PrivateSex-specific
Nordic Cancer Union Research Grant
Nordic Cancer Union Charity (Nordic)
Who can apply: Nordic countries
Cancer is a leading health issue with sex-specific patterns relevant to women's health.
A directory, not a ranking. Calls tracked counts the distinct open instruments we have captured from that funder — it measures administrative granularity, not money or commitment. One funder may publish a single large programme while another splits comparable activity across six named grants. Award totals are not published consistently enough to compare, so this page never sums them.
No calls match all of these filters at once.
Nordic Cancer Union Charity (Nordic)
Who can apply: Nordic countries
Cancer is a leading health issue with sex-specific patterns relevant to women's health.
Eureka Network Intergovernmental programme
Who can apply: Cross-border consortium (2+ Eureka countries)
This call explicitly includes life science, health and welfare technology, making it directly relevant for women’s health research and innovation collaborations.
Novo Nordisk Foundation Foundation
Who can apply: Nordic (varies by call)
DKK 1 million to DKK 4.5 million per grant (DKK 104 million total; DKK 12 million earmarked for Microbiota-host interactions)
This basic biomedicine call can fund fundamental research on mechanisms of human health and disease that underpin women’s health conditions, including sex-specific biology, reproductive health and female-prevalent diseases.
Swedish Research Council National research council
Who can apply: Sweden
This health research call is relevant to women's health because it can support work on girls' mental and physical health trajectories and sex-specific determinants of health across childhood and adolescence.
Nasjonalforeningen for folkehelsen Charity
Who can apply: Norway
Up to NOK 10 million per project
Dementia has a higher prevalence in women, and this call explicitly includes sex and gender differences as a research priority.
Nasjonalforeningen for folkehelsen Charity
Who can apply: Norway
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women, and the call explicitly supports research on sex and gender differences.
Nasjonalforeningen for folkehelsen Charity
Who can apply: Norway
Up to NOK 10M per project
Dementia affects women disproportionately, and this call explicitly includes sex and gender differences as a research focus.
Helsefonden Foundation
Who can apply: Denmark
Minimum DKK 50,000; average grant approximately DKK 350,000–400,000
This health research call can support projects in social medicine, disease prevention, health promotion and clinical or epidemiological research, all of which are highly relevant to women's health and health inequalities.
Novo Nordisk Foundation Foundation
Who can apply: Nordic (varies by call)
Up to DKK 4 million per grant (DKK 77 million total)
This broad health-relevant research call can support foundational natural and technical science projects with future applications in health science, enabling methods, models and technologies relevant to women’s health research.
Helse Sør-Øst RHF Unclassified
Who can apply: Not stated
Approximately NOK 160 million total; maximum NOK 4.5 million per project leader for 2027 including ongoing and new research projects
This is a broad regional health research call covering clinical, biomedical, public health, digital health and precision medicine topics, all of which can support women's health research and care improvement.
Novo Nordisk Foundation Foundation
Who can apply: Nordic (varies by call)
Up to DKK 4 million per grant (DKK 5 million if the project includes an international co-applicant); DKK 30 million total
Cardiometabolic disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in women, and this nutrition-focused research call can support sex-specific prevention and management research relevant to women’s health.
European Innovation Council EU programme
Who can apply: EU + Horizon-associated countries
€50 million or above
Sector-agnostic programme frequently used by women's health and health-tech startups/researchers.
Sundhedsstyrelsen (Danish Health Authority) National health authority
Who can apply: Denmark
DKK 160 million total, 2026-2029
The instrument names women's health in its own terms: it establishes a national research centre for conditions specific to women and for diseases that present differently in women than in men. It is one of at least two currently open Nordic public instruments identified by the corrected source audit that name women's health as their subject.
Novo Nordisk Foundation Foundation
Who can apply: Nordic (varies by call)
Up to DKK 7.6 million per project over 3 years (DKK 190 million total annual budget across Pioneer and Distinguished Innovator Grants in Health and Sustainability)
This is a Nordic health innovation funding route from a major biomedical funder and can support translational innovations relevant to women’s health.
Helse Vest RHF (Western Norway Regional Health Authority) Unclassified
Who can apply: Not stated
Broad regional health research funding is relevant for women's health researchers across clinical, translational and health services research areas.
