THCS 2026 – Transnational call for proposals aiming to transform healthcare systems

The objective of this call is to fund projects that, through an ecosystem-based approach, help reduce inequalities in access to and use of health and care services resulting from factors such as socio-economic status, geographic location, racial, cultural or gender identity, language and literacy barriers, as well as limitations in infrastructure and human resources. Projects are expected to develop innovative and interdisciplinary strategies, integrating sustainability and new models of care, to address previously identified gaps in access to health and care services.

The identification of exemplary policies that have demonstrated effectiveness in reducing inequalities is strongly encouraged, as is the development of new case studies to test the proposed approaches in specific national or regional contexts. Proposals may include implementation research to assess the effectiveness of measures designed to improve access. By developing, demonstrating, and testing targeted interventions, they should help ensure that all individuals have adequate access to essential services.

Projects may build on existing solutions designed for underserved areas (“medical deserts”) in order to demonstrate their implementation, scalability, and transferability. They should promote a balanced geographical distribution of services, including in rural and remote areas, and integrate digitally enabled care pathways to reduce the impact of territorial disparities.

Finally, proposals must take into account both individual and structural barriers, analyze usage patterns that lead to under- or overutilization of services, and propose solutions that foster appropriate use, including strengthening digital literacy and addressing gender and cultural inequalities.

Only transnational projects will be funded. The following conditions must apply to the composition of the consortia:

• the minimum project duration is 12 months and projects must be designed to be achievable during a maximum funding period of 36 months; 
• joint research proposals may be submitted by applicants belonging to one of the following categories (according to national/regional regulations): 
  • Academia: research teams working at universities, universities of applied sciences, other higher education institutions, research and knowledge dissemination organisations or research institutes;
  • Clinical/public health sector: research teams working at hospitals, policlinics, medical practices, public health and/or other health care settings and health organisations;
  • Companies: private companies of all sizes;
  • Operational stakeholders: e.g. citizens and/or citizen representatives, local communities, schools, municipalities, local/national NGOs, consumer organisations. Operational stakeholders should be in a position to provide useful knowledge to the consortium, ensure the consortium’s research is useful and translatable to their (or other) organizational contexts, and/or influence decision making or create change within their organisations. Operational stakeholders should be engaged in the research process from conception of the study to dissemination;
• The consortium must include at least three (3) eligible partners from three different countries whose funding organisations participate in the call. At least two (2) members of the consortium should be legal entities from two different EU Member States or Horizon Europe associated countries. Each of these partners must be eligible and request funding from the respective funding organisation. All three legal entities must be independent of each other.
• Maximum number of partners eligible for funding is nine (9).
• Maximum two (2) eligible partners from the same country.
• The project coordinator must be eligible for funding by a regional/national funding organisation participating in the call.
• Maximum of two (2) collaborators per consortium are permitted, or a maximum of three (3) collaborators if one or more of the collaborators is an operational stakeholder. Collaborators are self-funded partners, i.e. partners that do not request funds from one of the participating FPOs (i.e. partners from non-funding countries or partners who are not eligible according to regional/national regulations of the participating funding organisations). Collaborators do not count towards the maximum number of partners.

ANR will exclusively fund the French partners (except healthcare institutions) of the selected projects, up to a maximum of 250,000€ per partner (275,000€ maximum if the partner is the project coordinator). The funding will be awarded for a maximum initial period of two years.

The Directorate General of Health Offer (DGOS) of the Ministry of Health and Prevention, also participating in this call, will support healthcare facilities (e.g. “établissements de santé”, “groupements de coopération sanitaire”, “maisons de santé” or “centres de santé”).

A two-step submission and evaluation procedure has been established for joint applications: pre-proposals and full-proposals. In both phases, one joint proposal document shall be prepared by the partners of a joint transnational project. Full-proposals will only be accepted from applicants explicitly invited by the Joint Call Secretariat to submit to participate in step 2.  

The completed scientific proposal must be submitted online on the call submission site (no proposal submitted directly to ANR will be eligible).

In parallel with the central submission on the THCS website, applicants requesting funding from ANR are required to provide administrative and financial information by logging into the e-grant System at https://aap.agencerecherche.fr/

Scientific proposals must be written in English. Please note that the national/regional funding organizations may require additional documentation from applicants according to national/regional regulations. It is the responsibility of each project partner to ensure that all the necessary documents are submitted on time to the appropriate recipient.

Countries participating

Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland