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Horizon Europe · European Union

Advancing bio-printing of living cells for regenerative medicine

Opens 3 Jun 2027

The EU's Horizon Europe programme expects to make 4 awards of €7 million – €10 million each, from a total budget of €39.3 million. Applications close on 16 Sep 2027 (EU calls usually close at 17:00 Brussels time). Organisations in EU member states and Horizon Europe associated countries such as Türkiye can usually take part; the topic conditions control.

Expected outcome

This topic aims at supporting activities that are enabling or contributing to one or several expected impacts of destination “Developing and using new tools, technologies and digital solutions for a healthy society”. To that end, proposals under this topic should aim to deliver results that are directed at, tailored towards and contributing to most of the following expected outcomes:

• Biomedical scientists from academia and industry will gain access to entire bio-printing units designed to regenerate human tissue.

• Healthcare professionals acquire information on the safe and effective use of equipment enabling advanced therapies with bio-printed human tissue.

• Healthcare providers dispose of tools enabling them to treat conditions of unmet medical need.

• Individual patients will benefit from a personalised approach to their respective medical condition thanks to the bio-printed regenerative medicine solution.

Scope

Tissue-specific functional 3D bio-printing of living cells has made significant progress as a new approach for transplantation applications in regenerative medicine. There are currently several types of bio-printing technologies under development for the repair of different targeted tissues or organs. To fully unleash the potential of bio-printed cell constructs for regenerative medicine several bottlenecks still need to be overcome. Various studies in pre-clinical models have shown that bio-printed cell constructs or tissues hold great promise for regenerative medicine, by allowing autologous tissue grafts being printed thus avoiding adverse graft-host reactions. However, translation of such approaches into clinical settings (i.e. humans) and their application to internal organs still needs to be investigated and demonstrated. Dependant on the actual target site (i.e. the defect tissue or organ in the human body) different bio-printing approaches may be preferable. For printing complex tissues and especially entire organs an in-vitro approach followed by transplantation is the preferred way. “In-situ” bio-printing, sometimes also referred to as “in-vivo”, or as “intraoperative”, reflects a bioprinting process performed on a live subject in a surgical setting and has in certain instances (e.g. tissue repair) advantages over an in-vitro bio-printing technique followed by transplantation. In-situ bio-printing involves direct patterning of bio-inks onto a patient’s body at the target site, allowing for precise construction of a site-matching tissue-structure within the actual physiological location where regeneration or repair is needed. As such, in-situ bio-printing allows for high adaptability, reduced risk of contamination, improved cell viability, function and host integration. The high cell densities present in the human vital organs underscore the importance of bio-inks which contain less additional biomaterials as matrix. Hence the bio-printing of cell constructs that comprise native tissue-like cell densities may facilitate repair and/or regeneration of defective complex tissues or internal organs. For such approaches meticulous engineering of the bio-printing equipment is necessary, involving sophisticated micro-surgical instrumentation and medical imaging platforms. To achieve the desired function and to mimic the natural cues in native tissues for in-vitro printed bio-constructs, the use of additional stimuli is needed, whereas in-situ approaches normally rely on the body as natural bioreactor providing the necessary extracellular cues. Recently, combinations of in-situ bio-printing with real-time stimuli have been investigated, even for the repair of internal organs. However, there remain bottlenecks that need to be overcome, like the integration with existing imaging modalities and surgical procedures or the long-time stability and functionality of the created bio-constructs.

Who can apply

Consortium of at least 3 independent legal entities from 3 different EU Member States or associated countries, at least one in a Member State (Horizon Europe standard rule).

Applicant categories are a starting point. The official call decides eligibility.

Topics

Biomaterial engineering Biomedical engineering Health-related biotechnology Personalised treatment Regenerative medicine Tissue engineering ATMP Bio-Ink Bio-Printing Biofabrication Bioink Biomaterials Bioprinting In-Situ Bio-Printing Regenerative Medicine Scale-Up Tissue Engineering

Timing

Single-stage call. Next deadline 2027-09-16. The portal states the exact cut-off time (EU calls usually close at 17:00 Brussels time).

How to apply

1. Read the full topic on the Funding & Tenders Portal: expected outcome, scope, type of action and the topic conditions, including any country restrictions.
2. Register each participating organisation in the Funding & Tenders Portal to get a PIC.
3. Consortium of at least 3 independent legal entities from 3 different EU Member States or associated countries (Horizon Europe standard rule; Türkiye is associated). Confirm in the topic conditions.
4. Prepare Part A (administrative forms and budget, completed in the portal) and Part B (the technical description on the official template for this type of action).
5. Submit in the portal before the cut-off time on the deadline day. Late submissions are not accepted.

From the call text

Who can apply

Not stated in the call text we hold — check the official page

Company stage

Not stated in the call text we hold — check the official page

Single applicant or consortium

Read the topic conditions on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal for eligible countries, consortium requirements, budget and the application route.

Where applicants must be based

Read the topic conditions on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal for eligible countries, consortium requirements, budget and the application route.

Where to apply

Read the topic conditions on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal for eligible countries, consortium requirements, budget and the application route.

Read the EU application guide

Where these facts come from

Official sources

Official call page

Facts on this page come from the funder’s official data, taken on 14 Nov 2026. The funder's own documents, including later amendments, always take precedence.

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