EIT Health Unclassified
Who can apply: Not stated
This is relevant to women's health because it builds entrepreneurship and innovation skills within the healthcare ecosystem, supporting founders and teams developing women's health solutions.
EIT Health Unclassified
Who can apply: Not stated
This is directly relevant to women's health innovation because it supports development and commercialisation of biotech, medtech, digital health and AI solutions, which are key routes for femtech and broader women's health technologies.
EIT Health Unclassified
Who can apply: Not stated
This is relevant to women's health because biotech capability-building strengthens the talent and translational pipeline needed for women's health therapeutics, diagnostics and research commercialisation.
EIT Health Unclassified
Who can apply: Not stated
This matters for women's health because clinically validated digital and AI healthcare solutions can include diagnostics, monitoring and care pathways for conditions affecting women, and the call supports adoption at scale.
Region Syddanmark Regional health authority
Who can apply: Denmark (Region Syddanmark)
DKK 2 million in the pool; DKK 200,000–1,000,000 per grant
A regional research pool whose entire purpose is women's health and women's disease — it names them in its own title. Funds clinical research on conditions specific to women and on documented sex differences in incidence, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment effect, including cardiovascular and autoimmune disease and pain management. One of five Danish regional pools created by a single autumn-2025 national package; the Radar counts that package once and lists this, the pool with a verified open deadline.
Research Council of Norway National research council
Who can apply: Norway
NOK 3M–7M per project
This public-sector health innovation call can support service, systems, and care-delivery research relevant to improving women’s health in Norway.
Eureka Network Intergovernmental programme
Who can apply: Cross-border consortium (2+ Eureka countries)
Sector-agnostic programme frequently used by women's health and health-tech startups and SMEs for cross-border R&D and commercialisation.
Danish Cancer Society Unclassified
Who can apply: Not stated
Prevention research is directly relevant to women's health because it can support work on reducing risk, improving screening and preventing cancers that disproportionately affect women.
Nordic Cancer Union Charity (Nordic)
Who can apply: Nordic countries
EUR 950,000 total
Cancer research is directly relevant to women’s health, particularly for breast and gynaecological cancers, and this call specifically funds Nordic collaborative projects.
Research Council of Norway National research council
Who can apply: Norway
NOK 2,000,000–4,000,000 (NOK 4,000,000 total available)
The call directly funds a national network for women's health research, including national coordination of existing groups and targeted recruitment of new professional communities into the field.
Swedish Cancer Society Charity
Who can apply: Sweden
Institutional training infrastructure in cancer research strengthens future capacity in areas central to women's health, including breast and gynaecological oncology.
European Commission EU institution
Who can apply: EU + associated countries
Digital health skills funding can strengthen institutional capacity for women's health research, diagnostics, care pathways and data-driven innovation.
Novo Nordisk Foundation Foundation
Who can apply: Nordic (varies by call)
DKK 30–75 million per grant (DKK 150 million total)
Infectious disease diagnostics are directly relevant to women’s health because women are major users of healthcare across the life course, and improved rapid AMR diagnostics and minimally invasive testing can strengthen equitable diagnosis and treatment pathways, including sex-aware clinical research.
Novo Nordisk Foundation Foundation
Who can apply: Nordic (varies by call)
Up to DKK 30-75 million per grant (DKK 150 million total)
Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death in women, and this mechanistic hypertension call could support sex-specific research on heat-related cardiovascular risk, treatment response and prevention.
Innovative Health Initiative EU public-private partnership
Who can apply: EU + Horizon-associated countries
This is a major EU health research and innovation funding route that can support women's health research, diagnostics, therapeutics, digital health, and care innovation through broad biomedical collaboration.
Danish Cancer Society Unclassified
Who can apply: Not stated
This broad cancer research call matters for women’s health because it can fund both biomedical and population-level research across cancers that disproportionately affect women.
Innovation Fund Denmark National innovation agency
Who can apply: Denmark
DKK 200,000–5,000,000
Sector-agnostic programme frequently used by women's health and health-tech startups, with 2026 funding periods explicitly including life science, health and welfare technology.
