Concept development for a research infrastructure to manage, integrate and sustain large medical cohort studies
HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-INFRA-2023-DEV-01-01
- Programme
- Developing, consolidating and optimising the European research infrastructures landscape, maintaining global leadership (2023)
- Programme Period
- 2021 - 2027
- Status
- Closed (31094503)
- Opening Date
- December 6, 2022
- Deadline
- March 9, 2023
- Deadline Model
- single-stage
- Budget
- €7,500,000
- Min Grant Amount
- €1,000,000
- Max Grant Amount
- €1,500,000
- Expected Number of Grants
- 5
- Keywords
- Digital AgendaEOSC and FAIR data
Description
Projects are expected to contribute to several of the following expected outcomes:
- support to planning and decision making at the national level (e.g. funding bodies, governments) and at European level (e.g. ESFRI) through a sound science case, including expected scientific breakthrough, a gap analysis and a feasibility/design study for a future research infrastructure to manage, integrate and sustain large medical cohort studies;
- ensuring stewardship and long-term availability of data and samples related to existing and future large medical cohort studies for their re-use for secondary research;
- strengthening and integration of existing capacities in the field;
- new services and access opportunities available to the research community, allowing to better tackle medical challenges.
This topic aims at supporting the development of new concepts for a research infrastructure at European level, to manage, integrate and sustain large medical cohort studies. The possibility to extend the scope of already existing infrastructures and/or integrate in a sustainable way existing pan-European and national capacities to cover this need and provide RI services for large medical cohort studies should be assessed as a first option, identifying what is missing and the necessary new developments. Such an infrastructure will also enable an appropriate exploitation of past investments by EU framework programmes or other European funders on the development of medical cohorts.
The numerous and diverse medical cohort studies in Europe, initiated at Member States level or in the context of EU-funded projects, require major resource investments to be set up, mature and serve multiple research queries over long period of times. The research potential (e.g. statistical power or geographical coverage) of individual cohorts can be scaled up, when similar, sufficiently compatible individual cohorts (e.g. in different EU countries) are harmonized and integrated. A research infrastructure could ensure the needed long term sustainability for cohorts and the technical platform for data integration across cohorts as well as a properly implemented data access governance. Proposals for the new RI concept development will tackle all key questions concerning the technical and conceptual feasibility of an effective RI service offer, at EU level, to manage, integrate and sustain large medical cohort studies.
In this respect, proposals should address all following aspects:
- demonstrate relevance in relation to ERA, including to the existing landscape, and the advancement with respect to the state-of-art of the new sustainable integrated service or infrastructure;
- highlight the research challenges the new sustainable integrated service or research infrastructure will make possible to address, including at global level;
- indicate the gaps in the research infrastructure landscape it will cover and the synergies with other existing infrastructures at European and global level, including those co-financed from other EU instruments (e.g.: Cohesion policy);
- indicate, when relevant, the potential impact of this research infrastructure at regional level.
Proposals should also convincingly demonstrate that the project will effectively:
- identify suitable IT technologies and the architecture (e.g. single site or distributed, …) for the research infrastructure;
- identify scientific user communities (and their related needs) that will benefit from access to RI services, including scientific data and instrumentation, and plan the research services to be offered to users;
- assess and identify suitable governance models and implement strategies for institutional/stakeholders’ commitment and engagement;
- develop initial financial plans for the implementation and operation of the infrastructure as well as preliminary ideas for long-term sustainability, including synergies with other funds and programmes (e.g.: ERDF);
- develop plans for an efficient data curation and preservation and for the provision of GDPR compliant access to data managed by the infrastructure, in line with the FAIR principles to the extent possible.
Projects could pilot the harmonization of a limited number of European strategic cohorts, that are sustained in the long-term for generating evidence in a given field, aiming at integrating their respective data sets so as to enable cross-cohort queries. Synergies with successful proposals under the HORIZON-HLTH-2023-DISEASE-03-05[1] topic should be sought.
When relevant, environmental (including climate-related) impacts and the optimisation of resource and energy use, as well as the gender dimension of cohort studies, should be integrated in the concept development of the new research infrastructures.
[1]Pandemic preparedness and response: Sustaining established coordination mechanisms for European adaptive platform trial network and cohort network
Destination & Scope
Over recent years, the European Commission, Member States (MS) and Associated Countries (AC) have been closely collaborating, in particular within the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), to develop an integrated and efficient ecosystem of research infrastructures (RIs) in Europe, which encompasses single-sited facilities, distributed facilities integrating resources across the European Research Area, as well as networks of national facilities and which serves researchers and engineers in all S&T fields, from basic to applied research. To facilitate integration and pooling of resources for the development of new capacities, a legal instrument has also been developed at European level, the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) that provides favourable conditions for the establishment and operation of large European infrastructures supported jointly by several MSs and ACs as well as by third countries. While Member States remain central in the development and financing of public RIs, the Union and ESFRI play a catalysing and leveraging role in driving the integration between national efforts.
