What not to miss in your HORIZON-HLTH-2025-03-ENVHLTH-01-two-stage proposal
10th June 2025 at 10:09 am
With environmental pollution implicated in over 10% of annual premature deaths in the EU and significant impact on public health, the Horizon Europe call HORIZON-HLTH-2025-03-ENVHLTH-01-two-stage is both urgent and scientifically ambitious. This Cluster 1 – Health topic addresses the impact of pollutants on brain diseases, from developmental disorders in children to neurodegeneration in older adults. With a submission deadline of 16 September 2025, now is the time for researchers to align their Horizon Europe Health proposals with Europe’s evolving health and environmental agenda. In this post, we outline what not to overlook when a competitive proposal for this call topic, from mandatory expectations to critical success factors.
Understand the strategic fit
This call topic supports Horizon Europe’s Destination 2: “Living and working in a health-promoting environment”. To do so, proposals should offer tailored contributions to up-to-date scientific evidence to inform EU/global pollution policies, FAIR data on exposure, susceptibility windows, and health impacts, tools for public authorities to prevent brain-related pollution harms and empowering citizens to adopt protective, health-enhancing behaviours.
The call emphasises the exposome – lifetime exposure to environmental pollutants – as a major modifiable risk factor for neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental conditions. Proposals must link pollutants to diseases like dementia, Parkinson’s, or developmental cognitive impairments, using high-quality research designs and methods.
Although the stage-1 proposal is only max. 10 pages and must be anonymous (blind), your proposal needs to be structured around three key pillars (the pollutants being studied, the populations exposed, and the biological pathways affected) and contain project-specific information. Proposals are expected to develop or refine in-vivo, in-vitro, or in-silico models, and to deliver improved biomarkers that support early detection and monitoring of disease progression.
Must-have elements to stay competitive
Linking pollution to brain diseases: Research activities under this topic should explore evidence on the causal link between exposure to different pollutants (focusing on specific pollutants or a combination thereof) and the development or progression of neurological, neurodegenerative or neurodevelopmental diseases or disorders.
- FAIR data and infrastructure connections: Data must be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. Proposals should adhere to the FAIR principles, connect with IPCHEM (chemical monitoring) and/or the future Common Data Platform for Chemicals and consider involving the JRC, ECHA, or EEA post-approval.
- SSH integration: This topic requires the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities (SSH). Include SSH experts and institutions from the start. Their role should go beyond dissemination to enrich the study’s design, ethics, and behavioural insights.
- Ethics and inclusiveness: Proposals should include considerations on sex, gender, age, ethnicity, disability, socioeconomic and lifestyle factors, intersections among these characteristics (intersectionality) and equitable access to results and protection of sensitive populations.
- Dedicated budget for project clustering: This topic requires participation in common networking and joint activities among funded projects. A dedicated work package with a recommended 2% budget allocation must be included.
For more information or general advice on the call topic, please consult your National Contact Point.
Have you decided to apply and are you looking for proposal preparation support?
We are proud to be supporting two highly relevant Horizon projects at the intersection of pollution and health: the newly launched EXPOSIM project and the ongoing H2020 EXIMIOUS project, in addition to, for example, our ongoing project AI-Mind on Alzheimer’s disease.
Since our foundation, we have been collaborating with more than 1,000 organisations in Europe and beyond. Our successful Research and Innovation Actions (RIAs and IAs) in Health include several HORIZON projects, such as EDiHTA, EU PAL-COPD, GLIOMATCH, COVend, GENEGUT, and MyPath, and over 35 H2020 projects. Additionally, our support extends to many health-focused Innovative Training and Doctoral Networks, including MITGEST and MobiliTraIN, as well as Pathfinder-Open projects related to health, such as POLINA and BoneOscopy.
Our team of experts supports researchers, companies and institutions throughout the entire funding process – from strategic grant planning to proposal writing, project management and communication and dissemination. From navigating Pillar II Health calls to fine-tuning proposals, we help partners maximise their chances of winning European health research grants. Reach out today and discuss how we can support you best!
