From AMR and AI to big data and regulatory innovation, IHI projects are tackling Europe’s priority health challenges

The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI), the world’s biggest public-private partnership in the life sciences, is a unique European partnership. Building on the success of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) which was launched in 2008 by the EU and the European pharmaceutical industry, IHI is bigger and broader. Its number one goal: to translate health research and innovation into real benefits for patients and societies. 

With each call for proposal, IHI can harness the collective capacity of health researchers in Europe’s public and private sectors to focus on the biggest challenges we face. Together, universities, companies, patients and other key stakeholders are accelerating advances in areas of overlapping interest. In the process, the projects are supporting Europe’s global competitiveness.

IHI Call 8 projects launched 

Four projects are now under way following IHI Call 8. They will focus on cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis, regulatory sandboxes, and patient-centred endpoints.  

For almost two decades, IMI and IHI have consistently supported cardiovascular health innovation. The latest contribution to this effort, Cities@Heart, looks at the potential role of Europe’s cities in combatting the leading cause of mortality worldwide. Launched two weeks after the publication of the EU Safe Hearts Plan, this timely project aims to identify and create models, interventions and best practices.

With around three quarters of the EU population living in urban areas, developing and piloting innovative approaches to the prevention, detection, diagnosis and treatment of CVD in cities is vital. Cities@Heart will work across seven cities: Belfast (Northern Ireland), Birmingham (England), Cork (Ireland), Izmir (Turkey), Łódź (Poland), Udine (Italy), and Utrecht (the Netherlands). It has a budget of over €28.5 million: €15.2m in EU funding and an industry contribution of €13.4m.

Novel therapies and new technologies sometimes require innovative approaches to regulation. BRIDGE, launched in November 2025, will develop recommendations for designing and implementing ‘regulatory sandboxes’ – flexible spaces where innovators and regulators can explore the best way to regulate new technologies. While this sandbox approach is already used in other sectors, it is still in its infancy in health. However, innovative ways to assess novel technologies are needed, especially as advances in AI, digital health, combination and biological therapies move at pace.

The first task for BRIDGE will be to review existing sandbox mechanisms, before building and testing a new model: the Modular Operational Sandbox for Healthcare Innovation and Compliance – or MOSAIC. BRIDGE is supported by EU funding of €5.2 million and industry contributors of €4.3 million. 

Patient-centred endpoints

Two of the IHI Call 8 projects include a focus on advancing patient care by devising more relevant clinical endpoints. UNIFIED seeks to put the patient voice at the centre of clinical decision-making through the integration of different ways of collecting patient input.

By devising a unified framework, the project will support the adoption of patient-centred measures at all stages of the medical product lifestyle – from clinical development, regulatory review, health technology assessment (HTA), reimbursement, and clinical practice. UNIFIED will benefit from €12.6m in EU funding, along with €9.7m in industry contributions and a further €3.9m from contributing partners.

Patient-relevant endpoints will also feature in PROBE, which is using big data to advance the care of people living with knee osteoarthritis. The project will harmonise multiple datasets from across Europe, using AI/machine learning approaches to identify subgroups of patients who could benefit from specific treatments. In the process, researchers will identify clinical trial strategies and endpoints to guide shared decision-making by patients and healthcare providers to select the intervention best suited to various stages and symptoms. PROBE will receive €14 million in EU funding, €13.2 million from industry, and an additional €4.3 million from contributing partners.

Advancing the IHI Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda

Each IHI Call has its own specific characteristics. For Call 9, the focus is aligned with the objectives of the IHI Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, and offers applicants an opportunity to develop proposals for relevant projects. Thirteen proposals were selected for funding, covering a wide range of topics including Alzheimer’s disease, digital homecare, irregular heartbeats and neurosurgery. Of these, nine projects have already kicked off, while the remaining will start soon.

IHI projects can explore pre-clinical work using fast-moving technologies that could unlock new areas of clinical research. These include using AI to foster the development of new medicines which is what the LIGAND-AI project is doing.

Research partners aim to speed up the search for promising compounds by harnessing computer models to predict whether certain molecules are likely to bind to proteins and change how that protein behaves. The LIGAND-AI team will screen over 2,000 proteins against billions of molecules – and build an open, standardised dataset. To deliver on this ambition, the project has €29.9 million in EU funding, €30.2 million from industry, and €2.5 million from contributing partners.

AI also features in GUIDE-AI, a project that helps doctors follow the best-available expert guidelines for people with chronic diseases. The project is building ‘guideline navigators’ powered by large language models (LLMs) that allow clinicians to quickly identify the right treatment for each patient. The tool will also explain the treatment choice in clear language so patients understand their care.

The project, which receives €4.9 million in EU funding and an industry contribution of €4.2 million, will focus on heart failure with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (HFrEF); chronic kidney disease (CKD); chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); and asthma. However, the approach could subsequently be applied to other disease areas.

Win-win outcomes

Raising standards of care by embracing clinical guidelines is good for patients and can make health systems more efficient. That is just one of many win-win solutions delivered through IHI collaborations.

Another example is END2AMR – a project that tackles one of the most urgent global health threats: antimicrobial resistance. Backed by around €15 million each from the EU and industry, the project seeks to reinvigorate the development of new treatments for drug-resistant infections.

END2AMR will concentrate on hard-to-treat infections including tuberculosis, invasive and diarrhoeal bacterial diseases, and wound infections. By developing new therapeutic approaches and strengthening Europe’s research capabilities, the project seeks to ensure patients have effective treatment options when existing antibiotics no longer work.

2030 vision

These and other projects are in their early stages, with most due to finish in 2030. Taken together, they represent a striking example of how Europe is mobilising public and private resources to deliver progress on the biggest health challenges we face.