Balancing food security, bioeconomy, climate and biodiversity objectives to unlock sustainable value chains

EIC 2026 Pathfinder Open is sponsored by European Commission — Horizon Europe. Expected Impact: The expected output of your project is the proof of principle that the main ideas of the envisioned future technology are feasible, thus validating its scientific and technological basis. Project results should include top-level scientific publications in open access. While your vision is expected to be worthwhile because of its potential for future impact, for instance to create new markets, improve our lives, or provide solutions for global challenges, these are not expected to be achieved in the course of your EIC Pathfinder Open project. However, you are expected to take the necessary measures in the course of the project to allow future uptake to take place. This includes: an adequate formal protection of the generated Intellectual Property (IP), a plan for future exploitation and an assessment of relevant aspects related to regulation, certification, and standardisation. In addition, you are encouraged to involve and empower in your team key actors that have the potential to become future leaders in their field such as excellent early-career researchers or promising high-tech SMEs, including start-ups. Your project should reinforce their mind-set for targeted research and development aimed at high impact applied results. This will strengthen Europe’s capacity for exploiting the scientific discoveries made in Europe throughout the steps to market success or for solving global challenges. You are particularly encouraged to empower female researchers in your project and to achieve gender balance among your work package leaders. Objective: The overall objective of the EIC Pathfinder for advanced research is to develop the scientific basis to underpin breakthrough technologies. It provides support for the earliest stages of scientific, technological or deep tech research and development. Pathfinder projects aim to build on new, cutting-edge directions in science and technology to disrupt a field and a market or create new opportunities by realising innovative technological solutions through:  ‘EIC Pathfinder Open’, open to support projects in any field of science, technology or application without predefined thematic priorities.  ‘EIC Pathfinder Challenges’ to support coherent portfolios of projects within predefined thematic areas with the aim to achieve specific objectives for each Challenge. Scope: Do you have an ambitious vision for a novel future technology that could make a real difference to our lives?  Do you see a plausible way of achieving the scientific breakthrough that will make this technology possible?  Can you imagine collaborating with an interdisciplinary team of researchers and innovators to validate the scientific basis of the future technology, realise a proof of principle, and explore paths to impact? If the answer to each one of these questions is ‘yes’, then EIC Pathfinder Open may be the right call for you. You should apply if you are looking for support from EIC Pathfinder Open to realise an ambitious vision for radically new technology, with potential to create new markets, respond to societal needs and/or to provide solutions for global challenges. EIC Pathfinder Open supports early-stage development of such future technologies (e.g., various activities at low Technology Readiness Levels from 1 to 4), based on high risk/high-gain science-towards-technology breakthrough research ( ‘deep tech’). This research must provide the foundations of the technology you are envisioning. EIC Pathfinder Open may support your work, especially if it is highly risky: you may set out to try things that will not work; you may be faced with questions that nobody knows the answer to yet; you may realise that there are many aspects of the problem that you do not master. On the contrary, if the approach you want to follow is incremental by nature or known, EIC Pathfinder Open will not support you. Before applying to this call, you should verify that your proposal meets all the following essential char Programme areas: The Pathfinder for Advanced Research, The European Innovation Council (EIC), Innovative Europe, Horizon Europe (HORIZON) Keywords: PATHFINDER, PATHFINDER OPEN, PATHFINDEROPEN

ERC ADVANCED GRANTS is sponsored by European Commission — Horizon Europe. Expected Outcome: Objectives and profile of the ERC Advanced Grant Principal Investigator The objective of the Advanced Grant is to support excellent Principal Investigators that are established research leaders. An ERC Advanced Grant Principal Investigator is expected to be an active researcher with a track record of significant research achievements. Size of ERC Advanced Grants Advanced Grants may be awarded up to a maximum of EUR 2 500 000 for a period of 5 years . The maximum amount of the grants is reduced pro rata temporis for projects of a shorter duration. Additional funding up to EUR 1 000 000 * can be requested to cover further eligible costs (e.g. start-up costs, major equipment, access to large facilities, major experimental and field work costs) when these are necessary to carry out the proposed work. The requests for additional funding must be duly justified in the proposal. Additional funding is not subject to pro rata temporis reduction for projects of shorter duration. * Except for Principal Investigators in Starting, Consolidator, or Advanced Grant re-locating to the EU or an Associated Country from elsewhere to take up their ERC grant. In this case, the maximum additional funding shall be EUR 2 000 000. The Advanced Grant is awarded as a single lump sum contribution for the entirety of the project (broken down by beneficiaries – where applicable) based on a realistic estimate of the actual cost of the project, and fully covering the work to be implemented in the proposed action. For further information, please see the ERC Work Programme 2026 . Programme areas: Horizon Europe (HORIZON), Excellent Science, European Research Council (ERC) Keywords: Advanced Grant, ERC, European Research Council, Excellent Science, Frontier Research

