The European Rare Diseases Research Alliance (ERDERA), aims to improve the health and well-being of the 30 million people diagnosed with rare diseases by making Europe a world leader in rare diseases research and innovation. The aim of this partnership is to create a multi-stakeholder rare disease ecosystem that has the potential to pioneer the digital transformation change in rare disease research and innovation, based on health research data, by developing new diagnostic and therapeutic pathways.
ERDERA will structure the European Research Area on rare diseases by supporting the coordination and alignment of national and regional research strategies, including the establishment of public-private collaborations through research activities all along the R&I value chain, accelerating the transformation of the knowledge journey into patient impact and thus supporting the EU innovation potential in the field of rare diseases.
Project proposals to be submitted within the scope of the ERDERA 2026 Call may focus on the following areas:
Functional validation studies conducted to classify Variants of Uncertain Significance (VUS) and increase the diversity of functional genomics research, or validation of candidate VUS to improve outcomes for a broader range of patients through the use of in silico, in vitro, or animal model systems (e.g. CRISPR-modified cells, iPSCs, organoids, etc.)
Use of multi-omics or integrative methods (e.g. transcriptomics, epigenomics, etc.) to resolve ambiguous or complex variants
New tools/methodologies not yet validated in clinical settings, including biostatistics, advanced bioinformatics, and mathematical approaches (e.g. variant effect predictors, artificial intelligence (AI)-based annotation platforms, etc.)
Systems biology and disease mechanism modelling
Integration of clinical, environmental, lifestyle, and sensor-derived data
Development of knowledge graphs or disease maps to link phenotypic and mechanistic insights
Use of advanced AI and modelling tools (graph-based machine learning, probabilistic causal models).
You can find detailed information via this link.
The international call announcement is available via this link.
Applications:
ERDERA 2026 Call, which will support project proposals submitted by multi-partner international consortia, will follow a two-stage application process and funding decisions are expected to be taken by December 2026.
In addition to international project applications to be submitted to the call secretariat, it is also mandatory for researchers from Türkiye to take part in the projects to submit a national project application to TÜBİTAK via the relevant link. Project proposals to be submitted from our country within the scope of this call will be supported within the scope of TÜBİTAK 1071 Support Program for Increasing the Capacity to Benefit from International Research Funds and Participation in International R&D Collaborations. Since the application may be returned without being evaluated in case of non-compliance with the application rules, the national application rules has been given below and must be examined in detail before applying.
You may review the attached call documents for the national application rules (in Turkish) and the international application rules of the ERDERA 2026 Call.
Call Timeline:
Deadline for submission of pre-proposals to the Joint Call Secretariat: 12 February 2026 (14:00, CET)
Deadline for the TÜBİTAK national application of pre- proposals: 20 February 2026 (23:59, UTC+3)
Deadline for the e-signature processes of the TÜBİTAK national application of pre-proposals: 26 February 2026 (23:59, UTC+3)
Deadline for submission of full proposals to the Joint Call Secretariat: 8 July 2026 (14:00, CET)
Contact:
For information on the International Application and the ERDERA 2026 Call:
M. Merve POLAT
Directorate for EU Framework Programmes
+90 (312) 298 17 82
For Information on the National Application for TÜBİTAK 1071 Program:
Arif DUYAR
International Cooperation Projects Research Support Group (UPAG)
+90 (0312) 298 16 28
