Team Grant: ERDERA Joint Transnational Call 2026

Eligibility

For an application to be eligible, all requirements stated below must be met:

• The Nominated Principal Applicant (NPA) leading the Canadian component must be an independent researcher affiliated with a Canadian postsecondary institution and/or its affiliated institutions (including hospitals, research institutes and other non-profit organizations with a mandate for health research and/or knowledge translation).
• The NPA must have their substantive role in Canada for the duration of the requested grant term.
• The Institution Paid for the Canadian-led application must be authorized to administer CIHR funds by the application deadline (see List of CIHR Eligible Institutions).
• If the Canadian team in the consortium includes more than one Canadian researcher, only one of them must be named the NPA on the Pre-Proposal and Full Proposal.
• CIHR will follow the Early Career Researcher definition as outlined in the ERDERA JTC 2026 Guidelines for Applicants (Section 3).
• An individual cannot submit more than one application as an NPA. If the NPA submits more than one application, CIHR will automatically withdraw the last application(s) submitted based on timestamp of submission.

All Canadian applications must additionally meet ERDERA JTC 2026 eligibility.

Summary

CIHR-IG is pleased to be partnering with approximately 30 international funding organizations in the context of this European Rare Diseases Research Alliance (ERDERA) Joint Transnational Call (JTC) 2026. CIHR-IG is committed to expanding and improving the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases by creating the conditions needed to bring together creative, dynamic, interdisciplinary teams of researchers from across Canada and the European Community (EC) to collaborate for better health outcome for the rare disease patient community.

The goal of this call is to solve undiagnosed rare genetic diseases and to address complex, multifactorial rare non-genetic diseases by identifying causative variants in patients with no molecular diagnosis after prior genetic or genomic testing and providing diagnostic clarity for conditions of unknown or mixed pathogenesis.

The aim of the call is to tackle rare disease (RD) patient-need led challenges and enable scientists to build, based on common interests and sharing of expertise, effective, multinational, interdisciplinary research collaborations. The expected impact lies in the future translation and use of the results to the benefit of patients. The classification of RDs follows the European definition, i.e. a disease affecting not more than five in 10.000 persons in the European Community, EC associated states, and Canada.

Accurately diagnosing RDs is a major challenge, with approximately 50% of individuals with a suspected rare genetic condition remaining undiagnosed or misdiagnosed despite standard clinical genetics care. In addition, RDs of non-genetic origin - estimated to account for about 10% of all RD cases - remain an under-investigated area. On average, it takes around 5 years to establish an accurate diagnosis for people living with a RD. Given the complexity of these disorders, multiple and complementary diagnostic approaches are required. These unmet needs and challenges complexity underpin the objectives of this call.

For more information, please consult ERDERA JTC 2026.

Research Areas

Suggested focus areas are:

• Functional validation 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 using 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 mathematics 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 ML, probabilistic causal models)

Excluded Approaches and Topics

The following diseases, approaches and topics are excluded from the scope of the JTC 2026:

• Pre-clinical therapy development studies as covered in ERDERA JTC 2025 topic;
• Interventional clinical trials to prove efficacy of drugs/treatments/surgical procedures/medical procedures. This includes studies comparing efficacy, e.g., two surgical techniques or therapies, and projects whose main objective is the implementation of a clinical phase IV pharmacovigilance study;
• Projects focusing only on rare neurodegenerative diseases that are within the focus of Brain health. These are: Alzheimer's disease and other dementias; Parkinson's disease (PD) and PD-related disorders; prion diseases; motor neuron diseases; Huntington's disease; spinal muscular atrophy and dominant forms of spinocerebellar ataxia. However, childhood dementias/neurodegenerative diseases are eligible;
• Rare infectious diseases, rare cancers and rare adverse drug events in treatments of common diseases. Rare diseases with a predisposition to cancer are eligible. Diseases with inborn errors of immunity/genetic predisposition to rare infectious disease are eligible.

For more information about additional elements that need to be considered in all proposals, as well as approaches and topics that need to be excluded from the scope of the call, please consult ERDERA JTC 2026.

Overhead

N/A

Pre-application deadlines

RSO internal deadline

Pre-application program deadline

Application deadlines

RSO detailed review deadline

RSO final internal review deadline

Program application deadline

NOTE: Consult your Faculty Associate Dean (Research) (ADR) regarding Faculty-specific deadlines and submission processes.

Principal Investigators: Complete a Research Management System (RMS) record, including a copy of your complete application, and submit this for approvals in RMS.

Postdocs, students, and trainees: For fellowships and externally-sponsored research training awards or opportunities, you must complete the Research Funding Application Approval (RFAA) Trainee PDF form, and submit it, along with a complete copy of the application, to Research Services at rsotrainee@ucalgary.ca. Trainees should not use RMS at this time.

