EU Horizon Europe Call: Strengthening Public Health Surveillance and Epidemiology Capacity in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

The European Commission's Horizon Europe Call (HORIZON-HLTH-2026-SURVEILLANCE-01) is a strategic intervention aimed at addressing the profound disparities in global public health infrastructure. Historically, disease surveillance has been fragmented, with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) often lacking the resources, technology, and trained personnel required to detect and respond to emerging health threats in real-time. This call seeks to rectify these imbalances by funding comprehensive, collaborative projects that build sustainable, localized capacity in epidemiology and public health surveillance. The initiative is built on the understanding that in an interconnected global society, a health threat anywhere is a health threat everywhere, making the strengthening of LMIC surveillance systems a matter of global security and solidarity. To achieve these ambitious goals, the European Commission is looking for proposals that go beyond short-term technical assistance. The call demands a systemic approach that integrates laboratory strengthening, digital data systems, human resource development, and policy advocacy into a cohesive, long-term strategy. Projects must be designed and implemented in close partnership with local stakeholders, ensuring that the interventions are aligned with national health priorities and integrated into existing public health structures. By fostering genuine partnerships between European institutions and LMIC organizations, this call aims to create a global network of public health professionals capable of collaborative surveillance and rapid, coordinated response to infectious disease outbreaks.

Strategic Overview

The European Commission's Horizon Europe Call (HORIZON-HLTH-2026-SURVEILLANCE-01) is a strategic intervention aimed at addressing the profound disparities in global public health infrastructure. Historically, disease surveillance has been fragmented, with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) often lacking the resources, technology, and trained personnel required to detect and respond to emerging health threats in real-time. This call seeks to rectify these imbalances by funding comprehensive, collaborative projects that build sustainable, localized capacity in epidemiology and public health surveillance. The initiative is built on the understanding that in an interconnected global society, a health threat anywhere is a health threat everywhere, making the strengthening of LMIC surveillance systems a matter of global security and solidarity. To achieve these ambitious goals, the European Commission is looking for proposals that go beyond short-term technical assistance. The call demands a systemic approach that integrates laboratory strengthening, digital data systems, human resource development, and policy advocacy into a cohesive, long-term strategy. Projects must be designed and implemented in close partnership with local stakeholders, ensuring that the interventions are aligned with national health priorities and integrated into existing public health structures. By fostering genuine partnerships between European institutions and LMIC organizations, this call aims to create a global network of public health professionals capable of collaborative surveillance and rapid, coordinated response to infectious disease outbreaks.

Who is it For?

This call is specifically designed for multi-sectoral, international consortia that bring together diverse expertise to solve complex global health challenges. Eligible applicants include academic and research institutions, public health agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society organizations, and private sector technology partners based in EU Member States, Horizon Europe Associated Countries, and Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). The European Commission mandates a collaborative structure where LMIC partners are not merely passive recipients of aid, but active co-designers and leaders of the proposed interventions. This ensures that the capacity built is culturally contextualized, politically viable, and institutionally sustainable. Ideal consortia will feature a balance of world-class European research entities providing technological and methodological innovation, alongside deeply rooted LMIC public health institutions that possess the local trust, operational access, and mandate to implement systemic changes. Additionally, international organizations, regional health bodies (such as the West African Health Organization or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations health networks), and digital health innovators are highly encouraged to participate to ensure regional scalability and technological interoperability.

Priorities

The European Commission's investment KPIs for this call are anchored in the creation of resilient, self-sustaining, and highly integrated public health surveillance systems. Key priorities include: first, the operationalization of the 'One Health' approach, which systematically links human, animal, and environmental health data to detect zoonotic spillovers before they escalate into pandemics. Second, the call prioritizes the democratization of genomic surveillance and advanced diagnostic technologies, ensuring that LMIC laboratories can rapidly sequence pathogens and share data globally in real-time. Third, there is a critical focus on data interoperability and governance; proposals must demonstrate how they will build or enhance digital platforms that comply with international health regulations (IHR 2005) while respecting local data sovereignty. Fourth, the donor demands a clear strategy for human capital development—specifically training a new generation of field epidemiologists, data analysts, and laboratory technicians. Finally, the ultimate KPI is sustainability: the European Commission wants to see concrete co-financing models, policy integration plans, and institutional capacity-building strategies that guarantee these surveillance systems will remain fully operational long after the EU funding cycle concludes.

Eligibility

Compliance with Horizon Europe's rigorous eligibility criteria requires a meticulous, multi-layered audit of all consortium members. Geographically, the consortium must be led by a coordinator established in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country, and must include at least three independent legal entities from three different EU Member States or Associated Countries. Crucially, to meet the core objectives of this specific call, the consortium must actively integrate partners from eligible LMICs, who are fully eligible for EU funding under the Horizon Europe program rules. Financially, participating organizations must undergo a Financial Capacity Assessment (FCA) to prove they possess stable and sufficient sources of funding to maintain their activity throughout the project period. Legally, all partners must have a validated Participant Identification Code (PIC) and possess a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) in place (applicable to public bodies, research organizations, and higher education institutions). Furthermore, proposals must strictly adhere to ethical principles, international data protection standards (such as GDPR compliance for data sharing), and demonstrate a clear strategy for intellectual property management that favors open science while protecting local innovations.

Path to Success

Navigating the highly competitive Horizon Europe application process requires a structured, strategic roadmap that integrates technical excellence with elite institutional capacity building. Step 1: Consortium Formation and Co-Design. Initiate early engagement with key LMIC stakeholders to co-design the intervention, ensuring local ownership and alignment with national health strategies. This step is critical to avoid the pitfall of 'top-down' proposal writing. Step 2: Capacity Gap Analysis and GSLI Training Integration. Conduct a rigorous baseline assessment of the consortium's operational and administrative capacities. To address identified gaps, integrate targeted GSLI short courses into the proposal's work packages. Specifically, enrolling key personnel in GSLI's 'Writing Winning Proposals' and 'Grants Management' courses ensures the proposal itself is crafted to elite standards, while 'Public Health & Epidemiology' and 'Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E)' courses are written directly into the project budget as capacity-building deliverables for LMIC partners. Step 3: Technical Architecture and Work Package Formulation. Structure the proposal into clear, logical work packages that address the call's priorities: One Health integration, digital data systems, laboratory strengthening, and policy advocacy. Step 4: Financial and Compliance Alignment. Utilize GSLI's 'Financial Management for NGOs' and 'Procurement & Supply Chain' frameworks to design a transparent, compliant, and risk-resilient budget that meets the European Commission's stringent auditing standards, thereby maximizing the evaluation score for 'Implementation Quality'.

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Deadline: 2026-09-15

Persona: General

Urgency: Normal