Leveraging multimodal data to advance Generative Artificial Intelligence applicability in biomedical research (GenAI4EU)
Quick Facts
Ready to Apply?
Get a personalized assessment of your eligibility and application strategy
See in 5 min if you're eligible for Leveraging multimodal data to advance Generative Artificial Intelligence applicability in biomedical research (GenAI4EU) offering max €80.0M funding💰 Funding Details
GenAI4EU – Funding Overview
Purpose of the Call
The call HORIZON-HLTH-2025-01-TOOL-03 finances research and innovation actions that design, validate and openly disseminate trustworthy Generative AI solutions able to exploit large-scale multimodal biomedical data for predictive and personalised medicine.
Key Funding Parameters
- Type of Action: Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action (HORIZON-RIA)
- Maximum EU contribution per project: up to €80 000 000 (100 % of eligible direct costs + 25 % flat-rate indirect costs)
- Project length: typically 48–60 months
- Submission model: single stage – deadline 16 September 2025 (17:00 Brussels time)
- Minimum consortium requirement: at least three independent legal entities from three different EU Member States or Associated Countries, each established in a different country and at least one of them established in an EU Member State
What the Grant Funds
1. Development or re-purposing of Generative AI models using complex, multimodal biomedical data (e.g. images, omics, EHR, unstructured text)
2. High-performance computing resources, data engineering, federated learning, synthetic data generation
3. Proof-of-concept validation in at least two distinct medical fields relevant to predictive and personalised medicine
4. Methodologies and tools for continual evaluation: performance, explainability, robustness, bias mitigation, alignment with ethical principles, ELSI analysis, GDPR compliance
5. User-centred activities: co-design with researchers/clinicians, usability testing, training materials, capacity-building programmes
6. Dissemination, exploitation, open-source release, FAIR data stewardship, Intellectual Property management
7. Networking and joint activities with other EU-funded projects (budget line expected)
8. Project management, governance, ethics, SSH integration and gender action plans
Costs **not** in scope
- Creation or large-scale expansion of health data or AI infrastructures/platforms
- Commercial clinical implementation activities beyond PoC/research
Eligibility Snapshot
- Who may coordinate/participate: universities, research institutes, hospitals, SMEs and industry (incl. AI start-ups), HPC centres, patient organisations, social sciences & humanities (SSH) entities, EU agencies (e.g. JRC)
- Geography: EU-27 & Horizon-Europe-Associated Countries; US entities are exceptionally eligible for funding; entities deemed high-risk 5G suppliers are excluded when relevant
- Special participation expectations:
• Inclusion of EU AI developers/start-ups
• Meaningful SSH involvement
• Engagement of potential end-users (researchers/clinicians)
• Open-science mindset and, where feasible, open-source licensing
Compliance & Policy Anchors
- GDPR and EU AI Act preparedness
- FAIR data principles and EOSC recommendations
- Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI & ERA Forum guidelines on Generative AI
- Synergies with EHDS, GDI, Cancer Image Europe, EOSC, AI Factories, Partnerships (e.g. Rare Diseases, Cancer Mission)
Evaluation Mechanics
Criterion | Weight | Threshold
--- | --- | ---
Excellence | 1/3 | 4/5
Impact | 1/3 | 4/5
Quality & Efficiency of Implementation | 1/3 | 4/5
Cumulative minimum: 12/15
High-level Timeline
- Call opens: 22 May 2025
- Deadline: 16 Sep 2025
- Evaluation results: Dec 2025
- Grant agreement signature: Apr–Jun 2026
- Project start: Q3 2026
📊 At a Glance
🇪🇺 Strategic Advantages
EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities for GenAI4EU
1. Strategic Policy Alignment
- AI Act & European Health Data Space (EHDS): Conducting R&I under a common, predictable regulatory framework reduces legal uncertainty for consortia and accelerates path-to-market across 30+ countries (EU-27 + Associated).
- STEP, Biotechnology & AI Strategies: Projects can leverage top-up funding, visibility and political backing reserved for "critical technologies", increasing chances of downstream investments (EIC, InvestEU, IPCEI-Health).
2. Access to Unparalleled, Multimodal Data Assets
- Scale & Diversity: Pooling datasets from multiple Member States delivers the statistical power and demographic heterogeneity needed to mitigate algorithmic bias, satisfy sex/gender analysis requirements and validate pan-European generalisability.
