The European Commission launches the 2026 Call for ERN Affiliated Partners
Rare and complex diseases affect millions of patients across Europe. Yet access to specialist expertise remains uneven. For healthcare providers in eligible countries, the 2026 Call launched by the European Commission for ERN Affiliated Partners represents a concrete opportunity to change that.
What does it mean to be an ERN Affiliated Partner?
Affiliated Partners are healthcare providers designated at national level to collaborate with one or more European Reference Networks (ERNs). Affiliation offers a formal pathway to participate in the ERN ecosystem without the full requirements of membership.
Affiliated Partners may take two forms:
- Associated National Centres, which are healthcare providers with specific expertise matching the thematic domain of a given ERN, or
- National Coordination Hubs, which are institutions with the legal and organisational capacity to link the national healthcare system to one or more ERNs, without requiring specific medical expertise in rare diseases.
The benefits of joining as Affiliated Partners
Becoming an ERN Affiliated Partner opens the door to virtual case consultations, cutting-edge clinical guidelines, educational resources, patient registries and exchange programmes. It means being part of a system of over 1,600 expert centres across Europe, with access to collective knowledge that no single institution or country could build alone. For patients, it means faster access to diagnosis and better-informed clinical decisions.
Who can apply and how
The call is directed at healthcare providers from the 14 countries that do not yet have full ERN coverage: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia.
Among these, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ireland, Norway, and Slovakia currently have no coverage in ERN ReCONNET and are particularly encouraged to apply.
A full list of the 24 European Reference Networks is available here.
Applications are submitted through the National Competent Authorities.
The deadline for submission is 1 September 2026.
