Deadline: December 04, 2025
The European Union has launched the EU4H-2025-HERA-PJ-1-b call to enhance crisis preparedness through the development of innovative medical countermeasures focused on reusable respiratory personal protective equipment and protection suits.
This action will focus on supporting advanced research on threat-agnostic medical countermeasures against CBRN agents and platform approaches to treat injuries from CBRN agents. The objective is to improve the Union’s readiness to respond to intentional health threats, including cross-border ones, by supporting the development of medical countermeasures to biological, chemical, and radio-nuclear agents for which there currently are no or only limited treatment options.
The focus of sub-topic b) is on reusable respiratory personal protective equipment (PPE) and protection suits. The range of activities includes an end-to-end approach to bridge the gap between advanced research, innovation, market access, and deployment. This involves supporting advanced research and development (‘R&D’) to support the development of medical countermeasures, involving end users and security practitioners to bring the research products closer to market readiness, and supporting research into market readiness or facilitating tech and entrepreneurial skills development.
This will be done in synergy with relevant Horizon Europe and European Defence Fund actions. Specific action-level indicators for reporting purposes include the number of threats against which the proposed solution(s) was(were) validated, the number of threats against which the proposed solution(s) was(were) regulatory approved, and the number of patent applications filed (if applicable).
This action is expected to increase the preparedness of the Union to respond to CBRN threats and improve the availability of medical countermeasures against these threats. It should advance one or more medical countermeasures against CBRN threats along the steps towards regulatory approval and market readiness. In particular, for Personal Protective Equipment (‘PPE’), the focus is on reusable respiratory PPE and protection suits.
The call has a total budget of EUR 1,000,000 allocated specifically to this sub-topic, with one grant agreement expected to be signed. Project duration should be a maximum of 24 months, though longer durations up to 48 months may be accepted if duly justified.
Eligible applicants include secondary or higher education establishments, research organisations, hospitals, expert networks including ERNs, security practitioners, end users, other private entities or public bodies, and public authorities. Proposals that meet eligibility and exceed evaluation thresholds will receive a STEP Seal, helping increase visibility and attract additional investment.
The deadline for submission is 4 December 2025 at 17:00 CET, with evaluation results expected in March–April 2026 and grant agreements planned for signature in August 2026.
For more information, visit EC.
