Pharmacogenomic Strategies for Personalised Medicine Approaches (PGxPM2025)
Call Announcement & Projects
The call documents of the EP PerMed JTC2025 were published on 16 December 2024. The call is closed, but if you are interested in the original documents, you can read them here. The 22 funded research consortia can be found in the EP PerMed Project Database.
JTC2025 Booklet
The European Partnership for Personalised Medicine (EP PerMed) Joint Transnational Call for Proposals 2025 (JTC2025) represents a further milestone in strengthening coordinated, cross-border research efforts in personalised medicine (PM). With a specific focus on Pharmacogenomic Strategies for Personalised Medicine Approaches, the call addresses the growing need to better understand how genetic variability influences drug response, efficacy, and safety. Bringing together 35 funding organisations from 24 countries and 10 regions, this European Union (EU) co-funded initiative supports collaborative, high-quality research aimed at advancing innovative and patient-centred personalised medicine solutions, with a particular emphasis on the identification and validation of targets relevant for pharmacogenomics-driven approaches.
The JTC2025 attracted strong interest from the research community, with 110 eligible pre-proposals submitted in response to the call. Following a rigorous and highly competitive evaluation process, 56 consortia were invited to submit full proposals, resulting in 55 eligible full proposals and the selection of 22 excellent projects for funding, with a total investment of 34.4 million Euros.
The funded projects span multiple disease areas and bring together 141 Research groups, supported by 29 funding organisations (with five groups participating on own funding), across 24 countries. This wide geographical coverage underscores the collaborative nature of the call, with participating partners from across Europe and beyond. In addition, 14 Patient Advocacy Organisations (PAOs) are supported through EP PerMed central funding and actively participate as partners within the funded consortia, reinforcing the commitment to patient-centred research.
JTC2025 Call Statistics: Key Insights
The projects funded under EP PerMed JTC2025 were classified according to the Health Research Classification System (HRCS) to analyse the main health categories addressed, as well as the primary research activities undertaken by the projects. More than half of the funded projects (13 out of 22) focus on cancer and neoplasms, while approximately 14 % (3 out of 22) address inflammatory and immune system diseases or disorders. The remaining five health categories are each covered by one or two projects (figure 1B). A more detailed overview of the specific cancer and neoplasm subcategories addressed by the funded projects is presented in figure 1A.
Regarding the research activities of the funded consortia, approximately 40 % of the projects (n = 9) focus on detection, screening and diagnosis, while around 36 % are engaged in Research related to the evaluation of treatments and therapeutic interventions (figure 2). The remaining five projects are distributed across three additional research activity categories: three Projects address the development of treatments and therapeutic interventions, one is in the area of aetiology and one on health and social care service research.
EP PerMed JTC2025 funded projects exemplify transnational collaboration, with coordinators coming from 9 different countries and consortia partners spanning 24 different countries (as can be seen in Figure 3).
Furthermore, the transnational aspect can also be seen in every funded consortium, since the majority of the consortia (21 out of 22) have 4 or more countries involved (when the minimum mandatory eligibility criteria is 3 countries). Furthermore, over 50 % of the consortia have 5 or more countries involved, as can be seen in figure 4.
The contribution of national and regional funding organisations is critical to the success of JTC2025. Figure 5 illustrates the number of partners supported by each funding organisation,highlighting the important role of regional funders in broadening participation, enhancing inclusivity, and enabling the involvement of research groups across different research and healthcare systems. In addition, the central funding provided by EP PerMed for patient advocacy organisations demonstrates the partnership’s strong commitment to patient engagement, ensuring that patient perspectives are meaningfully integrated into collaborative personalised medicine research from the very start.
When looking at the consortium composition (figure 6), it could be noted that the majority of the consortia (n = 20) include 5 – 8 partners (91 %). In addition, there is one consortium that includes 4 partners and one consortium that includes 9 partners. None of the funded projects includes only 3 partners, although this is allowed as minimum eligible size according to the call text.
Four of the funded consortia made use of the widening option and have added an additional new partner in the second stage, thus allowing inclusion of under represented countries and regions in the funded projects.
The overall distribution of consortium partners across sectors shows a strong representation of academia, which accounts for 51 % of all partners, followed by the clinical and public health research sector at 26 %, and the private for-profit sector at 6.4 % (figure 7). In addition, 18 patient advocacy organisations participate as partners in the funded consortia, of which 78 % receive support through EP PerMed central funding. Overall, 77 % of the funded projects include at least one patient advocacy organisations as a consortium partner. This reflects a notably high level of patient involvement compared with previous calls under ERA PerMed and EP PerMed, and is likely driven by the central funding mechanism established by EP PerMed to support the active participation of patient advocacy organisations.
The sex distribution within JTC2025 consortia is comparable across roles, with women accounting for 41 % of coordinators and 40 % of consortium partners, and men for 59 % and 60 %, respectively (figure 8).
Overall, JTC2025 reflects a portfolio of projects addressing key priorities in PM, with a particular emphasis on pharmacogenomic strategies. The funded projects primarily target cancer and neoplasms, alongside research on inflammatory and immune system diseases and a limited number of additional health categories. Research activities span the innovation pathway, with a strong focus on detection, screening and diagnosis, as well as the evaluation and development of therapeutic interventions relevant to personalised and pharmacogenomics-informed approaches.
The call demonstrates a high level of transnational collaboration, with coordinators and partners distributed across multiple countries and consortia typically involving five or more participating countries, exceeding the minimum eligibility requirements. The strong engagement of national and regional funding organisations enhances inclusivity and enables the participation of research groups across diverse research and healthcare systems. Notably, the JTC2025 shows a high level of patient involvement, with the majority of projects including patient advocacy organisations as consortium partners, largely supported through EP PerMed central funding, underscoring the partnership’s commitment to patient engagement in personalised medicine research. Together, these features position JTC2025 as a collaborative, inclusive and patient-centred call advancing pharmacogenomics-informed personalised medicine research across Europe and beyond.