UNITE, the €20 million pan-European initiative building a borderless European digital health innovation ecosystem, has launched its Second Open Call  for Joint Interregional Projects on 10 September 2026, making €6 million available to support ambitious digital health collaborations across Europe.

The call is aimed at innovators ready to take promising digital health technologies from development and real-world testing to validation, deployment and international scaling.

Building on the momentum of the UNITE’s First Open Call, the new funding opportunity focuses on two pressing challenges for European healthcare:

1. Deep-tech innovations to secure equal health for the entire population: supporting solutions that can address inequalities in access to healthcare, fragmented services, technological disparities and gaps in personalised care, particularly for elderly and disadvantaged populations.
   
   
2. Digital innovations to battle the health workforce crisis: targeting technologies that can help alleviate staff shortages, improve clinical and organisational workflows, reduce administrative burdens and support training and skills development.

The call is open to eligible organisations legally established in: Lombardy, Italy; Central Macedonia, Greece; Extremadura, Spain; Aragón, Spain; Scotland, United Kingdom; Wales, United Kingdom; and Romania (national scope). Potential applicants include startups, SMEs, companies, research and innovation organisations, innovation clusters, hospitals, testbeds, living labs and other organisations active across the digital health value chain.

The UNITE’s Second Open Call plans to support up to 6 projects, with a maximum funding of €1 million per project and €600,000 per individual beneficiary, over a period of 18 months. Applications are open until 10 December 2026 at 17.00 CET. The selected projects are expected to begin in April 2027.

Building on the First Open Call

The Second Open Call builds on the strong response to the UNITE’s first funding round. Over 1,000 organisations took part and, out of 19 submissions, 3 projects were selected. CARDIO-HUB is developing a remote monitoring system for elderly patients with heart failure. NEODATA+ is working on the use of sensitive data in neonatal intensive care to improve clinical decision-making. RAD-TRACK EU is tackling the fragmentation of radiation exposure data in medical imaging. All three projects began implementation in spring 2026.

“The success of the UNITE’s First Open Call demonstrated what can happen when digital health innovators, researchers and healthcare organisations connect across regional borders. Three ambitious interregional projects are now turning that collaboration into concrete solutions. The Second Open Call will build on that momentum and bring more promising innovations closer to real-world impact,” said Dr. Marina Samoylova, UNITE Programme Manager.

A dedicated online information session for the Second Open Call is scheduled for 30 September 2026, from 14:00 to 15:30 CET. Registration is now open.

Stay tuned for the upcoming thematic matchmaking events and register on the UNITE Matchmaking Platform to connect with potential partners and explore collaboration opportunities.

For further information, visit the Second Open Call webpage on the UNITE website.