On Wednesday 3 July, our consortium held a workshop to refine the topic of the ERA4Health Pilot Call on Investigator-Initiated Clinical Studies (IICS).

This partnership provides an opportunity to increase funding for European trans-national collaborative research by creating a funding body for joint programming in priority areas that address European public health needs. Multinational IICS play a key role in addressing societal issues that often go unnoticed by industry players, highlighting their high societal value. However, despite their importance, these studies often face challenges due to the lack of optimal funding mechanisms.

To address this issue, the ERA4Health partnership has developed a framework and plans to launch its first call dedicated to IICS in November this year. The aim of this workshop was to refine the call topic and discuss specific issues with experts and funding agencies in order to encourage and enable transnational collaboration between clinical and public health research.