The European Partnership Fostering a European Research Area for Health (ERA4Health) aims to flexibly and effectively coordinate funding activities in the field of health and greater well-being in the European Research Area. The partnership supports transnational collaborative research in Europe through joint strategic planning to address priority fields of public health in Europe. The seventh call, “Multi-country Investigator Initiated Clinical Trials in Cardiovascular, Autoimmune and Metabolic Diseases (Trials4Health),” will be open until January 27, 2026 for pre-proposals and June 17, 2026 for full proposals.

Target group

The funding program is aimed at researchers working in the field of biomedical research at universities, non-academic research institutions, and research departments in related sectors.

Funding goals

The ERA4Health European Partnership has several objectives: Expanding biomedical and public health research, including clinical and intervention areas, generating new knowledge to improve the use of existing health technologies in practice, and building further capacity in medicine and clinical trials at the European level. The ultimate goal is to facilitate research projects and innovations that will improve both the health of the European population as well as healthcare delivery.

Funding period and funding amount

The maximum funding period is 48 months.

Requirements

The requirements and specifications for the FWF programs Principal Investigator Projects or Clinical Research apply.

Information on the current call “Multi-country Investigator Initiated Clinical Trials in Cardiovascular, Autoimmune and Metabolic Diseases (Trials4Health)”

The aim of the call is to support randomized, interventional, and pragmatic comparative-effectiveness clinical studies and/or studies on the repurposing of approved drugs, that are designed as randomized interventional trials. 

The interventions must be of high public relevance in one or more of the following fields: 

  • Cardiovascular diseases 
  • Metabolic disorders
  • Autoimmune disorders

Each application must be supported by partners from the participating partner countries, whereby a joint document must be submitted to the central Call Secretariat by the coordinator. 

The researchers are funded by their respective national/regional funding organization. The call is being co-financed by the European Union. 

Funding organizations from 17 countries are planning to join this call. 

Please see the Trials4Health website for a complete list of potential participating countries.

Approval

Decided by the Scientific Board based on a recommendation of the Call Secretariat.

Application information

Pre-proposals must be submitted online by January 27, 2026, using the Call Secretariat’s application system. Please see the Trials4Health website for a link to the application submission system.

There will be a two-stage submission and evaluation procedure:

  • Pre-proposal submissions: November 6, 2025 to January 27, 2026 (4:00 pm CET)
  • Full proposal submissions: April 13, 2026 to June 17, 2026 (4:00 pm CEST)
  • Funding decision: estimated October 2026

In addition to the application submitted to the Call Secretariat, administrative and financial data as well as academic abstracts (in accordance with the FWF guidelines for Principal Investigator Projects or Clinical Research) must also be submitted to the FWF using the online portal elane. In the pre-proposal stage, proposals are submitted under the program category “PIK – International Projects – pre-proposal” (deadline January 28, 2026, 2:00 pm Vienna local time). For the full proposal stage, applicants must choose the program category “KIN – International – Multilateral Initiatives” (Deadline June 18, 2026, 2:00 pm Vienna local time). Both steps are required.

Please note that research institution must approve proposals for submission by the deadlines indicated above. To do so, research institutions must be registered on the FWF research institution portal.

Funding institution

Austrian Science Fund (FWF)

Please note:

Deadline for contacting ECRIN representatives (optional): November 30, 2025

Pre-proposals: November 6, 2025 to January 27, 2026 (4:00 pm CET)

Full proposals: April 13, 2026 to June 17, 2026 (4:00 pm CEST)

Submissions

Nov. 6, 2025 to Jan. 27, 2026 (04:00 pm Vienna local time)

Inquiries and contact

Dr. Christoph Gross
christoph.gross(at)fwf.ac.at
+43 676 83487 8910

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