperable, modular computational models, capable of accurately simulating the individual patient patho-physiology, spanning different anatomical scales, from the molecular to cell, tissue, organ and systems level, as necessary. Proposals should be multidisciplinary and focus on groups of communicable and/or non-communicable diseases with commonalities within the same or across different medical domains, including co-morbidities. SME(s) participation is encouraged with the aim to strengthen the scientific and technological basis of SME(s) and valorise their innovations towards citizen and patient benefit.
- Advance the state of the art in multi-scale modelling by employing diverse modelling methodologies, including but not limited to: mechanistic modelling, artificial intelligence, agent-based and network physiology as a means for modelling the healthy state, disease onset, progression, treatment and recovery. Availability of the necessary diverse data types (e.g. data from lab tests, medical imaging, wearables, sensors, medical check-ups, mHealth devices, longitudinal health monitoring etc.) should be demonstrated and the sex/gender dimension should be investigated.
- Integrate standardised spatiotemporal multi-scale models as a basis for developing personalised ‘virtual twin’ models taking account of patient individual characteristics, medical and health status history for advancing personalised disease management. Proposals should ensure that the development of ‘virtual twin’ models is driven by the end-users/citizens/healthcare professionals needs and their active involvement throughout the development process. Furthermore, applicants should utilise appropriate IT solutions for model visualisation and demonstrate their accessibility and usability for clinical uptake.
- Validate multi-scale patient-specific models and generate evidence that results can deliver clinically meaningful, real-world observations for the human diseases under study. Applicants should implement proof-of-concept, feasibility studies in relevant end user environments and/or real-world settings, and collect evidence of utility vis-à-vis current clinical practice. Dynamic ‘virtual twin’ models and simulations as clinical decision support tools will need be shown to improve prognosis, medical diagnosis, treatments and health outcomes across the continuum of diseases evolution, including co-morbidities and long-term care as appropriate. An exploitation strategy and a business plan, including regulatory and industrial input, should be developed for accelerating clinical and/or market uptake.
The proposals should adhere to the FAIR data[2] principles and adopt data quality standards, GDPR-compliant data sharing, access and data integration procedures based on good practices developed by the European research infrastructures. In relation to the use and interpretation of data, special attention should be paid to systematically assess for bias and/or discrimination (sex/gender, ethnic, minority and vulnerable groups aspects). Proposals are invited to consider adopting recommendations for in-silico models construction and validation.[3]
This topic requires the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities (SSH) disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.
All projects funded under this topic are strongly encouraged to participate in networking and joint activities, as appropriate. These networking and joint activities could, for example, involve the participation in joint workshops, the exchange of knowledge, the development and adoption of best practices, or joint communication activities. This could also involve networking and joint activities with projects funded under other clusters and pillars of Horizon Europe, or other EU programmes. Therefore, proposals are expected to include a budget for the attendance to regular joint meetings and may consider covering the costs of any other potential joint activities without the prerequisite to detail concrete joint activities at this stage. The details of these joint activities will be defined during the grant agreement preparation phase. In this regard, the Commission may take on the role of facilitator for networking and exchanges, including with relevant stakeholders.
Applicants envisaging to include clinical studies should provide details of their clinical studies in the dedicated annex using the template provided in the submission system. See definition of clinical studies in the introduction to this work programme part.
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/digital-2021-deploy-01-twins-health;callCode=DIGITAL-2021-DEPLOY-01 DIGITAL-2021-DEPLOY-01-TWINS-HEALTH
[2] See definition of FAIR data in the introduction to this work programme part.
[3] ISO-paper under development “Recommendations and requirements for predictive computational models in personalized medicine research — Part 1: Guidelines for constructing, verifying and validating models”.
Destination & Scope
Calls for proposals under this destination are directed towards the Key Strategic Orientation KSO-A ‘Promoting an open strategic autonomy by leading the development of key digital, enabling and emerging technologies, sectors and value chains’ of Horizon Europe’s Strategic Plan 2021-2024. Research and innovation supported under this destination should contribute to the impact area ‘High quality digital services for all’ and in particular to the following expected impact, set out in the Strategic Plan for the health cluster: ‘Health technologies, new tools and digital solutions are applied effectively thanks to their inclusive, secure and ethical development, delivery, integration and deployment in health policies and health and care systems’. In addition, research and innovation supported under this destination could also contribute to the following impact areas: ‘A competitive and secure data-economy’, ‘Industrial leadership in key and emerging technologies that work for people’, and ‘Good health and high-quality accessible health care’.
Technology is a key driver for innovation in the health care sector. It can provide better and more cost-efficient solutions with high societal impact, tailored to the specific health care needs of the individual. However, novel tools, therapies, technologies and digital approaches face specific barriers and hurdles in piloting, implementing and scaling-up before reaching the patient, encountering additional challenges such as public acceptance and trust. Emerging and disruptive technologies offer big opportunities for transforming health care, thereby promoting the health and well-being of citizens. Unlocking this potential and harnessing the opportunities depends on the capacity to collect, integrate and interpret large amounts of data, as well as ensure compatibility with appropriate regulatory frameworks and infrastructures that will both safeguard the rights of the individual and of society and stimulate innovation to develop impactful solutions. In addition to existing European Research Infrastructures, the European Health Data Space will promote health-data exchange and facilitate cross-border research activities. Moreover, the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) aims to improve to improve the EU's readiness for health emergencies by supporting research, innovation and development of technologies and medical countermeasures needed against potential cross-border health threats. This destination aims to promote the development of tools, technologies and digital solutions for treatments, medicines, medical devices and improved health outcomes, taking into consideration safety, effectiveness, appropriateness, accessibility, comparative value-added and fiscal sustainability as well as issues of ethical, legal and regulatory nature.
