On February 17th, the European Commission officially launched a new European Partnership for Pandemic Preparedness: BE READY. After preparatory projects and coordination actions, this new Partnership marks the transition to a more stable and long-term initiative. This is a common approach by the Commission, which often finances projects with the goal of establishing lasting and sustainable initiatives.
BE READY European Partnership
Started on January 1st of 2026 for a period of ten years, BE READY Partnership is a long-term research and innovation initiative with a target budget of €240 million. It aims to establish a coordinated, enduring framework to reinforce Europe’s capacity to respond to health crises by improving coordination, accelerating knowledge generation, supporting the development of medical countermeasures, and establishing a research infrastructure ecosystem.
The partnership brings together 81 institutions from 27 countries including public funding agencies, Ministries of Research, Ministries of Health, public health institutes, Universities, clinical networks and research infrastructures active in pandemic preparedness.
The BE READY Partnership is built around three key pillars:
- Alignment of national research priorities among participating countries, strengthening coordination in pandemic preparedness through a shared Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), the guiding document for pandemic preparedness research priorities in Europe.
- Support for multinational research, including joint transnational calls that enable coordinated funding by national and European funders to advance research on emerging and re-emerging pathogens and accelerate the development of diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines.
- Integration of the research ecosystem, ensuring that key research infrastructures and networks remain operational both during inter-epidemic periods and in times of health crises.
In particular, SRIAs are central and key elements of this Partnership. Developed between 2022 and 2024 collaboratively with stakeholders across the field, they serve as roadmaps guiding future research within each partnership. The SRIAs will guide the scientific work of the European Partnership for Pandemic Preparedness, with priorities implemented through ambitious research projects funded by Joint Transnational Calls (JTCs) and collaborative activities to enhance Europe’s pandemic preparedness.
Background
The BE READY Partnership was created in response to the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed major gaps in Europe’s preparedness for emerging health crises, including fragmented research efforts, limited coordination between national funding programmes, and difficulties in rapidly activating research infrastructures during emergencies. To address these challenges, the European Commission and Member States decided to establish a coordinated European research ecosystem for pandemic preparedness.
The BE READY Partnership is the result of two Coordination and Support Actions funded by Horizon Europe: BE READY and BE READY PLUS. The first project, BE READY (2022–2025), brought together research funders, public health institutions and scientific organisations to map existing capacities and develop a common SRIA for pandemic preparedness. It was followed by BE READY PLUS (2025), which supported the transition from strategy to implementation by establishing the governance structure, operational mechanisms and coordination among national funding programmes.
With a total budget of €3 million, these actions laid the foundations for the launch of the BE READY European Partnership in 2026. The transition from the Coordination and Support Actions to the European Partnership marked the shift from strategic coordination to operational implementation. The partnership, indeed, provides a long-term structure to implement these priorities.
Other Examples of Projects Evolving into Permanent Initiatives
This pathway from preparatory coordination actions to a structured European Partnership is common within the R&I framework programme and has been followed in several areas, such as rare diseases and personalised medicine. These partnerships aim to strengthen research efforts, align resources, and promote synergies across EU Member States. Two prominent examples of this evolution are the European Partnership on Rare Diseases (ERDERA) and the European Partnership in Personalised Medicine (EP PerMed). Both are actively driving innovation and research advancements in the healthcare field.
Specifically building on the European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases (EJP RD), aims to significantly impact rare diseases by supporting patient-driven research to develop new treatments and diagnostic pathways, while leveraging health data, AI, and digital technologies. Meanwhile, EP PerMed focuses on improving health outcomes within sustainable healthcare systems by advancing the research, development, innovation and implementation of personalised medicine approaches, benefiting patients, citizens, and society.
The Second Joint Action Towards the European Health Data Space (TEHDAS2) is another case in point. Indeed, based on TEDHAS1 and other previous EU projects, it is a key step toward the implementation of the European Health Data Space, which will empower healthcare professionals, researchers, and policymakers by making health data more accessible and actionable across borders.
A comparable approach can also be observed in initiatives such as the Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI), which, although not a formal European Partnership, is supported by Horizon Europe-funded projects. These actions help build networks and support the implementation of circular economy practices across European cities and regions, fostering long-term collaboration and sustainable innovation.