The «European Partnerships» Programme offers the opportunity to local organisations to participate in transnational research and innovation projects in sectors and thematic areas of high importance for Cyprus, which are implemented in the frame of Joint Programmes of European Partnerships under the EU “Horizon Europe” Programme, in which the country participates. Furthermore, the Programme promotes the extroversion of local enterprises and research organisations, and their collaboration and networking with foreign organisations through their participation in the transnational projects.

The participation in current the Call of Proposals aims to promote the networking and collaboration between Cypriot and foreign organisations through the participation in transnational industrial research and development projects.

European Partnerships are initiatives where the EU, national authorities and/or the private sector jointly commit to support the development and implementation of a programme of research and innovation activities. Partnerships will:

• address complex challenges outlined in «Horizon Europe» Programme, such as accelerating the transitions towards a society and economy that are climate neutral and circular,
• support the achievement of EU priorities, such as the European Green Deal, a Europe fit for the digital age, an economy that works for people, and a stronger Europe in the world,
• be impact-driven by deploying a broad range of R&I activities, from concept to demonstration and validation, to those supporting market, regulatory and societal uptake, and
• contribute to a stronger European Research Area (ERA), by avoiding the duplication of efforts, creating critical scales of investment and enhancing synergies between programmes.

Research on rare diseases is needed to provide knowledge for prevention, diagnosis, better care and everyday life improvement for patients.

Projects will focus on a group of rare diseases or, as second priority, on a single rare disease following 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.

Only a few rare diseases benefit from treatment options, but possible commonalities exist between groups of rare diseases (i.e., common disease biological pathways, clinical symptoms and/or clinical phenotypes and importantly the combination of those common features). Therefore, with the view of offering more options for more patients suffering from different rare diseases, applicants are strongly encouraged to work on groups of rare diseases with commonalities and assemble criteria of meaningful grouping of the rare diseases under study, based on state-of-the-art scientific discoveries and clinical practice.

Research studies on therapies using small molecules, small non-coding chemically synthesised 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 two of the following areas:

1. 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.
2. Development of predictive and pharmacodynamics biomarkers correlated to the efficiency of the therapy in a preclinical setting that could serve as surrogate endpoints.
3. Replication of pre-clinical studies in an independent lab to increase validity of exploratory findings.
4. 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.

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).

Submission Deadline to AGROECOLOGY:

• Stage 1: Pre-Proposals: 13 February 2025, 14.00 (CET)
• Stage 2: Full Proposals: 9 July 2025, (time to be announced by EP ERDERA)

Submission Deadline to RIF:

• Stage 1: Pre-Proposals: 20 February 2025, 13.00 (local time)
• Stage 2: Full Proposals: 16 July 2025, 13:00 (local time)

EP_ΕRDERA_Call_2024_EN