Horizon Cancer Mission: Microbiome Early Detection
Funds a €15M project that turns microbiome signals into a test for spotting cancer risk years ahead of any symptoms.
Cancer often grows quietly for years before anyone notices anything is wrong, and by the time some cancers are caught, they're nearly impossible to treat. Catching it earlier — while there's still time to act — saves lives. This topic is a bet on the human microbiome as the early-warning signal: as cancer develops, a person's microbiome shifts in ways today's science can already detect, and is sta…
Developing and validating microbiome-based tools that flag a person's cancer risk before symptoms appear — the topic's benchmark is spotting it around two years ahead, where possible. Tools are built on large, multi-year sample collections plus existing cohort and registry data, combined with AI risk-modelling and body-system simulation, then validated in an independent cohort and benchmarked against other minimally invasive tests such as liquid biopsy on accuracy, simplicity, cost, and potential for commercial use. Proposals are expected to address more than one cancer type where possible, and to turn the science into practical guidance for managing risk factors such as diet and lifestyle.
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Guides for this application
All guides →Horizon Europe Grants for Startups: A Founder Guide
A practical guide to Horizon Europe grants for startups, including EIC, consortia, eligibility, Funding & Tenders, TRL, budgets, and EU strategy.
Where to applyGrants for Biotech Startups: NIH, NSF, SBIR/STTR, and Non-Dilutive Funding
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Write proposalHow to Write a Grant Proposal Reviewers Can Score
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