EFNA support the European Brain Council (EBC) statement “Counting down to zero: Towards a future with underfunded health research?” which calls on the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council to increase the budget of the “Horizon Europe” programme to at least €120 billion. What is more, the statement calls on European decision-makers to redistribute the budget in order to ensure that more funding is allocated to the “health” cluster under Pillar II.

The proposal for “Horizon Europe”, published in June 2018, includes an overall budget of €94.1 billion in inflation-adjusted prices. Within this budget, roughly €7.7 billion is proposed to fund the “Health” cluster that is part of the pillar “Global Challenges and Industrial Competitiveness”.

We welcome the increase of the overall draft budget but firmly believe that the proposed budget as it currently stands is insufficient to effectively address today’s societal challenges. The treatment of brain disorders alone is estimated to cost close to €800 billion annually[1], which makes adopting a robust 9^th Framework Programme with a strong focus on accelerating health research of paramount importance. What is more, the proposed budget for the “Health” cluster confirms a steady decrease of funding over time and across Framework Programmes, as health was previously allocated 12% under the 7th Framework Programme, 10% under Horizon 2020 and now 8% in the Horizon Europe proposal.

The full statement can be accessed here.

Separately, EBC President Prof. Monica Di Luca has called for the Brain to be recognised as a Mission, launching the EBC Brain Mission : Understand – Fix – Enhance’. The Mission refers to understanding the brain as the space race of the 21st century. The full Mission, which is supported by EFNA, can be read here.