EP THCS: announcement of the 4th joint transnational call! -ČR AZV

The Transforming Health and Care Systems Partnership (THCS), a partnership that aims to respond effectively to the growing burden on Europe's health care systems and to meet their shared commitment to deliver high quality health and care services, will launch a joint transnational call entitled "Inequalities in access to and utilisation of health and care services" on 21 November 2025 .

The THCS EP also invites researchers to a webinar on 10 December 2025 at 14:00. The webinar will introduce the call as well as the partner search tool. Registration for the webinar will be published on the call website.

The aim of the call is to:

Support research and innovation projects that contribute to reducing inequalities in health and social care and its use, within an ecosystem approach.
Support projects that focus on improving access to health and social care at all levels. Projects should focus on the development of innovative financing models, new approaches to the organisation and delivery of care or the introduction of interdisciplinary and integrated care programmes that link different professionals, institutions and levels of the system.

The call aims to support research and innovation projects that contribute to these THCS objectives:

Health outcomes: improved health status of the population, such as reduced morbidity and mortality, better management of chronic diseases and improved mental health.
System efficiency and effectiveness: Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of health care, including reducing health care costs, reducing hospital readmissions, and streamlining patient care.
Accessibility and equity: ensuring equal and fair access to quality healthcare regardless of socio-economic status, origin or geographical location.
Impact on policy and practice: Influencing policy decisions and creating or modifying regulatory frameworks and clinical practices to achieve improvements in health and care systems based on validated data and evidence (e.g., through updating professional guidelines or reforming procurement models).
Empowering patients: empowering patients and health organisations, promoting their active and independent participation in co-designing health care.
Knowledge creation and dissemination: generation of new knowledge, best practices and innovative solutions and their effective dissemination to the professional and lay public.
Ecosystem approach: promoting multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary collaboration that brings together experts from different disciplines and sectors to address complex health and care challenges.
Sustainability and environmental impact: Taking into account the long-term sustainability of proposed solutions and their environmental impact, promoting greener approaches and adaptation of the health sector to climate change.

Projects should address the fact that best practices often remain limited to the original setting and are not scaled up. Each proposal must describe how the results will be transferred and scaled up to different settings and how they will be adapted to local conditions and needs.

This includes:

a clear transfer strategy,
tools or methodologies to replicate successful solutions,
Involvement of decision-makers, partners and users.

Projects that are limited to epidemiological or descriptive studies (e.g. prevalence mapping or risk factor analysis) without proposing concrete, feasible solutions or models for implementation in health care systems will not be accepted. Similarly, projects relating exclusively to social services without a link to the health sector are excluded from the call.

The Ministry of Health / Agency for Health Research ČR will participate in this call!

Currently, national rules and conditions for Czech applicants are being prepared, which will be based on the Programme for the Support of Applied Health Research for 2024-2030: Subprogramme 3: European Partnerships in Health, and will be published on the website of AZV HealthAZV ofČR CzechČR AZV azvcr.cz) by the date of the call announcement.

The MoH will support ČR applicants through the national budget allocation. The total amount for the call will be EUR 500 000.

Only transnational projects will be funded. The call will be a two-round call.

Provisional timetable of the call:

21.11.2025: launch of the call
10/12/2025: Information day for potential applicants
12/12/2025: Informative webinar for Czech applicants directed by AZV ČR
2 February 2026 (14:00 CET): Deadline for submission of pre-proposals
End of April 2026: Communication of the results of the pre-proposals and the call for full proposals
22 June 2026 (14:00 CEST): Deadline for submission of full proposals
End of August 2026: Rebuttal stage
End of October 2026: Announcement of funding decision
End 2026/beginning 2027: Expected start of projects (subject to national/regional conditions)

More information on the objectives of the call, the themes, the countries that have expressed interest in participating in the call; the national contact points as well as other specific conditions is available on the official website of the EP THCS and in the background document to the call, which can be downloaded here.