European Partnership for Brain Health (EPBH) 2026 Calls

The EPBH – European Partnership for Brain Health is a European Partnership funded by Horizon Europe, created by the initiative of the European Commission, member countries and national organizations. Its objective is to structure and strengthen research and innovation in brain health, adopting a holistic approach that includes biomedical, economic and social dimensions. The initiative focuses on promoting brain health and on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of neurological and mental diseases. The EPBH was created based on the legacy of several pan-European networks and initiatives of excellence, such as the Joint Programme on Neurodegenerative Diseases (JPND), the ERA-NET NEURON or the Human Brain Project (HBP) which gave rise to the European research infrastructure EBRAINS.

EPBH 2026 Call 1 will address factors impacting brain health trajectories in the area of neurological, mental, and sensory disorders.

EPBH 2026 Call 2 will focus on factors impacting brain health trajectories in the area of neurodegenerative diseases.

Considering the distinct areas of each call, the respective applications should address at least two of the following three factors:

1) biological factors, such as genetics, epigenetics, omics, neuroplasticity, inflammation, synaptogenesis, circuits, vascular factors, sensory impairment, comorbidities;

2) lifestyle and social factors, such as exercise/activity, nutrition, sleep, smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, work (income, employment), socioeconomic history/status, race/ethnicity, gender, education, safety, social interactions (family/friends), access to healthcare, stress, trauma, migration;

3) environmental factors, such as pollution, urbanity, disasters, pandemics, wars/conflicts, climate change, nature.

Additionally, applications should investigate at least one of the following aspects:

1) mechanisms of action of the identified factor(s);

2) recognition and early diagnosis related to the identified factor(s);

3) prevention/treatments/interventions/technological development/care and support related to the identified factor(s).

The aspects below are also important in the context of these calls:

o applications should investigate the impact of the factors on brain health trajectories throughout life;

o outcomes that benefit the quality of life of patients and their care providers are of particular importance and should be explicitly defined and stated;

o applications focusing on disability, gender, ethical, cultural and socioeconomic aspects are encouraged;

o approaches such as multimodal data integration, use of accessible wearable technologies (e.g., mobile devices), artificial intelligence/digital twins and drug repositioning are particularly welcome.

The following are individual or co-promotion beneficiaries:

a) Non-entrepreneurial entities of the R&I system, namely:
i. Higher education institutions, their institutes and R&D units.
ii. State, Associated or International Laboratories with head office in Portugal.
iii. Non-profit private institutions whose main object is R&D activity, including Collaborative Laboratories (CoLab) and Technology
and Innovation Centres (TIC).
iv. Other non-profit public and private institutions developing or participating in scientific research activities.

b) Companies of any type and under any legal form.

The information contained in this section does not exempt you from consulting Article 3 of FCT’s Regulation No. 999/2016, in its current wording, i.e., as amended and republished by Regulation No. 5/2024 and corrected by Rectification Statement No. 366/2024/2, of 23 May 2024 (see FCT Regulation in Call Documents and the applicable national and European Union legislation).

The 2026 EPBH calls 1 and 2 include the submission of pre-proposals (1st phase) and full proposals (2nd phase). Only the pre-proposals submitted by the transnational consortia in the 1st phase may be invited to submit full proposals in the 2nd phase.

Each Proposing Institution (PI) that is part of a transnational consortium can only apply for funding from the Participating Funding Agencies (PFA) of its country or region. See the Calls Texts (under Calls Documents), for information on the eligibility rules of each PFA and on the transnational eligibility rules. For a proposal to be eligible, it must comply with the national and transnational eligibility rules.

To submit their application, each Portuguese PI wishing to apply for funding from FCT should:

Consult the Calls Documents area.
Consult FCT eligibility rules (see Calls Texts).
Submit, by the transnational consortium coordinator, the proposal form on the application submission platform (see Important links) until 13:00 GMT in mainland Portugal on 10/03/2026.
Send to FCT, within 10 working days after the deadline for submitting the application, a Statement of Commitment (SoC) completed and signed by the Portuguese Researcher in Charge (RC) identified by the PI and by a qualified representative of the PI. The SoC should be sent to the email address indicated in Contacts.

Please note:

Failure to send the SoC to FCT on the date referred to in paragraph 4, or the unjustified delivery of the SoC after that deadline, or the delivery of an incomplete SoC, without one of the two parts – RC and PI – that make it up or without the signatures of the Portuguese RC and/or a qualified representative of the Portuguese PI, will result in the application being declared ineligible.
If two or more Portuguese applicants from the same transnational consortium apply for funding from FCT, each must send a completed and signed SoC to FCT.
One SoC must be sent to FCT for each application submitted by the same RC and PI.
Portuguese partners of transnational consortia that do not apply for funding from FCT do not need to submit the SoC to FCT.
The PI stamp or white seal is only required on manually signed SoC.

The information on this page is only a summary of the calls, does not exempt the candidates from carefully reading all the calls documents available on this page and on the calls website (see Important links) and refers only to FCT’s participation in this call, unless expressly indicated.

Eligibility

The eligibility check of applications is carried out at both stages of the calls (pre-proposal submission stage and full proposal submission stage):

National/Regional Funding Agencies check national eligibility of applications, ensuring compliance with the formal requirements in the applicable national/regional regulations and other applicable documents (see FCT Regulation, Normas de execução financeira and national annexes in the Calls Documents area).
Transnational eligibility check of applications will be performed by the Calls Secretariat, according to the transnational eligibility criteria presented in the Calls Texts in the Calls Documents area.

Please note:

For a proposal to be declared eligible it must fulfil both the national and transnational criteria.

Evaluation

The calls include two evaluation phases:

Pre-proposal evaluation stage.
Full proposal evaluation stage.

Proposals will be evaluated according to the evaluation criteria described in the Calls Texts in the Calls Documents area.

The participating national/regional funding agencies, will decide, according to the stage each call is at, which 1) pre-proposals to invite to submit a full proposal and which 2) proposals to recommend for funding.

For the 2026 EPBH call 1:
• FCT financial commitment for the call: 250.000,00€
• Maximum requested funding for a consortium with Portuguese coordination: 150.000,00€
• Maximum requested funding for a consortium with Portuguese participation: 100.000,00€

For the 2026 EPBH call 2:
• FCT financial commitment for the call: 250.000,00€
• Maximum requested funding for a consortium with Portuguese coordination: 150.000,00€
• Maximum requested funding for a consortium with Portuguese participation: 100.000,00€

Please note:

Portuguese institutions funding must follow FCT’s Regulation No. 999/2016, in its current wording, i.e., as amended and republished by Regulation No. 5/2024 and corrected by Rectification Statement No. 366/2024/2, of 23 May 2024 (see FCT Regulation and Normas de execução financeira in Calls Documents and the applicable national and European legislation).
If more than one Portuguese applicant from the same transnational consortium applies for funding from FCT, the combined budget requested from FCT by the Portuguese applicants may not exceed the maximum funding limit for a consortium with Portuguese coordination (150.000,00€) or with Portuguese participation (100.000,00€). The Portuguese applicants of the same transnational consortium will have to share the funding that will be granted by FCT.
The dedication (FTE) in transnational projects is not considered for the 100% (FTE) dedication to national projects.
Under the terms of number 2 of Article 7 of the Regulation on projects funded solely by national funds, payments made directly or indirectly to companies through the Proposing Institution cannot exceed 50% of the total cost of the company’s participation.