The European Union continues its commitment to health in this last year of the 2014 – 2020 programming period. This month it launched two calls for proposals under its Horizon 2020 program, dedicated to funding research and innovation.

The first, published on 21 January, proposes funding through the Innovative Medicines Initiative sub-program to improve the drug development process by supporting research and development cooperation between academia, SMEs and the biopharmaceutical industry.

Pursuing its objective of developing scientific research and responding to public health challenges, a second call for proposals under the Health, Demographic Change and Well-being sub-program was published on 30 January. This call aims to improve scientific knowledge for the clinical and public health response to the 2019-nCov virus epidemic. In the midst of the current events, with the WHO has invited the international community on 23 January to show solidarity and cooperation, Europe is continuing its efforts to enable real breakthroughs in research and innovation.

The European Union is preparing to renew its commitments in the field of health for the next program period 2021 – 2027, the Commission has adopted in May 2018 a proposal for a new European Social Fund + program, one of the main lines of action of which will be risk prevention and the promotion of public health. More broadly, this commitment to health will be renewed through other funding instruments such as Horizon Europe, the European Regional Development Fund or the European Investment Fund.