The challenges for the near future are to consolidate and optimise the European Research Infrastructure landscape and enhance its capacity to support frontier research and address the emerging and new scientific and societal objectives associated with the transition towards a sustainable and resilient Europe. In addition, there is the need to define and implement an effective and sound RI strategy in Europe, in close cooperation with ESFRI, MSs and ACs, which is complemented by and interlocks with the long-term ambition of creating an integrated Technology Infrastructure (TI) landscape, the latter is supported in Pillar II of Horizon Europe Programme (HE). Such a strategy would also help in exploiting synergies between RI and TI financed from Horizon and massive investments in infrastructures from ERDF.
This destination aims to create a world-leading coherent, responsive, sustainable and attractive RI landscape in Europe, by reducing its fragmentation at European, national and regional level, ensuring coordination of efforts and fostering alignment of priorities among MSs and ACs, connecting RIs to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), and which is able to support national and regional R&I ecosystems. The support to a European strategy for Research Infrastructures as well as activities to enhance the role of RIs for international cooperation and science diplomacy will also be covered under this destination.
Expected impact
Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to one or several of the following impacts:
- Disruptive research and breakthrough science and innovation through cutting-edge, interconnected and sustainable Research Infrastructures;
- Strengthened scientific excellence and performance and efficiency of the European Research Area, increasing its attractiveness to researchers from all over the world;
- Coordinated research infrastructure capacity among countries and regions, also by exploiting possibilities given by the smart specialisation processes;
- Reinforced R&I capacities enabling systemic changes needed for a truly transformative societal and economic recovery and a strengthened resilience of critical sectors, as outlined in the Recovery Plan;
- Improved European response, in cooperation with international players, to emerging socio-economic and related scientific and technological challenges at global level.
Eligibility & Conditions
General conditions
1. Admissibility conditions: described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes
Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System
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.
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
5. Evaluation and award:
-
Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes
-
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
Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025). [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf]].
Specific conditions
7. Specific conditions: described in the [specific topic of the Work Programme]
Documents
Call documents:
Standard application form — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)
Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
MGA
RAO decision authorising the use of lump sum funding
Explanatory slides for applicants on the specificities of lump sum funding
Detailed Budget Table (HE LS) for estimation of Lump Sum Funding
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2023-2024 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2023-2024 – 3. Research Infrastructures
HE Main Work Programme 2023-2024 – 13. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
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.
National Contact Points (NCPs) – get guidance, practical information and assistance on participation in Horizon Europe. There are also NCPs in many non-EU and non-associated countries (‘third-countries’).
Enterprise Europe Network – contact your EEN national contact for advice to businesses with special focus on SMEs. The support includes guidance on the EU research funding.
IT Helpdesk – contact the Funding & Tenders Portal IT helpdesk for questions such as forgotten passwords, access rights and roles, technical aspects of submission of proposals, etc.
European IPR Helpdesk assists you on intellectual property issues.
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.
Partner Search Services help you find a partner organisation for your proposal.
Latest Updates
Dear applicant,
We would like to draw your attention to an update of the “Detailed Budget Table” Excel template. A new template has been republished for your kind consideration and use.
An additional paragraph has been added to the instructions tab, explaining how to save the detailed budget table and how to upload it in the submission system.
The following instructions have been added:
“After you completed this Excel workbook, you must also complete the table ‘Budget for the proposal’ in Part A of the proposal, entering the requested EU contribution for each participant. Fill the Part A budget table using the total for each participant from the sheet ‘Lump sum breakdown’ in this Excel workbook.
The format of this Excel workbook is .xlsm because it uses macros to generate sheets and make calculations automatically. Always save it as .xlsm.
However, this format cannot be uploaded to the submission system for security reasons.
Therefore, to submit the completed workbook, save a copy as an .xlsx or .xls document (and not as .xlsm) and upload it to the proposal submission tool at Step 5 of the submission process. Always keep a copy of the original .xlsm file.
To save the workbook as .xlsx document, use the action button in the sheet “Instructions”. Alternatively, click on “File” and then “Save as”; in the “Save as” dialog box, choose “.xlsx” or “.xls” from the “Save as type” dropdown list.”
You can still use the template initially available in the submission system if you wish to, but please be aware of the instructions on how to upload and save the file.