EIC Pathfinder

EIC Pathfinder Challenge: Biotechnology for Healthy Ageing

Supports translating decades of ageing biology into biotech or pharma proofs-of-concept that prevent, delay or revert age-related disease.

Eligibility · EU member states + Horizon-associated

The share of EU citizens aged 85+ will more than double by 2050, but healthy life expectancy currently stands at only 70.5 years. Decades of basic research have identified hallmarks and cellular mechanisms of ageing, but translating these insights into clinical interventions has had low success rates due to difficulties translating from model systems, identifying when to intervene, rigorous validation, and end-to-end implementation.

Applicants pick ONE of three project shapes:

1. Preventative or therapeutic intervention (biotech or pharma) that prevents, delays or reverts a specific age-related disease — must target a fundamental ageing mechanism, assess generalisability, demonstrate proof-of-concept in a physiologically aged vertebrate animal model, and plan for exploitation including regulatory.

2. Biomarker-based tool to enable responsible deployment of ageing interventions — must integrate multiple molecular/physiologic measurements, be assessed in a retrospective study with access to longevity cohorts. Biomarker discovery itself is EXCLUDED.

3. NAM (New Approach Methodology) that captures aged status systemically across multiple cellular aspects and tissue types, benchmarked against an animal model and tested in a specific use case.

All proposals must consider biological sex and gender-specific health determinants.