COST Association Intergovernmental network
Who can apply: COST member countries
This research networking call can support pan-European collaborations in women’s health, including sex-specific research, reproductive health, cardiovascular disease, cancer, mental health and health data infrastructure.
Research Council of Finland National research council
Who can apply: Finland
This programme supports disruptive technology innovation which can impact healthcare systems, potentially benefiting women's health.
CERV EU programme
Who can apply: EU member states
Gender-based violence is a health issue before it is anything else: it is a leading cause of injury, chronic pain, PTSD and pregnancy complications in women, and health services are usually the first institution a survivor meets. Funding for victim support determines whether that contact becomes a route into care or a missed opportunity, which places this squarely in the Care pillar.
CERV EU programme
Who can apply: EU member states
Prevention of gender-based violence sits upstream of a large share of women's injury, mental-health and reproductive-health burden. It is one of the few EU instruments that names women directly rather than reaching them through a disease category, so it is also a marker of how much explicitly-named women's health funding exists at EU level.
Helsefonden Foundation
Who can apply: Denmark
DKK 50K minimum; typically up to DKK 600K per grant, with larger grants possible in exceptional non-research cases
This institutional Danish grant can fund implementation and service-development projects in health and social care settings that directly benefit women’s health, including preventive, community-based and care pathway innovations.
Sigrid Jusélius Foundation Foundation
Who can apply: Finland
Supports top-level medical research, which includes women's health projects.
European Commission EU institution
Who can apply: EU + associated countries
EUR 610M total
Includes disease areas relevant to women like CVD, cancer, and mental health.
Danish Cancer Society Unclassified
Who can apply: Not stated
Public health and epidemiological cancer research is relevant to women’s health because it can support prevention, screening, survivorship and inequity research across cancers affecting women.
Danish Cancer Society Unclassified
Who can apply: Not stated
This supports population, prevention and epidemiological cancer research relevant to women's health, including screening, inequities and outcomes in female cancers.
Danish Cancer Society Unclassified
Who can apply: Not stated
Cancer research is highly relevant to women's health, including breast, cervical, ovarian and endometrial cancers as well as sex-specific differences in cancer biology and care.
Danish Cancer Society Unclassified
Who can apply: Not stated
Cancer research is directly relevant to women’s health, including breast, cervical, ovarian and endometrial cancers as well as sex-specific differences in cancer biology and treatment.
Danish Cancer Society Unclassified
Who can apply: Not stated
Thematic cancer funding is relevant to women's health because it can support research on female-specific cancers and sex-specific aspects of diagnosis, treatment and survivorship.
Danish Cancer Society Unclassified
Who can apply: Not stated
Thematic cancer research funding is relevant to women’s health because it may support research on female cancers and sex-specific cancer prevention, diagnosis and care.
Horizon Europe EU programme
Who can apply: EU + Horizon-associated countries
Chronic disease trajectories and treatment response differ by sex, and AI models trained on male-dominant cohorts underperform for women. A call funding predictive biomarkers via AI is precisely where sex-stratified validation is either built in or omitted for the next decade, which makes it a Data-pillar concern as much as a clinical one.
Horizon Europe EU programme
Who can apply: EU + Horizon-associated countries
Exposure profiles and physiological response to environmental stressors differ by sex and life stage: pregnancy alters susceptibility to heat and airborne pollutants, and menopause shifts cardiometabolic risk. Exposome cohorts that do not stratify by sex and reproductive stage will miss those effects entirely, so how this call is scoped determines whether the resulting evidence base is usable for women.
Horizon Europe EU programme
Who can apply: EU + Horizon-associated countries
Women live more years with disability than men, and are over-represented in the autoimmune, musculoskeletal and chronic pain conditions that drive much of that burden. A life-course framing is where sex-differential disability accumulation becomes visible, which makes this call directly relevant to the Care and People pillars.
Horizon Europe EU programme
Who can apply: EU + Horizon-associated countries
Diagnostic delay is a defining feature of women's health — roughly seven to ten years for endometriosis, and routine misreading of cardiac presentation in women. Portable point-of-care diagnostics act directly on that delay, so this is one of the clearer instrument-to-outcome links in the current EU health programme.