- Established Infrastructures: Immediate plug-ins to EHDS, European Genomic Data Infrastructure, Cancer Image Europe, EBRAINS and >20 ERICs avoid costly data-curation duplication and accelerate proof-of-concept delivery.
- Cross-border Data Altruism Schemes: The Data Governance Act enables legally solid sharing of clinical datasets that would be impossible under purely national projects.
3. Federated High-Performance Computing & AI Factories
- EuroHPC JU & DIH network: Researchers obtain preferential, subsidised access to petascale machines (LUMI, LEONARDO, MareNostrum 5) and to 150+ Digital Innovation Hubs/AI Factories for model training and benchmarking.
- Energy & Cost Efficiency: Shared HPC infrastructure lowers ecosystem-wide carbon footprint and CAPEX vs. isolated national clusters, supporting Green Deal targets.
4. Critical Mass of Multidisciplinary Talent
- Pan-European Skills Pool: Joint appointments across academia, hospitals, SMEs and large industry ease recruitment of scarce profiles (e.g., med-AI ethicists, clinical data stewards). Mobility budgets (Marie Skłodowska-Curie, ERA fellowships) add flexibility.
- SSH Integration at Scale: The breadth of EU social-science expertise enables robust ELSI frameworks that mirror Europe’s cultural diversity—an unmatched asset for global AI trustworthiness standards.
5. Standardisation & Pre-Normative Influence
- Direct JRC Collaboration: Grants can feed real-world evidence into upcoming European Standards (CEN/CENELEC, ISO) and influence secondary legislation under the AI Act—impossible for stand-alone national initiatives.
- Open Science Leadership: Mandatory FAIR, EOSC-compatible outputs increase citation, reuse and societal impact, reinforcing EU’s global reputation in transparent GenAI.
6. Market & Industrial Opportunities
- Single Market Deployment: Once validated, solutions can be commercialised or licensed simultaneously in 500 m+ citizen market without extra technical adaptation, shortening ROI timelines.
- SME & Start-up Leverage: EU funding de-risks early R&D, while programmes such as EIC Accelerator, Eurostars and VentureEU offer clear follow-on finance ladders.
- Public Procurement of Innovation: Cross-border PCP/PPI schemes (e.g., HERA, EU4Health) can act as first buyers, smoothing uptake into healthcare systems.
7. Synergies & Multiplier Effects
- Partnerships & Missions: Linking to Cancer Mission, Rare-Diseases Partnership and IHI projects multiplies visibility, eases access to disease-specific cohorts and supports sustainability beyond the grant.
- Inter-Cluster Bridges: Collaboration with Digital, Space & Industry clusters unlocks satellite data (Copernicus) and advanced photonics/quantum sensing for novel multimodal inputs.
8. Risk-Mitigation & Compliance Advantages
- GDPR Harmonisation: A pan-EU approach establishes common data-protection impact assessments and templates, reducing repetitive legal work and reviewer burden.
- Ethics & Bias Oversight: Shared oversight boards incorporating multiple national ethics committees provide stronger societal licence to operate, essential for sensitive biomedical AI.
9. Long-Term Sustainability
- EOSC & GAIA-X Integration: Hosting models and datasets within trusted EU cloud federations guarantees persistence after project end and aligns with digital sovereignty goals.
- Community Engagement: The mandatory networking budget fosters a living European GenAI4Health community, ensuring continuous validation, updates and spin-off projects.
10. Global Leadership & Diplomacy
- Standard-Setting Power: Successful EU-scale demonstrators become reference implementations for OECD, WHO and ISO guidance on trustworthy GenAI in health, bolstering Europe’s soft power.
- Counterbalance to US/China Giants: Consolidating assets across 30 countries creates the only democratic bloc capable of shaping global biomedical GenAI norms and markets.
Bottom Line: Operating at EU level multiplies data access, infrastructure, regulatory influence and market reach—creating a virtuous cycle that no single Member State can match. Consortia that internalise these advantages will score higher on Excellence, Impact and Implementation while positioning Europe at the forefront of trustworthy, multimodal GenAI for health.
🏷️ Keywords
Ready to Apply?
Get a personalized assessment of your eligibility and application strategy
See in 5 min if you're eligible for Leveraging multimodal data to advance Generative Artificial Intelligence applicability in biomedical research (GenAI4EU) offering max €80.0M funding