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Call key data
Pandemic preparedness and response: Understanding vaccine induced-immunity
Funding Program
Horizon Europe - Cluster 1 - Destination 3: Tackling diseases and reducing disease burden
Call number
HORIZON-HLTH-2023-DISEASE-03-17
deadlines
Opening
12.01.2023
Deadline
13.04.2023 17:00
Funding rate
100%
Call budget
€ 20,000,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
between € 7,000,000.00 and € 8,000,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
Proposals should study vaccine-induced immunity in the general population and vulnerable groups.
Call objectives
As shown by the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines are a critical component needed to bring infectious disease pandemics under control. The availability of effective vaccines that are able to induce a strong and durable immune response are critical to respond to health threats caused by infectious disease epidemics or pandemics. A proactive approach to understanding the factors that affect vaccine durability and strength is necessary to ensure development of effective vaccines for future infectious disease outbreaks.
Proposals should look both at the magnitude and breadth of initial immune responses and the duration of immunity after vaccination with different vaccine types (mRNA, vector, inactivated, subunit, attenuated,…). Proposals should assess how sex (e.g. male vs female, pre- vs postmenopausal), age (childhood vs adolescent vs elderly) and/or lifestyle (e.g. obesity, drug addiction, diet, sport) affect the immune response. Proposals may also examine genetic and other molecular factors that may influence immune response in humans. Proposals should pursue a multi-omics approach in order to foster a deep understanding of vaccine induced immunity.
Proposals should identify correlates of protection that can be used to develop vaccines against viruses meeting the criteria for pathogens with high pandemic potential as identified by HERA.
Proposals should also assess how pre-existing conditions or chronic infections influence the immune response.
Proposals should aim to improve the global vaccine research and development pipeline for emerging and re-emerging viral infections, and to strengthen the current leading role of the EU in vaccine development, and therefore contributing to the work of the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA).
This topic requires the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities (SSH) disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.
Applicants envisaging to include clinical studies should provide details of their clinical studies in the dedicated annex using the template provided in the submission system. See definition of clinical studies in the introduction to this work programme part.
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Expected effects and impacts
Expected results
- The scientific and clinical communities have an increased knowledge of vaccine-induced immunity and, in particular, a better understanding of factors that affect the magnitude, breadth, nature and duration of immunity to vaccine antigens.
- The scientific and clinical communities have an increased knowledge of the durability and breadth of vaccine-induced immunity in vulnerable populations and older age groups.
- The scientific and clinical communities have an increased knowledge of correlates of protection for pathogens with epidemic potential to allow the development of effective vaccines.
- The scientific and clinical communities have an increased knowledge of the characteristics that influence vaccine effectiveness to allow for novel approaches for the development of vaccines for emerging and re-emerging infections, including antigenic variants, in the context of epidemic and pandemic preparedness.
Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
Moldova (Moldova), Albania (Shqipëria), Armenia (Հայաստան), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина), Faeroes (Føroyar / Færøerne), Georgia (საქართველო), Iceland (Ísland), Israel (ישראל / إِسْرَائِيل), Kosovo (Kosova/Kosovë / Косово), Montenegro (Црна Гора), Morocco (المغرب), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Norway (Norge), Serbia (Srbija/Сpбија), Tunisia (تونس /Tūnis), Türkiye, Ukraine (Україна), United Kingdom
eligible entities
EU Body, Education and training institution, International organization, Natural Person, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)
Mandatory partnership
Yes
Project Partnership
To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
- the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions
- the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States
- third countries associated to Horizon Europe - see list of particpating countries
Applications may be submitted by one or more legal entities, which may be established in a Member State, Associated Country or, in exceptional cases and if provided for in the specific call conditions, in another third country.
In recognition of the opening of the US National Institutes of Health’s programmes to European researchers, any legal entity established in the United States of America is eligible to receive Union funding.
Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call topic.
A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.
Specific cases:
- Affiliated entities — Affiliated entities (i.e. entities with a legal or capital link to a beneficiary which participate in the action with similar rights and obligations to the beneficiaries, but which do not sign the grant agreement and therefore do not become beneficiaries themselves) are allowed, if they are eligible for participation and funding.
- Associated partners — Associated partners (i.e. entities which participate in the action without signing the grant agreement, and without the right to charge costs or claim contributions) are allowed, subject to any conditions regarding associated partners set out in the specific call conditions.
- Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees to protect the EU’s financial interests equivalent to those offered by legal persons.
- EU bodies — Legal entities created under EU law including decentralised agencies may be part of the consortium, unless provided for otherwise in their basic act.
- Joint Research Centre (‘JRC’)— Where provided for in the specific call conditions, applicants may include in their proposals the possible contribution of the JRC but the JRC will not participate in the preparation and submission of the proposal. Applicants will indicate the contribution that the JRC could bring to the project based on the scope of the topic text. After the evaluation process, the JRC and the consortium selected for funding may come to an agreement on the specific terms of the participation of the JRC. If an agreement is found, the JRC may accede to the grant agreement as beneficiary requesting zero funding or participate as an associated partner, and would accede to the consortium as a member.
- Associations and interest groupings — Entities composed of members (e.g. European research infrastructure consortia (ERICs)) may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality’. However, if the action is in practice implemented by the individual members, those members should also participate (either as beneficiaries or as affiliated entities, otherwise their costs will NOT be eligible.
other eligibility criteria
If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used).
Additional information
Topics
Relevance for EU Macro-Region
EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region
UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)
Additional Information
All proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funders & Tenders Portal electronic submission system (accessible via the topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section). Paper submissions are NOT possible.
Proposals must be complete and contain all parts and mandatory annexes and supporting documents, e.g. plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results including communication activities, etc.
The application form will have two parts:
- Part A (to be filled in directly online) contains administrative information about the applicant organisations (future coordinator and beneficiaries and affiliated entities), the summarised budget for the proposal and call-specific questions;
- Part B (to be downloaded from the Portal submission system, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded as a PDF in the system) contains the technical description of the project.
Annexes and supporting documents will be directly available in the submission system and must be uploaded as PDF files (or other formats allowed by the system).
The limit for a full application (Part B) is 45 pages.
The award criteria are described in General Annex D. The following exceptions apply: The thresholds for each criterion will be 4 (Excellence), 4 (Impact) and 3 (Implementation). The cumulative threshold will be 12.
Call documents
HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 1, Destination 3HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 1, Destination 3(556kB)
Contact
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