Joint Statement on Horizon Europe

Health industries welcome unprecedented progress leading to an adoption of Horizon Europe, its areas for missions and partnerships.

The six undersigned European health industry associations representing small and large companies welcome the Council and the European Parliament agreement on the Horizon Europe legislation, including areas for partnerships and missions, which clearly demonstrates Europe’s commitment to research and innovation.

We welcome the overall structure and ambition of Horizon Europe. Europe has been at the forefront of life science research and a health mission is a palpable signal that it intends to keep on striving for excellence and impact. The challenges identified in the Horizon Europe “Health” cluster, with activities across the whole research and innovation spectrum, are centred on relevance and impact for patients and society.

The text agreed allows our sectors to remain ambitious about a healthier future for European citizens, based on medical innovation, timely access to quality health interventions, better health outcomes for patients, and cost-effective healthcare. It is imperative for Europe to offer an attractive environment for research intensive industries, with the potential to bring innovative solutions to care givers and patients and boost local economies and growth.

We support the mission on cancer as this reflects the significance of this disease area as well as the importance of health research and investment in Europe. This mission will require a diversity of approaches and activities, and we expect that an Institutional Partnership for health research and innovation will significantly contribute to the mission objectives and activities. Our industries are supportive of the concept of both instruments as a very concrete recognition of the importance of R&D to improve the quality of life of European citizens and patients and boost the translational research power in Europe.

Our associations joined forces to prepare for a novel Institutional cross-sectorial Partnership for health research and innovation, breaking down the silos between different industries to accelerate the development of people-centred health care innovations for unmet public health need. We believe that the Horizon Europe legislation lays down a solid ground for such a partnership and will allow us to work towards our ambition to deliver tools, data and platforms, technologies and processes for innovative products and services for the benefit of citizens and patients. This will help us focus on learning healthcare systems predicting real needs; optimising the health journey for patients and de-risking innovation by providing solutions enhancing predictability.

Delivering on this promise depends however on an adequate budget that aligns with the level of Europe’s research ambition. We therefore call on the Council and the European Parliament to secure an ambitious budget for Horizon Europe in the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 to ensure that Europe continues to invest as a priority in research and innovation, contributing to economic growth in Europe.

COCIR: European Coordination Committee of the Radiological, Electromedical and Healthcare IT industry, www.cocir.org
EBE: European Biopharmaceutical Enterprises, www.ebe-biopharma.eu
EFPIA: European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, www.efpia.eu
EuropaBio: European Associations for Bioindustries, www.europabio.org
MedTech Europe: European Association of medical technology industries comprising medical devices, diagnostics and digital health, www.medtecheurope.org
Vaccines Europe: www.vaccineseurope.eu

Download the file below to read the full Position Paper.