EHTEL has been alerted to the availability of the Transforming Health and Care Systems (THCS) Partnership’s First Call. The association is pleased to give you the heads-up on some vital dates for your diary (deadlines) and suggestions for “What’s in the Call for EHTEL members”.
For people interested to find out more, read a 5-page overview of the Call that has been written for EHTEL members only. In it, you are offered pointers to the 96-page formal content of the Call and several other THCS Partnership web-pages.
Dates for your diary
Get ready for 23 May 2023 at 14 00 CET, which is when it is obligatory for the basis of your consortium to submit its ‘intent to apply’ to the relevant country/region.
The submission deadline to the actual Call is 13 June 2023 at 14 00 CET.
Note especially the deadline of 14.00 CET on the two relevant dates (i.e., it is NOT 17.00 CET!).
Figure 1: Timelines of Transforming Health and Care Systems Partnership First Call
What’s in the THCS First Call for EHTEL members?
Working transnationally: This First Joint National Call (officially JNC; however, EHTEL calls it here the “First Call”) offers the opportunity to work on targeted areas related to health and care systems’ resilience in relatively small consortia that are, nevertheless, transnational.
Getting in ‘at the start’: Applying to the First Call would permit EHTEL members to get involved in the Partnership from almost the start of its operation (i.e., successful initiatives would start either at the end of 2023 or in the first quarter of 2024, around one year after the Partnership itself was launched).
General benefits, including flexibility: This First Call is described as an “open call”. The scope of this First Call offers applicants “a lot of free space” [EHTEL’s own words] for the content/design of the work to be performed. This flexibility is certainly more than in Calls operated e.g., by Horizon Europe and the Digital Europe Programme. The two pages of scoping offer flexible potential content. (For some more detail, see also Section 1 of EHTEL’s 5-page overview.)
Specific opportunities: At least two of the ten potential specific topics mentioned for this First Call have a digital or an information technology orientation. (See Section 1 of EHTEL’s 5-page overview.)
Financing: Calculating financing for any submission will require “intensive engineering” [EHTEL’s own words].
European Commission funding: The Call text identifies that 30% of funding comes from the European Commission. A FAQ gives slightly more detail. No further clarification on how this aspect of the funding functions is currently offered.
Administration: Applicants may have to apply in parallel to the specific country/region to which they wish to submit (this occurs at a variety of timings either before or sometimes after official submission). Again – like the financing – rules differ from Member State/country to Member State/country, and from region to region.
Figure 2: Participating countries in the First Joint National Call (JNC) (‘First Call’)
5-page overview: As previously stated, in a 5-page overview, EHTEL has identified for its members:
- Details with regard to the First Call of the Partnership and specific warnings.
- More general administrative details.
- Basic background on the Partnership.
- General information on the Partnership’s vision, objectives, outcomes, approaches, and building blocks.
To get access to this overview, you need to be an EHTEL member. Hence, consider joining us!