In this work programme destination 5 has a strong focus on the personalisation of health technologies and will address the following issues:
Developing computational systems for point-of-care applications, developing and validating computational models of physiological systems and integrating health data from different sources, for better patient management and improved clinical outcomes;
Fostering translational biomedical research and advancing regenerative medicine approaches into clinical settings and manufacturing;
Preparing for potential cross-border health threats through the development of innovative in-vitro-diagnostics;
Supporting the establishment of the European Health Data Space by designing a data quality label.
In view of increasing the impact of EU investments under Horizon Europe, the European Commission welcomes and supports cooperation between EU-funded projects to enable cross-fertilisation and other synergies. This could range from networking to joint activities such as the participation in joint workshops, the exchange of knowledge, the development and adoption of best practices, or joint communication activities. Opportunities for potential synergies exist between projects funded under the same topic but also between other projects funded under another topic, cluster or pillar of Horizon Europe (but also with ongoing projects funded under Horizon 2020). In particular, this could involve projects related to European health research infrastructures (under pillar I of Horizon Europe), the EIC strategic challenges on health, the European Innovation Ecosystems (EIE) interregional networks on health and EIT-KIC Health (under pillar III of Horizon Europe) or in areas cutting across the health and other clusters (under pillar II of Horizon Europe), like, for instance, with cluster 4 “Digital, Industry and Space” on digitalisation of the health sector or key enabling technologies.
Expected Impacts
Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway towards unlocking the full potential of new tools, technologies and digital solutions for a healthy society, and more specifically to several of the following expected impacts:
- Europe’s scientific and technological expertise and know-how, its capabilities for innovation in new tools, technologies and digital solutions, and its ability to take-up, scale-up and integrate innovation in health care is world-class.
- Citizens benefit from targeted and faster research resulting in safer, more sustainable, efficient, cost-effective and affordable tools, technologies and digital solutions for improved (personalised) disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring for better patient outcome and well-being, in particular through increasingly shared health resources (interoperable data, infrastructure, expertise, citizen/patient driven co-creation)[1].
- The EU gains high visibility and leadership in terms of health technology development, including through international cooperation.
- The burden of diseases in the EU and worldwide is reduced through the development and integration of innovative diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, personalised medicine approaches, digital and other people-centred solutions for health care.
- Both the productivity of health research and innovation, and the quality and outcome of health care is improved thanks to the use of health data and innovative analytical tools, such as artificial intelligence (AI) supported decision-making, in a secure and ethical manner, respecting individual integrity and underpinned with public acceptance and trust.
- Citizens trust and support the opportunities offered by innovative technologies for health care, based on expected health outcomes and potential risks involved.
Legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate in Innovation Actions in any capacity. Please refer to the Annex B of the General Annexes of this Work Programme for further details.
[1] Commission Communication on the digital transformation of health and care; COM(2018) 233 final.
Eligibility & Conditions
General conditions
2. Eligible countries: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.
In recognition of the opening of the US National Institutes of Health’s programmes to European researchers, any legal entity established in the United States of America is eligible to receive Union funding.
If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used).
3. Other eligibility conditions: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.
The thresholds for each criterion will be 4 (Excellence), 4 (Impact) and 3 (Implementation). The cumulative threshold will be 12.
Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.
Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.
6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Specific conditions
7. Specific conditions: described in the specific topic of the Work Programme.
Documents
Call documents:
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA) - call-specific application form is available in the Submission System
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
HE General MGA v1.0
Information on clinical studies (HE)
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 4. Health
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 13. General Annexes
HE Programme Guide
HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
EU Financial Regulation
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions
Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement
Support & Resources
Online Manual is your guide on the procedures from proposal submission to managing your grant.
Horizon Europe Programme Guide contains the detailed guidance to the structure, budget and political priorities of Horizon Europe.
Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ – find the answers to most frequently asked questions on submission of proposals, evaluation and grant management.
Research Enquiry Service – ask questions about any aspect of European research in general and the EU Research Framework Programmes in particular.
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CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk and ETSI Research Helpdesk – the European Standards Organisations advise you how to tackle standardisation in your project proposal.
The European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for their recruitment – consult the general principles and requirements specifying the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers, employers and funders of researchers.
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Latest Updates
Call HORIZON-HLTH-2023-TOOL-05
We recently informed the applicants about the evaluation results for their proposals.
The results of the evaluation are as follows:
Number of proposals submitted (including proposals transferred from or to other calls): 170
Number of inadmissible proposals: 1
Number of ineligible proposals: 1
Number of above-threshold proposals: 71
Total budget requested for above-threshold proposals: EUR 634,646,986.
Call HORIZON-HLTH-2023-TOOL-05
We recently informed the applicants about the evaluation results for their proposals.
The results of the evaluation are as follows:
Number of proposals submitted (including proposals transferred from or to other calls): 170
Number of inadmissible proposals: 1
Number of ineligible proposals: 1
Number of above-threshold proposals: 71
Total budget requested for above-threshold proposals: EUR 634,646,986.
Call HORIZON-HLTH-2023-TOOL-05 closed on 13 April 2023. 170 proposals were submitted. The breakdown per topic is:
- HORIZON-HLTH-2023-TOOL-05-01: 8 proposals
- HORIZON-HLTH-2023-TOOL-05-03: 65 proposals
- HORIZON-HLTH-2023-TOOL-05-04: 49 proposals
- HORIZON-HLTH-2023-TOOL-05-05: 23 proposals
- HORIZON-HLTH-2023-TOOL-05-08: 24 proposals
- HORIZON-HLTH-2023-TOOL-05-09: 1 proposals
Evaluation results are expected to be communicated on Friday 04 August 2023 at the earliest.