European UnionDeadline PassedNon-profit, Private Business, Research Institution, Public Institution, Other
Understanding the effects of environmental exposure on the risk of paediatric, adolescent and young adult cancers
HORIZON-MISS-2025-02-CANCER-02
Funding Amount
€6.0M - €7.0M
Deadline
16/09/2025
Eligible Organization Types
Non-profit, Private Business, Research Institution, Public Institution, Other
Trusted by
What is the Understanding the effects of environmental exposure on the risk of paediatric, adolescent and young adult cancers Call?
Grant Description
This call supports research to improve understanding of how environmental, genetic, epigenetic, omics and other factors interact to determine cancer onset and progression in children, adolescents and young adults. Projects should design large-scale epidemiological and multi-omic studies, identify biomarkers and windows of susceptibility, develop data-intensive tools and models using artificial intelligence and computational methods, and ensure open science and interoperability of data and tools ...
Required Results for Successful Funding
Expected Outcomes
• Researchers and health professionals will gain deeper mechanistic insights into how environmental exposures, in concert with genetic, epigenetic, omics and contextual factors, drive cancer onset and progression in children, adolescents and young adults.
• Policymakers and public health authorities will be equipped with robust scientific evidence to design and implement targeted prevention strategies that minimize the impact of environmental hazards on paediatric, adolescent and young adult cancer incidence and outcomes.
• A suite of interoperable digital tools, computational models and richly annotated datasets will be delivered to the UNCAN.eu research data platform, fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration and accelerating future research and innovation in the Cancer Mission.
• Policymakers and public health authorities will be equipped with robust scientific evidence to design and implement targeted prevention strategies that minimize the impact of environmental hazards on paediatric, adolescent and young adult cancer incidence and outcomes.
• A suite of interoperable digital tools, computational models and richly annotated datasets will be delivered to the UNCAN.eu research data platform, fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration and accelerating future research and innovation in the Cancer Mission.
Funded areas
Scope Requirements
• Focus population: children, adolescents and young adults (<40 years at first cancer diagnosis) across cancer types, including early-onset cases.
• Research must address the impact of environmental exposures (chemical, physical, biological) alone and in interaction with genetic, epigenetic, lifestyle, socio-economic and clinical factors on cancer onset, progression and patient outcomes.
• Use of state-of-the-art technological and methodological advances to collect, integrate and analyse large, heterogeneous datasets (exposome, multi-omics, digital pathology, behavioural, socio-economic, clinical records).
• Innovative, data-intensive approaches for identifying time windows of susceptibility and robust biomarkers of cumulative exposure.
• Proposals may build new large cohorts via pooling of retrospective studies and targeted new data collection; sex and gender differences must be explicitly considered.
• Application of causal inference, computational modelling and/or AI to manage and interpret complex data.
• All datasets produced must be described with metadata in the EU dataset catalogue (future European Health Data Space). Tools and digital outputs must adhere to open-science principles and be interoperable with the UNCAN.eu platform.
• Mandatory collaboration with HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-01 use-case projects and broader coordination within the Cancer Mission “Understanding” cluster.
• Budget must include resources for networking, cluster meetings and joint activities defined during grant preparation.
• Research must address the impact of environmental exposures (chemical, physical, biological) alone and in interaction with genetic, epigenetic, lifestyle, socio-economic and clinical factors on cancer onset, progression and patient outcomes.
• Use of state-of-the-art technological and methodological advances to collect, integrate and analyse large, heterogeneous datasets (exposome, multi-omics, digital pathology, behavioural, socio-economic, clinical records).
• Innovative, data-intensive approaches for identifying time windows of susceptibility and robust biomarkers of cumulative exposure.
• Proposals may build new large cohorts via pooling of retrospective studies and targeted new data collection; sex and gender differences must be explicitly considered.
• Application of causal inference, computational modelling and/or AI to manage and interpret complex data.
• All datasets produced must be described with metadata in the EU dataset catalogue (future European Health Data Space). Tools and digital outputs must adhere to open-science principles and be interoperable with the UNCAN.eu platform.
• Mandatory collaboration with HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-01 use-case projects and broader coordination within the Cancer Mission “Understanding” cluster.
• Budget must include resources for networking, cluster meetings and joint activities defined during grant preparation.
Additional Conditions for Applicants
Special Conditions
• Single-stage submission, deadline 16 September 2025, 17:00 Brussels time.
• Eligibility and admissibility per Horizon Europe General Annexes (country eligibility – Annex B, capacity and exclusion – Annex C, page limits – Annex A/E).
• Evaluation thresholds: minimum score of 4 for Excellence, 4 for Impact and 4 for Implementation; overall threshold 12/15.
• Joint Research Centre (JRC) participation is permitted; successful proposals should engage with the JRC post-award.
• Applicants including clinical studies must complete the dedicated clinical annex using the submission system template.
• All generated datasets must be catalogued in the EU dataset catalogue (Health Data Space), and all tools/models released under open-science principles via UNCAN.eu.
• Proposals must allocate budget lines for networking and joint activities within the Cancer Mission “Understanding” cluster; specifics will be defined during grant agreement preparation.
• Eligibility and admissibility per Horizon Europe General Annexes (country eligibility – Annex B, capacity and exclusion – Annex C, page limits – Annex A/E).
• Evaluation thresholds: minimum score of 4 for Excellence, 4 for Impact and 4 for Implementation; overall threshold 12/15.
• Joint Research Centre (JRC) participation is permitted; successful proposals should engage with the JRC post-award.
• Applicants including clinical studies must complete the dedicated clinical annex using the submission system template.
• All generated datasets must be catalogued in the EU dataset catalogue (Health Data Space), and all tools/models released under open-science principles via UNCAN.eu.
• Proposals must allocate budget lines for networking and joint activities within the Cancer Mission “Understanding” cluster; specifics will be defined during grant agreement preparation.
Important dates
Open from: 06/05/2025
Deadline:16/09/2025
Application period has ended
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