ERDERA Joint Transnational Call 2025 “Pre-clinical therapy studies for rare diseases using small molecules and biologicals – development and validation”
Programme Category
Programme Name
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
ERDERA Joint Transnational Call (JTC) 2025, invites innovative research proposals focusing on “Pre-clinical therapy studies for rare diseases using small molecules and biologicals – development and validation.” The aim of the call is to enable scientists in different countries to build an effective collaboration on a common interdisciplinary research project based on complementarities and sharing of expertise, with the expected impact being future use of the results to benefit patients.
Detailed Call Description
Projects should focus on a group of rare diseases or a on a single rare disease if there is no valid rationale/evidence for the benefit of grouping diseases. If focusing on a single rare disease, applicants must clearly specify why working on a group of rare diseases is not appropriate. The classification of rare diseases follows the European definition, i.e. a disease affecting not more than five in 10.000 persons in the European Community, EC associated states, and Canada. In this context, the European Rare Diseases Research Alliance (ERDERA) has been established to further help in coordinating the research efforts of European, Associated and non-European countries in the field of rare diseases and implement the objectives of the International Rare Disease Research Consortium (IRDiRC). These actions follow the five Joint Transnational Calls for rare diseases research projects launched previously by the European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases (EJP RD) since 2019.
Research studies on therapies using small molecules, small non-coding chemically synthesized nucleic acid-based therapies, repurposed drugs or biologicals (e.g., antibodies or proteins such as enzymes, immune modulators or growth factors etc.).
Proposals must cover at least 2 of the following areas:
- development of novel therapies in a pre-clinical setting through cell, organoid and animal disease model studies, and/or use of in silico or artificial intelligence models to accelerate the success rate of the pre-clinical stage
- development of predictive and pharmacodynamics biomarkers correlated to the efficiency of the therapy in a preclinical setting that could serve as surrogate endpoints
- replication of pre-clinical studies in an independent lab to increase validity of exploratory findings
- pre-clinical proof of concept studies for evidence of pharmacological activity in vitro and in vivo, pharmaco-kinetics and pharmaco-dynamics of the investigational drug (i.e., small molecule(s) and/or biologic) and first toxicology and safety data as well as studies to support readiness for initiating clinical trial authorization conforming to regulatory requirements.
Please note, certain approaches, including ATMP therapies and clinical trials, are excluded from this call.
Translatability into humans should be the key focus of the project, and applicants should demonstrate access to relevant scientific or regulatory expertise (e.g., through innovation task forces or competent national authorities).
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
Double funding of research projects is not permitted. The JCS and national/regional funding organisations may perform cross-checks of submissions against other funding initiatives managed by the same organisations (both national/regional calls and Joint Transnational Calls, e.g. NEURON, JPND, or European Partnerships such as ERA4Health, EP PerMed, THCS etc.). Partners may not apply for funding for the same research activities in different calls. In addition, there can be no double funding for activities already funded by EC H2020 and Horizon Europe calls.
Consortia of projects funded in previous Joint Transnational Calls of the EJP RD can apply for funding for an extension of their cooperation in a new project, but only for new research activities not yet funded under the previous Call.
The indicative budget contributed by the Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF) is €3.000.000. The maximum funding per awarded project/per partner is €1.000.000 and the anticipated number of fundable research partners should be between 1-3 organisations in the Cypriot Consortium.
More information can be found on page 30 of the call Guidelines.
Thematic Categories
- Education and training
- Health
- New Entrepreneurship
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
- Small-Medium Enterprises and Competitiveness
Eligibility for Participation
- Associations
- Educational Institutions
- NGOs
- Non Profit Organisations
- Other Beneficiaries
- Private Bodies
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
- State-owned Enterprises
Eligibility For Participation Notes
Each consortium participant will be funded by the Funding Organisation from its country/region participating in this joint transnational call. Participants are therefore subject to the eligibility criteria of national/regional funding organisations, in addition to the general eligibility criteria of the call.
Partners belonging to one of the following categories may request funding under a joint research proposal (according to country/regional regulations):
- Academia (research teams working in universities, other higher education institutions or research institutes),
- Clinical/public health sector (research teams working in hospitals/public health and/or other health care settings and health organisations),
- Enterprises (all sizes of private companies). Participation of small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) is encouraged when allowed by national/regional regulations,
- Patient advocacy organisations (PAOs).
Regarding the eligibility criteria on the consortium composition, in addition to Annex 5 of the Horizon Europe rules on the cascade funding calls (the projects supported must be transnational, involving at least 2 independent legal entities from 2 different EU Member States or Horizon Europe associated countries as recipients of the financial support).
It is specifically required that each consortium submitting a proposal must involve 4 to 6 eligible principal investigator partners (referred to as partners below) from at least 4 different participating countries (see list in section 2, page 3-4 of the call text).One of these 4 to 6 partners must be an Early Career Researcher (ECR; see section 5.6, page 14 of the call text).
In specific cases this number of consortium partners can be increased to 8 partners. No more than 2 eligible partners from the same country can be present in each consortium; further national/regional limits may apply. Patient advocacy organisations (PAOs) requesting funding do not count toward the total.
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
EU Contact Point
For general questions about the JTC 2025 call you can contact by email the Secretariat at: SelteneErkrankungen@dlr.de