Understanding the health impacts of climate change: key insights into the HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-ENVHLTH-01 call topic
12th November 2025 at 12:08 pm
Climate change is reshaping the world we live in and influencing the way we stay healthy. It drives new disease patterns, worsens chronic conditions and affects mental well-being. The HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-ENVHLTH-01 call focuses on exactly that: building a clearer picture of how climate factors translate into health risks and how societies can prepare. Under this Research & Innovation Action (RIA), the European Commission (EC) expects to fund around seven projects with a contribution of € 7 to € 8 million per project. With the 16 April 2026 deadline only six months away, now is the time to design proposals to address one of the most pressing health challenges of our time. In this blog, we break down the call topic and highlight the main points for applicants aiming to address the health impacts of climate change.
1. Choose your focus wisely
Applicants must focus on one main area, with the option to link others only when scientifically justified. Selecting the right focus and keeping it consistent is essential. The three proposed focus areas are:
- Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and/or individual safety, excluding mental health aspects: proposals should explore evidence on the complex interactions between climate change and NCDs and individual safety.
- Mental health considering interactions with brain health if relevant: investigate the emotional and psychological effects of climate change and understanding of new syndromes related to climate stress.
- Infectious diseases, including vector-borne and non-vector-borne: proposals should increase the understanding of the factors driving climate-related burden from infectious diseases.
Whatever you choose, justify your focus with solid data and a clear scientific gap. Evaluators want targeted, credible and actionable research.
2. Fitting within the scope: what the EC expects
The EC expects robust, multidisciplinary clinical studies that connect data from molecular biology to population-level health outcomes. Proposals should include several of the activities below, depending on the relevance of each group of activities to the broad focus area targeted. To help you start shaping your proposal, have a look at the tips we have added for each of them:
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Increase the understanding of correlations, causal pathways and mechanistic effects between climate change and disease/health outcomes.
Tip: Show how your project will move beyond correlation to causation. Use interdisciplinary data (environmental, biological and social) and explain how your analytical methods (e.g., modelling, omics or geospatial analysis) will reveal mechanisms, not just associations. -
Develop longitudinal studies tracking how climatic stressors influence health over time.
Tip: Combine traditional cohort research with digital data sources such as wearable sensors or environmental monitoring systems to capture both individual and community-level exposures. Plan early for interoperability with the European Health Data Space (EHDS) and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), ensuring that data are FAIR, well-annotated and ready for long-term sharing across European research infrastructures. -
Study differential acute and long-term health impacts of climate (including a wide range of factors and cumulative effects) on vulnerable, sensitive or exposed population groups.
Tip: Collaborate with partners in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) or outermost regions to capture varying exposure patterns and adaptive capacities. Integrate social science and equity expertise to identify how structural inequalities shape both risk and resilience and show how your findings can inform inclusive adaptation and policy measures. -
Advance the knowledge on the climate, ecological and environmental drivers of pathogen abundance, including mechanisms and determinants of distribution, life-cycle patterns, transmission, virulence and survival.
Tip: Combine ecological fieldwork, laboratory studies and modelling to link climatic variables with pathogen behaviour and transmission. Collaborate across disciplines such as microbiology, veterinary science, ecology and epidemiology to capture the full host–vector–pathogen network. -
Explore the role of climate-driven human and wildlife mobility (e.g. bird migration patterns, human migration) in enhancing the global spread of pathogens.
Tip: Strengthen collaborations with international and regional surveillance networks to improve data exchange and model validation. Design interoperable modelling tools that combine environmental, health and socioeconomic parameters, supporting early warning systems and coordinated cross-border preparedness efforts. -
Increase the availability, accessibility, quality and standardisation of diagnostic testing for early diagnosis of infections and determining immune responses and vaccine efficacy.
Tip: When developing new diagnostic tools, prioritise portability, affordability and robustness under extreme environmental conditions. Link diagnostic innovation with genomic monitoring to improve early detection of climate-related outbreaks and support rapid response at both local and global levels. -
Increase the understanding of the factors that strengthen health resilience to climate change at the individual, local and societal levels.
Tip: Study how local infrastructure, education, social cohesion and access to healthcare contribute to resilience. Engage municipalities, NGOs and citizen groups in co-developing practical adaptation strategies tailored to different regional and social contexts.
3. Building multidisciplinary and inclusive consortia
International cooperation is highly valued. Collaborating with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is strongly encouraged and can offer valuable comparative data and demonstrate global relevance. In addition, the scope of this call requires diverse expertise. Successful consortia will bring together climate scientists, health researchers, social scientists, data modellers, clinicians, and policymakers.
Tip: Integrate social sciences and humanities (SSH) expertise from the start. Evaluators expect SSH partners to contribute meaningfully, not as add-ons. Their role is vital for analysing behaviours, inequalities and societal adaptation. Strong proposals also prioritise gender balance, youth participation and inclusion. Consider how your project will account for differences in age, gender, socioeconomic background or disability.
4. Collaborating with other EU-funded initiatives
All projects funded under this topic will become part of a dedicated European Climate-Health Cluster, joining forces to exchange knowledge and maximise collective impact. Funded consortia will participate in joint networking and coordination activities to align methods, share results and strengthen links across the Environment, Climate and Health research portfolio. Projects should plan from the start how their data, findings and tools will be shared through the European Climate and Health Observatory, contributing evidence to future European Climate Risk Assessments. Applicants are also encouraged to build on the results of projects that are part of the European Climate-Health Cluster and make use of the data, services and infrastructures already available in Europe’s climate and health research landscape that are part of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI).
Tip: Show in your proposal how you will collaborate with other funded projects, for example, by aligning data standards or co-organising dissemination activities. Demonstrating openness and readiness to contribute to the European Climate-Health Cluster signals a strong commitment to impact, visibility and long-term policy relevance.
Looking for proposal writing support?
Since our foundation, we have been collaborating with more than 1,000 organisations in Europe and beyond. Our track record includes Horizon Health RIAs such as EXPOSIM, EU PAL-COPD, GLIOMATCH, GENEGUT, COVend and MyPath. We are also actively involved in Horizon 2020 Health projects, namely AI-Mind, EXIMIOUS and the recently finished VANGUARD. Additionally, our support extends to many more health-focused ITNs, including MITGEST and MobiliTraIN, as well as Pathfinder-Open projects related to health, such as POLINA and BoneOscopy. The HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-ENVHLTH-01 call bridges environmental and health research at a time when Europe urgently needs to adapt to a changing climate. Are you ready to start working on a proposal? Get in touch with our Horizon Health experts to see how we can support you!
