Horizon Europe is the European Union (EU) funding programme for the period 2021 – 2027, which targets the sectors of research and innovation. The programme’s budget is around € 95.5 billion, of which € 5.4 billion is from NextGenerationEU to stimulate recovery and strengthen the EU’s resilience in the future, and € 4.5 billion is additional aid.
Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are of increasing importance in chemical regulations in the European Union. This approach would aim at, inter alia, minimising overall exposure of humans and the environment to endocrine disruptors, paying particular attention to exposures during important periods of development of an organism, such as foetal development and puberty, possibly integrating a life course approach, as well as accelerating the development of a thorough research basis for effective and forward-looking decision-making. This includes research for the further management of chemicals (including multi-constituent chemicals as well as chemical mixtures), the understanding of the mechanistic effects of endocrine disruptors and their dose-response relationships (including at the molecular and cellular level through the use of new approach methodologies, such as ‘multiomics’, cheminformatics, in vitro 2D and 3D models, in vivo models and computational approaches), and the collection, sharing, harmonisation and combination of robust data sources.
Bringing together, inter alia, (molecular) epidemiologists, exposure scientists, toxicologists, endocrinologists, health care practitioners and risk assessors, research actions under this topic should focus on the understanding of the impact of exposures at critical life stages as regards development of diseases later in life, focusing on the several health endpoints for which there is currently less information available. The nature of the dose-response relationships and whether effects are threshold-dependent should be addressed in the study designs. Similarities between endocrine systems and certain health outcomes across species should be exploited to improve understanding of functioning of the endocrine system. Finally, research should attempt at identifying predictive biomarkers (e.g. from liquid biopsies such as saliva, urine, blood) that would allow the tracing of endocrine disrupter-mediated health effects in a shorter period of time than normally would be required for epidemiological studies.
Research actions under this topic should provide forward-looking mechanistic information on potential hazards and health risks of exposures to EDCs, through innovative molecular epidemiological, multifactorial models and systems biology approaches, exploiting the use of state of the art non-animal methodologies when relevant, and should include several of the following activities:
100%
Contribution per project: between €6,00 and €7,00 million
Depending on the scope of proposals selected for funding, these activities may include:
In recognition of the opening of the US National Institutes of Health’s programmes to European researchers, any legal entity established in the United States of America is eligible to receive Union funding.
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as member of the consortium selected for funding.
Research and Innovation Foundation
29a Andrea Michalakopoulou, 1075 Nicosia
P.O.Box 23422, 1683 Nicosia
Telephone: +357 22205000
Email Address: support@research.org.cy
Website: https://www.research.org.cy/en/
Contact Persons:
George Christou
Scientific Officer
Email: gchristou@research.org.cy
Ioannis Theodorou
Scientific Officer
Telephone: +357 22 205 038
Contact Email: itheodorou@research.org.cy
(Publish Date: 09/02/2023-for internal use only)
European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/research-and-innovation_en#contact