Approvals: The University of Calgary requires that all funding applications be approved prior to submission. Approval requires signatures via either RMS or the RFAA Trainee form, in the following order:

• Principal Investigator
• Department Head
• Faculty ADR/Dean
• Research Services (on behalf of the Vice-President Research)

Research Security

The Policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern (STRAC Policy) is applicable to this funding opportunity. Consult the Tri-agency guidance on the STRAC Policy for more information.

Read the Meaning of Grant Signatures policy to understand what your approval means. Please see the agency guidelines for details about which signatures are required on your application, as it may differ from internal requirements.

Late submissions: Late submissions will only be accepted in cases of medical or family emergencies, or other exceptional circumstances. If you submit your RMS record to Research Services after the internal deadline has passed, you must secure additional approvals. Please read: Late Applications Process.

How to Apply

The application process for this funding opportunity is comprised of two steps for Canada-based applicants: 

1a) Pre-Proposal to ERDERA;

2a) Full Proposal to ERDERA and 2b) Abbreviated Application to CIHR.

Note: The CIHR abbreviated application is required at the Full Proposal stage only.

Step 1a – Pre-Proposal to ERDERA:

• Pre-Proposals must be submitted in English only to ERDERA. For more information, consult ERDERA JTC 2026.
• Note that no documents need to be submitted to CIHR at the Pre-Proposal stage.

Step 2a – Full Proposal to ERDERA:

• Invitations to submit a Full Proposal are expected to be sent in early May 2026 by the Joint Call Secretariat.
  • Full proposals will be accepted only from those applicants who were explicitly invited by the Joint Call Secretariat to submit them.
• Full Proposals must be submitted in English only to ERDERA. For more information, consult ERDERA JTC 2026.

Step 2b – Abbreviated Application to CIHR:

The purpose of this additional application to CIHR is to provide CIHR with an operating budget for the project, with the amounts quoted in Canadian dollars, a complete justification for funds requested, and a one-page research summary of the project.

• In addition to the Full Proposal to ERDERA, Canadian consortium members invited to submit a Full Proposal to ERDERA JTC2026 must also complete an abbreviated CIHR application (in one of the two official languages of Canada) and submit it using ResearchNet.
  • If the Canadian team in the consortium includes more than one Canadian researcher, only one of them must be named the NPA on the abbreviated application submitted to CIHR.
• To complete the CIHR abbreviated application, follow the "Specific Instructions" listed below and, where applicable, consult the Grants – Application Guidelines. Please note that not all of the tasks listed in the Guidelines are required for this funding opportunity.
• All Canadian participants, with the exception of Collaborators, are required to:
  • Have/obtain a CIHR PIN
  • Complete the Tri-Agency Self-identification Questionnaire.

Submission to RSO:

The ERDERA pre-application, plus approvals in RMS, will be required by RSO by noon on Friday, February 6, 2026. Please be sure to select "Submitted for approvals" (under Save & Progress) in RMS in enough time to allow for approvals from your Department Head and/or ADR prior to the internal RSO deadline. Consult your department and faculty for more information on their approval processes and timelines.

ERDERA Webinar Info:

ERDERA Webinar Slides

Webinar FAQ

RESOURCES

Reminder: The sooner the researcher engages with Research Services, the more help we can be!

Contact the following Research Service units for support with:

Projects Involving Indigenous Research:

Support with incorporating wise practices in Indigenous research, community engagement, and Indigenous data management is available through the Indigenous Research Support Team (IRST).

Applicants can reach out by email to IRST at IRST@ucalgary.ca in advance of the RSO internal deadline. For more information about IRST, please visit the IRST webpage.

Knowledge Mobilization, Research Impact Assessment, DORA:

Support for knowledge mobilization/engagement/translation, community partnerships, research impact, responsible research assessment (DORA), and open science, is available through the Knowledge to Impact team.

Applicants can reach out by email to the KI team at knowledge.impact@ucalgary.ca.

For more information and access to resource archives, please visit the KI team webpage.

Research Data Management:

For information on research data management plans, processes, or best practices for your research program, please contact research.data@ucalgary.ca.

EDI in Research:

RSO can provide resources and support to research teams on the integration of equitable and inclusive practices in research design and research practice.

Contact edi.rso@ucalgary.ca for more information.

Research Security:

The Research Security Division is available to ensure researchers adhere to research security guidelines and policies, including the National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships (NSGRP) and the policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern (STRAC).

Visit the Research Security website to learn more or contact researchsecurity@ucalgary.ca.

Pre-Award Submissions:

RMS: Creating a Pre-Award LOI
RMS: Creating a Pre-Award Application