Where Does Your Healthcare Innovation Fit?

Are you a pharma, MedTech or digital-health SME, a research organisation, or perhaps a clinical entity looking for funding for your next project, or to bring your product closer to the market?

At Nordic Innovators, we are well aware of how difficult it can be to identify the right opportunity in a crowded and fast-moving European funding landscape.

The 2026 funding cycle is one of the most substantial funding cycles in years for healthcare.
It spans early discovery, translational research, clinical validation, system-level implementation and full deployment.

As you read through the blog or the active guide, we encourage you to continuously ask yourself:

“Is this where my project is right now? or where I want it to be next?” because this question matters more than any individual call.

Download the full active guide 

As there is a lot to cover, this blog will briefly go through the main funding opportunities but we have made an active guide - GO HERE.
 

Initial checkpoint: Where are you on the TRL scale?

Before looking at specific programmes, it is worth pausing for a short reality check. Most unsuccessful applications fail not because the idea is weak, but because the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) does not match the call.

• If your work is still focused on early mechanisms, hypotheses or proof of concept, you are likely operating around TRL 1–3.
• If you are building and validating prototypes or testing initial interventions, you are probably closer to TRL 4–5. Projects involving demonstration, clinical validation or real-world pilots usually sit at TRL 6–7.
• Finally, full deployment, scale-up and integration into health systems typically require TRL 8–9.
  
  Having a firm grip of your TRL in mind, the funding landscape becomes much clearer.

Horizon Europe – Health Cluster 1

If you are developing new knowledge, tools, or interventions for healthcare, the Health Cluster 1 under Horizon Europe is usually the first programme to examine. It is deliberately broad, but not vague. Rather than funding isolated technologies, it targets complex health problems that require multidisciplinary, international consortia.

The architecture of the Health Cluster remains rooted in six “Destinations”, each focusing on specific societal impacts:

Destination 1: Staying healthy in a rapidly changing society [HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-STAYHLTH]. This destination prioritizes disease prevention and healthier lifestyles.

Destination 2: Living and working in a health-promoting environment [HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-ENVHLTH] A major focus here is the health-climate change nexus. 

Destination 3: Tackling diseases and reducing disease burden [HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-DISEASE} This area addresses both communicable and non-communicable diseases. 

Destination 4: Ensuring equal access to high-quality healthcare [HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-CARE] This destination focuses on health system resilience and sustainability. It specifically targets identifying "low-value care" to improve financial and clinical efficiency.

Destination 5: New tools, technologies, and digital solutions [HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-TOOL] Innovation is at the forefront here, with significant funding for New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) in biomedical research and regenerative medicine.

Destination 6: Maintaining a competitive EU health industry [HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-IND] To ensure technological sovereignty, this destination supports regulatory science and the adoption of breakthrough technologies.

Across all the Health Cluster topics, evaluators will consistently ask not only: “Is this scientifically sound?” but “Who will actually use the results?” If your project can answer that question clearly, the Health Cluster is designed to accommodate it.

Most Health Cluster projects enter at TRL 3-4 under Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) or TRL 5-6 under Innovation Actions (IA) and are expected to exit with an increase to TRL 5-6 for RIAs and 7-8 for IAs.

The call for Horizon Europe Cluster 1: Health (2026 Work Programme) opens in February 2026, with a submission deadline of 16 April 2026, and typical project budgets range from €5–10 million, with larger envelopes for certain topics. Some calls have their deadlines in 2027 as well.

Although the formal minimum is three partners from three EU or associated countries, most competitive consortia are considerably larger and include research organisations, companies, hospitals and public bodies.

For more details for Horizon Europe CLuster 1 - Go to the guide

A useful self-check here is simple. Ask yourself: “Do I genuinely need clinical, technical and societal expertise working together?” If yes, Horizon Health is likely the right arena.

EU Cancer Mission – Dedicated Oncology Calls     

Cancer is treated not as just another disease area, but as a mission requiring coordinated progress across prevention, diagnosis, treatment, survivorship and quality of life which is the purpose of EU Cancer Mission in essence. So, if your work is clearly oncology-focused, the EU Cancer Mission offers a more targeted route than the general Health Cluster.

Across the 2026 Cancer Mission Work Programme, there is a shift towards digital, data-intensive and AI-enabled approaches that move beyond exploratory research and towards tools that can realistically support clinical decision-making. Rather than funding isolated modelling exercises, the Mission increasingly targets the integration of clinical data, multi-omics and advanced analytics to improve diagnosis, treatment stratification and patient management. This reflects a broader EU push to ensure that digital innovation in oncology delivers tangible value in real clinical settings.

The trend is reflected in most Cancer Mission calls. The calls are generally based on understanding cancer, its early detection and prevention.

