In July 2018, EBC released a statement “Counting down to zero: Towards a future with underfunded health research?” which called on the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council to increase the budget of the “Horizon Europe” programme to at least €120 billion. EBC welcomed the increase of the overall draft budget but firmly believed the proposed budget to be 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 9th 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.
Read the full statement here.