EP PerMed: Towards a European Partnership for Personalised Medicine

The proposal for a European Partnership for Personalised Medicine (EP PerMed) was positively evaluated by the European Commission. Grant Agreement negotiations are ongoing. The project start is expected for the end of 2023.

For questions around EP PerMed, please contact the EP PerMed Coordination: eppermed@dlr.de 

Recordings of the EP PerMed Launch

The Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union organised a high-level European conference on 4 and 5 October to reflect on the impact of personalised medicine in the development of healthcare to improve people's lives and to announce the forthcoming launch of EP PerMed.

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About EP PerMed

The vision of the European Partnership for Personalised Medicine (EP PerMed) is to improve health outcomes within sustainable healthcare systems through research, development, innovation and implementation of personalised medicine approaches for the benefit of patients, citizens, and society.

A major activity towards this goal will be the active support of PM-related research and innovation projects. In this context, EP PerMed will fund Joint Transnational Calls for Research Proposals, similar to the activities of ERA PerMed. In addition, EP PerMed will:

  • Act as global PM-platform for scientific and strategic dialogue and alignment.
  • Facilitate and accelerate all steps of implementation through the full value continuum, so that PM achievements can be successfully implemented.
  • Foster demonstration projects and promote successes and lessons learned to demonstrate evidence of PM implementation.

The Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for Personalised Medicine (SRIA for PM, 2023), developed by EP PerMed partners, is the basis for the partnership's structure and a wide range of its activities. 

All steps of the SRIA development and the proposal preparation were strongly supported by numerous PM-experts, stakeholders and the European Commission (EC). The partnership builds on several developments, initiatives and projects such as ERA PerMed, ICPerMed and its supporting projects (“ICPerMed Family”) funded by the EC. The EP PerMed consortium will bring together most of the partners from these initiatives and expand its scope with additional partners from Europe and beyond.

An overview of the PM “value continuum” or ”system of health”, integrating research, innovation and implementation aspects from the SRIA for PM. Results from one sector should feed into the next step, but also give feedback to previous steps in the value chain, forming a cycle of knowledge and insights that flows in both directions. EP PerMed’s activities aim to support all aspects, key players and elements in this circle. 

Steps towards EP PerMed

The following activities and documents were the basis for the EP PerMed proposal:

Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) in support of EP PerMed

The SRIA aims to ensure that the long-term vision of EP PerMed is translated into tailored roadmaps with funding and supporting activities, objectives and measurable outcomes. Therewith, the SRIA complements the EP PerMed Proposal submitted to the European Commission.

Draft Proposal: European Partnership for Personalised Medicine

With support and guidance from the European Commission, a drafting group established by the Member States developed a draft proposal for the Partnership that was published by the European Commission in February 2022. It provided an important basis for the later development of the SRIA and the actual EP PerMed proposal. 

Virtual information event

On May 31, 2021, ICPerMed and ERA PerMed jointly organised a virtual information event for all interested stakeholders, in particular national and regional authorities like research and health ministries or additional funders. 

Guidance Document / Information Sheets

Im May 2021, ICPerMed and ERA PerMed published a jointly developed guide for the next steps towards EP PerMed.

The Guideline Paper was intended to provide support for representatives of national and regional authorities, ministries, funders and policy makers and the Personalised Medicine stakeholder community.

In addition, topic-specific Information Sheets are available for areas of action listed in the guideline paper.

EP PerMed InfoSheet 1 – Summary of Draft Concept Paper
EP PerMed InfoSheet 2 – Stakeholder Community
EP PerMed InfoSheet 3 – National Hubs for Personalised Medicine
EP PerMed InfoSheet 4 – Regional Opportunities
EP PerMed InfoSheet 5 – Joint Funding Activities
EP PerMed InfoSheet 6 – Industry Involvement
EP PerMed InfoSheet 7 – International Perspective

Draft Concept Paper

In February 2021, ICPerMed and ERA PerMed published a jointly developed draft concept paper for EP PerMed. With this paper, ICPerMed and ERA PerMed underlined the need for establishing a European Partnership for Personalised Medicine and proposed their vision for it, its objectives, its activities and its expected impacts. The paper also outlines the composition of the partnership consortium and its interaction with the Personalised Medicine ecosystem, at European and international level.

Background: European Partnerships

European Partnerships  are a “new generation” of partnerships that will in Horizon Europe replace previous forms of partnerships, e.g. ERA-Nets or JPIs. Their general aim is to bring the European Commission and private and/or public partners together to address some of Europe’s most pressing challenges through concerted research and innovation initiatives. They are a key implementation tool of Horizon Europe, and contribute significantly to achieving the EU’s political priorities.