Training and innovation networks for sustained capacity development related to ethics, regulatory, pharmacovigilance, and related digital regulatory platforms is sponsored by European Commission — Horizon Europe. Expected Impact: Expected Impact Through strategic capacity building, digital transformation, and cooperation in SSA, the actions funded under this topic should contribute to the establishment of a resilient and future-ready ethics, regulatory and PV environment. Applicant consortium If requested by the applicant consortia, the EDCTP Association may offer technical support for the preparation of their proposal, in particular because of the lump sum nature of the Grant Agreement. The applicant consortia may also decide to include the EDCTP Association as coordinator. In that case, the applicant consortia should contact the EDCTP Association to obtain the estimated amount of the Association’s contribution as well as any other relevant information. The EDCTP Association will timely provide the necessary information to all potential applicants. Expected Outcome: Background Ethics bodies, regulatory agencies, and pharmacovigilance (PV) systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) continue to face significant challenges that hinder effective provision of healthcare services, safety reporting and timely regulatory approval for clinical trials, and marketing authorisation of products. These challenges are largely attributed to limited resources, limited training provision and access to mentor expertise, governance constraints, disparities in digital infrastructure, and limited regional and international regulatory alignment. In response, initiatives such as the African Vaccines Regulatory Forum (AVAREF), the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization (AMRH) Programme and most recently the African Medicines Agency (AMA) have been launched to address these gaps. International bodies, including the World Health Organization (WHO), along with partnerships in SSA, have contributed to bridge the gap by offering technical support, training, and resources to strengthen ethics, regulatory and PV capacities. Public-private partnerships have further supported ethics and regulatory capacity strengthening, safety monitoring systems, including the development and integration of digital health technologies to enhance adverse event monitoring and reporting, and to accelerate the regulatory submission and assessment processes through collaborative or joint reviews. As per the WHO publication of October 2025 [1] , eight SSA National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs)—Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Rwanda, Senegal, and Zimbabwe—are classified by WHO as Maturity Level 3 (ML3), indicating reasonably established and functioning regulatory systems. Nevertheless, major hurdles remain, such as the lack of harmonised regulatory standards and timelines, underfunded research ethics committees (RECs) and NRAs, disparities in institutional and digital capacity and sustainability of the systems set up. These issues hinder the timely and consistent evaluation of research protocols and/or applications for marketing authorisation for diagnostics, medicines, and vaccines across the region. Despite the increasing participation of SSA countries in the WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring (WHO PIDM), PV systems in many SSA countries remain underdeveloped and insufficiently integrated into national healthcare systems. This is reflected on both pre- and post-authorisation safety monitoring, where systems are weakened by poor digital infrastructure, limited laboratory capacity for confirmation of suspected events, weak reporting tools for data capture and interpretation, and a shortage of trained personnel. This limits the region’s ability to ensure effective PV and safety of medicinal products. Building on the progress made through previous EDCTP initiatives [2] , this call aims to scale and sustain these efforts by establishing training, twinning, and innovation networks, leveraging existing networks where applicable that will bolster workforce capacity in ethics, regulatory, and PV and harmonisation of processes and timelines. Central to this approach is the develop Programme areas: Horizon Europe (HORIZON), Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness, Health Keywords: Artificial intelligence, Big data, Digital Services and Platforms, Digital transformation, Epidemiology, Ethics in medical sciences, Global health, Health data, Health sciences, Medical biotechnology related ethics, Medical ethics, Pharmacovigilance, Regulatory affairs, eInfrastructure, Africa, Africa CDC, Artificial Intelligence, Digital health, Digital health systems, Digital innovations, EDCTP, EDCTP3, Global Health, Innovation networks, Public health, Public health workforce, Regulatory platforms, Skilled personnel, Sub-Saharan Africa, Trainings, Twinning

The United States Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ Office of International Visitors (ECA/PE/V) announces an open competition for up to four cooperative agreements to support the staff expenses and overhead costs of the FY 2026 International Visitor Leadership Program’s (IVLP) National Program Agencies (NPAs). Launched in 1940, the IVLP is the Department of State’s foundational professional exchange program. The IVLP advances U.S. national security priorities and builds long-term relationships between Americans and international leaders in government, business, academia, and other fields. Recipients design and implement customized short-term visits to the United States for current and emerging leaders from around the world. These visits support U.S. foreign policy goals and reflect the participants’ professional interests. Eligible recipients will have expertise in foreign policy, experience in professional exchange programming, and the ability to provide tailored projects for participants from all countries. Please see the full NOFO for additional information. Funding Opportunity Number: DFOP0017385. Assistance Listing: 19.402. Funding Instrument: CA. Category: O. Award Amount: $613K – $1.2M per award.