For more details on EU Cancer Mission - Go to the guide   

European Partnership Calls 

Co-funded European Partnerships in health are collaborative initiatives between the European Commission and national/regional funding agencies from participating countries. Unlike institutionalised partnerships, co-funded partnerships where both the EU and national partners pool financial resources to support research and innovation in priority health areas.

So, the eligibility requires a transnational consortium with partners from at least three participating countries and the proposals are evaluated based on excellence, impact, and implementation quality. As these partnerships are financed in conjunction with national agencies, the maximum requested grant and funding rates vary depending on each country and/or the organisation type.

On average, each proposal applies to a grant of €1–1.5 million. Project duration may vary between 1 and 3 years. calls are opened yearly by each co-funded partnerships and follow a two-stage application procedure.

Get the full overview of the European Partnership calls in the guide. 

Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) – Call 12

IHI is not designed for early ideas. It is intended for large, ambitious, pre-competitive collaborations that require industry involvement from the outset. It is usually a single-stage RIA call under the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI), structured into five thematic topics, all evaluated and ranked in a single-stage process.

The call allows for multiple projects to be funded per topic, subject to budget availability and ranking. Thematic topics include - Understanding the determinants of health, integration of fragmented health R&I efforts, people-centred, integrated healthcare solutions, digitalisation and data exchange in healthcare, assessing the added value of innovative integrated healthcare solutions.

What sets IHI apart is its funding model where more than 45% of eligible project costs must be provided as in-kind contributions by industry partners.

Projects typically enter at TRL 4–5 and exit around TRL 7–8, stopping short of market deployment but clearly demonstrating feasibility at system level. Total project sizes often range from €10–30 million, and although the formal minimum is three entities from three EU or associated countries, realistic IHI consortia are much larger and require strong governance and coordination.

IHI Call 12 is expected in early 2026. It is most suitable if you already have committed industry partners and are ready to operate at significant scale. If you are still assembling a network or refining your concept, IHI is usually premature.

Pandemic Preparedness Partnership – Looking Ahead

Although details are still emerging, the Pandemic Preparedness Partnership expected in 2026 is clearly oriented towards long-term readiness rather than crisis response. Its purpose is to help Europe better predict and respond to new infectious disease threats.

Projects are expected to combine biological insights with social, behavioural and environmental factors, and success will be measured not only in scientific outputs but in readiness. If your work plausibly reduces response time, improves coordination or prevents system overload in future crises, this partnership is worth watching closely. 

European Innovation Council (EIC)
– From Breakthrough Health Research to Market Entry

Not all healthcare innovation follows a large consortium model. For projects built around a single novel/breakthrough, and high-risk idea or a small, highly focused team, the European Innovation Council offers an alternative pathway which may be more appropriate than collaborative Horizon Europe calls. The EIC is designed to support individual teams and companies as they move from radical innovation to market readiness.

The EIC Pathfinder Programme  

The EIC Pathfinder is the earliest entry point and is aimed at exploring fundamentally new ideas in health and life sciences. This includes breakthrough concepts in areas such as novel therapeutics, advanced diagnostics, bioengineering, AI for health, or entirely new approaches to disease understanding. Based on single application structure, projects typically enter at TRL 1–2, where scientific feasibility is still being explored, and are expected to exit around TRL 3–4 with a validated proof of concept.

Pathfinder projects are usually implemented by small consortia of research organisations, and while commercialisation is not immediate, the long-term innovation potential must be clear. Deadlines vary depending on the type of application.

If you apply to Pathfinder Open, it is 12 May 2026 or if you apply for Pathfinder Challenge, it is 28 Oct 2026. Each project, if successful, is eligible for up to €3-4 million.  

If not sure where you wish to apply, EIC Pathfinder Open supports projects in any field of science, technology or application without predefined thematic priorities while EIC Pathfinder Challenges (PC) support coherent portfolios of projects within predefined thematic areas with the aim to achieve specific objectives for each Challenge.

If you are doing the R&D in healthcare, EIC PC offers “Biotechnology for Healthy Ageing” as one of the challenges. Here, the applicants must deliver a TRL 3 proof of concept in one of three areas:
(1) biotechnology or pharmaceutical interventions targeting fundamental mechanisms of ageing, demonstrated in physiologically aged vertebrate models with a credible clinical and regulatory pathway;
(2) biomarker-based tools built on existing ageing biomarkers (biomarker discovery excluded) that integrate multiple ageing parameters and are validated retrospectively in longevity cohorts; or
(3) advanced New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) capturing the systemic nature of ageing and benchmarked against animal models for defined use cases. However, projects are required to consider sex and gender differences, exclude precision nutrition and wellness applications, and contribute to balanced scientific, regulatory and societal progress in healthy ageing.

