Fast Track Validation Programme 2026

Submission

The Fast Track Programme offers support to start-ups and small teams and researchers at a pivotal stage of development, ensuring that promising PM innovations do not stall due to lack of validation resources and guidance. The Fast Track Programme equips innovators with the tools and knowledge necessary to bring their solutions closer to clinical use and benefiting patients. It provides a pathway for PM innovators to validate their solutions and the opportunity to obtain critical evidence and feedback within a condensed timeframe of six months. This expedited process aims to help innovators move their projects forward by at least one TRL and advance their readiness for market entry and commercialisation.

This funding is intended to cover validation services and eligible costs, with at least 70% of the budget allocated specifically to validation services.

The main steps in the programme:

• Apply: Applicants submit their proposals through the call application platform.
• Selection: EP PerMed, with the help of external evaluators, will evaluate applications and invite the top ten applications to the next stage.
• Project Plan: If selected, the applicant and their validation centre of choice will be invited to create a detailed project plan of their validation study. EP PerMed, with the help of external evaluators will evaluate the project plan and budget. If ethical approval is required for the validation study, the application for ethical approval should be submitted before contracting.
• Funding Decision: Five out of the ten applicants will be selected and move to the contracting phase based on the selection criteria in Section 11 of the Call Document, and they will have funding disbursed upon signature of all agreements.  
• Project Implementation: The six-month joint validation study is conducted in line with the project plan and budget.
• Final Report: The applicant, together with the validation centre, will submit a final report on the validation study at the end of the project to receive the final tranche of funding.

Up to five projects will receive funding of up to 80,000 EUR per project, which can be used to cover validation services and other eligible costs. At least 70% of the budget should be allocated to user validation services.

Eligibility Criteria

For an application to proceed to evaluation, it must meet all the below eligibility criteria for stage 1. Each application will be reviewed for this eligibility criteria by EP PerMed Partners.

Stage 1

• Applicants must submit their initial applications via the application platform before the deadline on 10 March 2026 at 16:00 CET.
• Stage One applications can be submitted by either an incorporated start-up or a team/researcher affiliated with an academic or healthcare research organization registered in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe associated country. A list of Horizon Europe Associated countries is available here.
• Private individuals are not eligible for this call.
• Applications must be written in English.
• Applicants must use and upload any templates requested and provided in the application platform or call document. Applications that upload the incorrect or a modified version of a template will be considered ineligible.
• Solution must be at least TRL 3.
• The proposed solution must align with the definition of Personalised Medicine (PM) as outlined in the call document.

Stage 2

• For stage 2 submission, preselected applicant must meet the eligibility criteria as follow:
• Stage Two applications (project plan and project budget) must be submitted by an incorporated start-up or a team affiliated with an academic or healthcare research organization and a validation centre that is legally registered in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe associated Country. A list of Horizon Europe Associated countries is available here.
• Applications can request a maximum of 80,000 EUR
• At least 70% of the budget allocated must be for validation services.
• Applicants must use and upload any templates requested and provided in the application platform or call document. Applications that upload the incorrect or a modified version of a template will be considered ineligible.
• Applicants and the validation centre must be legally and financially independent of each other.
• Validation projects must be no longer than six months long.

Evaluation Process and Criteria

The selection process for this Call will involve two proposal submissions:

1. Stage One – Initial Application: submitted directly by the applicant through the call application platform. This stage score will represent 70% of the total final score.
2. Stage Two – Project Plan and Budget: Stage One applications that are positively assessed will be invited to develop a project and budget plan jointly between the applicant and their selected Validation Centre and submit it through the same call application platform. This stage score will represent 30% of the total final score.

The evaluation criteria for each application stage is described below.

Stage One – Evaluation of initial Applications

All eligible applications will be reviewed remotely by an independent panel of three external experts. Each expert will score each application they review out of 100. An application’s final score is the average of the three scores by each evaluator who reviewed the application. The top 10 ranked applications in this stage will move to Stage Two – Project planning.

Applications at Stage One will be scored against the below criteria:

• Activity excellence and strategic fit
• Implementation and Feasibility
• Impact and sustainability

The final scores of Stage One will be calculated according to the following formula:

Final score Stage One = (Activity excellence and Strategic Fit score * Weight) + (Implementation & Feasibility score * Weight) + (Impact and Sustainability score * Weight).

Projects will be ranked by their final score at Stage One. The top ten highest scoring projects will be invited to the second stage of the evaluation process.  

For more information regarding the weights and description of each criteria please check the call text.

Stage Two – Evaluation of the Project Plan

Applicants invited to Stage Two will be required to develop a detailed project plan and project budget in close collaboration with the chosen validation centre. Validation plans and budgets must outline the scope, actions, timeline, and resources required for the validation activities. Applicants must submit project plans and budgets through the call application platform according to the timeline outlined in section four.

This programme uses lump sum funding. All budgets must be submitted using the Horizon Europe Lump Sum Budget template, which is available here. To understand more about Horizon Europe lump sum budgets and how to set up a lump sum budget, please click here to see the Horizon Europe lump sum budget web page.

Once project plans and budgets are submitted, these plans and budgets will be reviewed by an external expert against the criteria in the table below.

Each expert will score each project plan they review. An application’s score is the average of the three scores by each evaluator who reviewed the application.

The details scorecard for the stage 2 can be found in the call text.

Final Score

Applicants will be ranked by their final score. The final score accounts for both application stage scores and is calculated as follows:

Final score = Score of the first stage*70% + Score of the second stage*30%

The top five ranked applicants by their final score will be awarded funding and will be invited to the programme admission stage.

Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues (ELSI) Review

The ELSI review will aim to ensure that all elements in the application linked to critical ethical, legal and social considerations are well defined and addressed throughout the application, thereby helping to de-risk the EP PerMed portfolio. All applications that submit a Stage Two application will undergo an ELSI review. As part of the Stage Two application form, participants will be asked to complete an ELSI self-assessment questionnaire. The responses to this questionnaire are reviewed by external reviewers specialising in ELSI reviews. The review will result in a conclusion on the risks of any ethical, or social issues present in the application and recommendations to address any identified risks will be made.

Programme Admission

The final decision on funding will be communicated to applicants according to the timetable in section four above. Once all evaluation stages are completed, successful projects will be invited to sign a Financial Support Agreement.

For funding to be released and the programme to begin, applicants must have achieved the following:

• Both start-up and validation centres must sign the Financial Support Agreement (between EIT Health as funder, the validation centre, and the PM solution owner/applicant).
• Have submitted a validation plan and budget that has been successfully reviewed.
• Where ethical approval is required for project implementation, the ethical approval required documentation must be submitted to the respective Ethical Board(s) before agreements can be signed. A full copy of the application to the relevant Ethics Board, along with evidence of submission must also be provided.

Further information:

Online Webinar

Join the online webinar for interested applicants of Fast Track call on Tuesday 20^th January 2026 at 11am. Click here to register.

You can also visit of last Q&A session on the 3rd of March 2026 at 11am. Click here to register.

For more information please:

• Visit the EP Permed website at: https://www.eppermed.eu/
• or contact us at calls_eppermed@eithealth.eu

Information on the Fast Track Validation Programme 2025 and the funded projects is available here.