Pascal Sanders, PARC coordinator, and Katya Manuella Permana, member of the PARC Coordination Team member, attended the inaugural Health Co-funded Partnership Day, held by the European Commission at the Albert Borschette Congress Center, Brussels. This event marked the first edition dedicated specifically to co-funded partnerships within the Horizon Europe Health Cluster and was held on 8 October 2025.

All ten currently on-going partnerships were invited to attend including: Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) ↗, EU-Africa Global Health Partnership (EDCTP3) ↗, European Partnership on One Health Antimicrobial Resistance (OH AMR) ↗, European Partnership for Pandemic Preparedness (BE READY), Brain Health Partnership ↗, Partnership on Assessment of Risk of Chemicals (PARC), Fostering an ERA for Health research (ERA4HEALTH) ↗, Transforming the Health & Care Systems (THCS) ↗, Personalised Medicine (EP Permed) ↗, European Rare Diseases Alliance (ERDERA) ↗, with the five latter partnerships on the list being invited to be on the speakers’ panel. The event was also attended by representative of countries currently participating in Horizon Europe.

The first plenary session was dedicated to “Understanding the Governance of Each Partnership”. PARC was the first to present its partnership profile, governance system and some of the key results including in human biomonitoring, hazard assessment, innovation in regulatory risk assessment and SSbD (safe-and sustainable-by-design). The session was insightful, allowing partnerships to learn and compare some similarities and difference in which they operate and produce results. PARC operates differently than other ongoing partnerships where it does not conduct open calls to the public but conducts annual internal calls to its 203 partners. However, in addition to this internal call, PARC is also equipped with a rapid response mechanism where relevant public organisations can provide their input on important chemical safety topics that have not been covered in PARC. Great interests were expressed by the country representatives on PARC mechanisms to integrate new partners or new countries into its consortium.

The second plenary session was on “Structuring (National Research Systems) & Integrating (Activities for the European Research Area)”. In this session, each partnership presented the way they have been contributing to structuring EU national systems and EU research areas. The presentations were mainly on the ways by which: 1) they interact with their stakeholders and members within their partnerships, 2) they can or have been contributing to the health cluster, and 3) each partnership can support one another. Pascal Sanders presented the involvement of national hubs, EU agencies, and collaboration with other EU project clusters, European network and infrastructures in supporting various PARC activities and projects.

A breakout session gave attendees the opportunity to engage in lively discussions in small groups of around 20 participants, exploring ways to streamline the implementation of ongoing partnerships and maximising their impact. These interactive discussions allowed participants to exchange ideas directly with each other and with representatives of the European Commission, tackling key challenges and brainstorming practical solutions. The session concluded with concise and insightful summaries from each group, highlighting the collaborative spirit and innovative approaches emerging from the event.