Training and innovation networks for sustained capacity development related to ethics, regulatory, pharmacovigilance, and related digital regulatory platforms (HORIZON-JU-GH-EDCTP3-2026-03-SERP-01)

This topic funds the unglamorous infrastructure that determines whether health research can happen at all: ethics committees, national regulatory authorities, pharmacovigilance systems and the digital platforms that run them. The target is regulatory agencies below WHO Maturity Level 3, mentored by ML3 and ML4 agencies, through training and twinning networks. For a country whose research ethics and regulatory capacity are a recognised bottleneck, this is more consequential than its low profile suggests.

Malawi's EDCTP Association membership makes UNIMA an eligible beneficiary, but the coordinator must be established in an EU Member State, a Horizon Europe associated country, or South Africa. UNIMA participates as a partner.

Strengthening ethics committee and regulatory agency capacity below WHO Maturity Level 3 with mentoring from ML3 and ML4 agencies; training and twinning networks for ethicists and regulators; digital platforms for pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reaction reporting; harmonised emergency authorisation processes; leadership and training-of-trainers programmes. Strengthening national regulatory authority inspection capacity for manufacturers remains in scope.

Explicitly out of scope, quoting the portal: capacity building related to manufacturing activities for pharmaceutical and vaccine products, including batch release, support for local manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients and technology transfer, diagnostic production, financing, and strategic and policy support mechanisms for manufacturing.

Submit through the EU Funding and Tenders Portal on the same call page as the companion topic. EU Login and an institutional Participant Identification Code are required.

Timeline: Call opened 14 January 2026 | Single-stage deadline 2 September 2026, 17:00 Brussels time