The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI)

As was the case in IMI, the ‘public’ member in the partnership is the European Union, represented by the European Commission.

The industry members are COCIR, EFPIA (including Vaccines Europe), EuropaBio and MedTech Europe, taking IHI beyond the pharmaceutical industry and bringing on board the medical technology, biotechnology, digital health and vaccine industries.

In addition, organizations that want to support specific research areas without becoming full members of IHI can apply to become ‘contributing partners’ (similar to the Associated Partners in IMI2).

New under IHI is the Science and Innovation Panel (S&IP), an advisory body that will bring together representatives of the scientific community and the wider health sector, such as regulatory bodies, patients and end-users. The panel will also include representatives of the European Commission and the industry partners of IHI and SRG members. The panel may also invite additional ad-hoc experts to join in discussions of specific subjects.

Like IMI, IHI has a Governing Board composed of equal numbers of representatives from the European Commission and the industry partners, plus a States Representatives Group (SRG) comprising representatives of the EU Member States plus countries associated with Horizon Europe.

The S&IP will provide science-based advice to the Governing Board on scientific and technological matters such as: 

• IHI’s draft work programmes, and in particular the draft call topics;
• updates to the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA);
• the planning of additional activities;
• the set-up of advisory groups focused on specific scientific priorities;
• synergies with other Horizon Europe activities, including other European partnerships and other EU and national programmes.

More about S&IP procedures, its members and meetings (IHI website)

On December 13, IHI published call 3 topics. The deadline for the proposals is March 15 2023.

Topics

• Topic 1: Screening platform and biomarkers for prediction and prevention of diseases of unmet public health need
• Topic 2: Patient-generated evidence to improve outcomes, support decision making, and accelerate innovation
• Topic 3: Combining hospital interventional approaches to improve patient outcomes and increase hospital efficiency
• Topic 4: Strengthening the European translational research ecosystem for advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) for rare diseases
• Topic 5: Digital health technologies for the prevention and personalised management of mental disorders and their long-term health consequences

For full details of the topics, including the budget breakdown, click on the links above (which take you directly to the relevant page of the Funding and Tenders Portal) and read the call text.

Indicative budget

• The maximum financial contribution from IHI JU for these topics is: EUR 138 million
• Industry / contributing partner contributions: Applicant consortia should ensure that out of the total project budget, at least 45 % needs to be covered by contributions provided by project participants

Two-stage calls (will follow):

• Non-clinical drug safety assessments
• Patient-centric blood sample collection

For more information per  topic visit the IHI website

Writing a proposal and finding the right partners takes a lot of time and effort. In our brand-new Horizon Europe magazine, you will find a step-by-step roadmap, which will guide you in writing a successful IHI proposal in four phases. Our advice: start now! See the previous question for information on the draft topics in IHI.

The one-stage procedure is a bottom-up approach that allows much more flexibility than the 2-stage proposals. The call text is written by IHI/Science and Innovation panel (S&IP) and not by industry partners. So, public partners and Industry write the application together from the beginning. 

Partner organizations could be academics, hospitals, public bodies, regulators NGOs, research organizations, for-profit legal entities (SME and larger enterprises), Patients’ Organizations and intergovernmental organizations. established in a member state or Associated Country. New under IHI: organizations can also be based in Low and Middle-Income Countries (see Horizon Europe list) 

Important: at least 45% in-kind contribution of the total project costs needs to come from the consortium. Proposals not meeting this criterion will not be considered for evaluation!

Based on our current information, several proposals will be funded (in contrast with two-stage calls). However, the final number will depend on the available budget for single-stage calls.