The EIC Transition Programme  

If you already have promising results from an eligible, previously funded EU project, including EIC Pathfinder (and Horizon 2020 FET), ERC Proof of Concept, Horizon 2020 or Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Actions, eligible European Defence Fund research projects (civil or dual-use only), or Horizon research infrastructure projects, EIC Transition may be the logical next step.

EIC Transition focuses on maturing specific research outputs towards application, for example by validating a health technology, refining a prototype, or developing a credible pathway towards clinical or regulatory use. Projects typically enter at TRL 3–4 and aim to exit around TRL 5–6. In healthcare, Transition is often used to bridge the gap between academic research and early clinical or industrial validation, especially for spin-outs or translational research teams.  The application is single stage but includes an interview stage as well, if shortlisted.

The deadline for 2026 applications is 16 September 2026. If successful, the funding rate is 100% with the selected projects receiving up to €2.5 million each. 

The EIC Accelerator Programme  

The EIC Accelerator is the most commercially oriented instrument and is specifically designed for start-ups and SMEs. In the healthcare context, it supports companies developing breakthrough medical technologies, digital health solutions, diagnostics or therapeutics with clear market potential. Projects usually enter at TRL 6 and are expected to progress towards TRL 8–9, including clinical validation, regulatory preparation and early market entry.

Funding can include a combination of grants and equity, making the Accelerator particularly relevant for companies aiming to scale rather than simply validate. The applications are already open and the deadline for the final application is 16 December 2026. It has slightly different application structure. It is a 2-stage application where the applications do not have a fixed deadline. It can be submitted anytime and are evaluated on a regular cut-off basis throughout the year. You would need to be shortlisted to be invited to final stage of written application (4-6 weeks after short application is picked-up for evaluation).

Read more about the application process in the guide

EIC Advanced Innovation Challenge on New Approach Methodologies

There is something new in the EIC program as well - EIC Advanced Innovation Challenge on New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), specifically Translating Disruptive NAMs into Practice. The challenge supports alternatives to animal testing, such as organoids, organ-on-chip systems, digital twins and AI-based models, through a two-stage scheme: Stage 1 (€300,000, up to 9 months, deadline 26 February 2026) to validate and benchmark NAMs at TRL 4, and Stage 2 (up to €2.5 million, up to 2.5 years, deadline indicatively June 2027, by invitation) to develop regulatory-ready prototypes reaching TRL 6.

A useful self-check for the EIC is to ask:
“Is my project built around a single breakthrough innovation that could create a new market or significantly disrupt an existing one?”

If the answer is yes, the EIC instruments may be a better fit than large collaborative programmes. 

EUREKA Eurostars 
– Applied Healthcare R&D Led by Innovative SMEs

For innovative SMEs looking for applied healthcare R&D funding without the scale and complexity of Horizon Europe or the commercial pressure of the EIC Accelerator, EUREKA and Eurostars provide a practical alternative that is more applied.

If you are an SME working on applied healthcare R&D and looking for a lighter, more flexible alternative to Horizon Europe, EUREKA, and in particular Eurostars, is often worth considering.

Eurostars supports international, SME-led R&D projects that are close to market but still require technical development and validation.

In healthcare, this typically includes medical devices, digital health solutions, diagnostics, and enabling technologies for life sciences. Projects usually enter at TRL 3–4 and aim to exit around TRL 6, where a functional prototype or validated solution is available.

Unlike Horizon Europe, Eurostars projects are smaller in scale and faster to set up. Consortia are typically limited to two or three partners from different countries, with the SME acting as project coordinator. Funding is provided by national agencies, which means eligibility rules and funding rates vary by country, but the overall administrative burden is often lower than for large EU consortia.

If your response to the question “Do I need cross-border collaboration to develop our healthcare solution, but without the complexity of a large Horizon project?” is yes, then Eurostars might for you.

For many healthcare SMEs, Eurostars acts as a stepping stone, either before moving into larger collaborative programmes such as Horizon Europe IA or IHI, or before pursuing scale-up funding through the EIC Accelerator.

You can find more details in our blog dedicated to Eureka.

How Nordic Innovators Can Support You

Don’t chase calls, instead plan a pathway

Successful organisations rarely win a single isolated grant. They move deliberately from early research through validation and into deployment, using different instruments at different stages. The strongest strategy is not to ask “Which call has the biggest budget?” but “What is the next logical step for our project?” 

At Nordic Innovators, we help organisations decide where they fit, where to apply, and just as importantly, where not to apply. If you would like to discuss your project’s position and the most realistic funding route for the 2026 cycle, we would be happy to advise.   

Contact us for support