Aim of the call

The aim of the call is to support research that:

• build our understanding of molecular and cellular mechanisms governing interactions between the cardiovascular system and the other organs/systems when at least one of the two presents a pathological state,
• build a comprehensive approach to understanding cardiovascular disease interactions, combining basic research, clinical translation, and digital innovation through international collaboration,
• enable transnational collaboration of multidisciplinary scientists from different countries to work together across borders, taking advantage of complementary expertise and leveraging diverse patient populations and sets of data.

The proposals should focus on expanding knowledge and understand:

• how CVD affect the performance of other organs/systems and/or their capacity to respond to treatments,
• how disorders other than CVD affect cardiovascular system performance including response to treatments,
• and/or how treatment for disorders other than CVD affect positively or negatively the performance of the cardiovascular system.

The proposals should include one of the following approaches:

• Mechanistic / experimental research,
• Identification and validation of biomarkers of organs/systems/disorders crosstalk mentioned above (including epigenetics biomarkers),
• Generation of digital models of disease(s) to study disease-disease or disease-drug.

Exclusion:

• Except for small-scale clinical studies up to phase 2, all other clinical studies are excluded in this call,
• Proposals which are not dealing with the cardiovascular system or CVD,
• Proposals that only study the cardiovascular system or CVD without studying the interaction with other organs, systems, diseases or the response to their treatment,
• Studies on how CVD treatments affect the performance of other system/organs,
• Development of therapeutics,
• Infectious diseases, even if studied with CVD.