Swedish Cancer Society Charity
Who can apply: Sweden
Early detection is crucial for women's health because improved screening and diagnostic tools can directly benefit breast, cervical and ovarian cancer outcomes.
Swedish Cancer Society Charity
Who can apply: Sweden
Cancer research is directly relevant to women’s health, including breast, cervical, ovarian and endometrial cancers as well as sex-specific cancer biology and prevention.
Swedish Cancer Society Charity
Who can apply: Sweden
This supports collaboration building in cancer research, which is relevant to women's health given the burden of breast and gynaecological cancers.
European Innovation Council EU programme
Who can apply: EU + Horizon-associated countries
EUR 75,000 per startup
Sector-agnostic programme frequently used by women's health and health-tech startups, and it specifically supports women-led deep-tech companies that may develop women's health innovations.
European Commission EU institution
Who can apply: EU + associated countries
Approximately EUR 7 million per project (around EUR 14 million total)
This One Health call is directly relevant to women's health because environmental exposures and ecosystem-linked health stressors shape population health risks, prevention, and inequalities affecting women.
Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation Foundation
Who can apply: Sweden
SEK 15 million to SEK 40 million per project
This Swedish basic biomedical research call can support high-potential research relevant to women’s health, including disease mechanisms, prevention, and clinical translation in medicine.
Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation Foundation
Who can apply: Sweden
SEK 15 million to SEK 40 million per project
This broad basic research call includes medicine and can support biomedical projects relevant to women's health, including sex-specific disease mechanisms and prevention.
Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation Foundation
Who can apply: Finland
This rolling foundation call funds medical research broadly, which is relevant to women’s health researchers in areas such as reproductive health, cancer, cardiovascular disease, mental health and other biomedical topics.
Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation Foundation
Who can apply: Finland
Supports breakthrough research in medicine, potentially benefiting women's health.
European Innovation Council EU programme
Who can apply: EU + Horizon-associated countries
Up to EUR 7.5 million in blended finance (EUR 2.5 million grant plus planned EUR 5 million equity investment)
Sector-agnostic programme frequently used by women's health and health-tech startups, including medical device and digital health innovations relevant to female care pathways.
Swedish Cancer Society Charity
Who can apply: Sweden
Cancer research is directly relevant to women’s health, including breast, cervical, ovarian and endometrial cancers, and implementation funding can accelerate uptake of improved diagnostics and care.
Swedish Cancer Society Charity
Who can apply: Sweden
Cancer-focused scientific meetings can advance women’s health by convening researchers working on female cancers, prevention, care pathways and survivorship.
Swedish Cancer Society Charity
Who can apply: Sweden
Cancer is a core women’s health area, and support for research congresses can strengthen dissemination and collaboration in fields such as gynaecological and breast cancer.
The Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannís) National research council
Who can apply: Iceland
Sector-agnostic programme frequently used by women's health and health-tech startups/researchers.
The Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannís) National research council
Who can apply: Iceland
Sector-agnostic innovation funding from a trusted Nordic funder that can support Icelandic women's health and health-tech research and development projects.
The Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannís) National research council
Who can apply: Iceland
Sector-agnostic programme frequently used by women's health and health-tech startups/researchers.
Research Council of Norway National research council
Who can apply: Norway
NOK 15,000,000-40,000,000 per project (NOK 320,000,000 total)
This large-scale research capacity funding can strengthen leading Norwegian environments in biomedical and clinical fields that underpin long-term progress in women’s health research.
Research Council of Norway National research council
Who can apply: Norway
NOK 4,000,000-12,000,000 per project (NOK 750,000,000 total)
This broad investigator-led funding can support advanced biomedical, translational, and clinical research addressing diseases and health conditions with major sex-specific relevance for women.
Lundbeck Foundation Foundation
Who can apply: Denmark
Up to DKK 5 million over 18 months
Broad biomedical and health-science funding can support research on conditions with major sex-specific dimensions, including cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disease and reproductive health.
Tannlege Olaf Aase og frues stiftelse Unclassified
Who can apply: Not stated
Cancer research seminars and expert exchange can support advances in women’s cancers and broader oncology topics affecting women’s health.
| Funder | Source | Type | Based in | Who can apply | Most direct call | Calls tracked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CERV | Public | EU programme | EU | EU member states | Women's health | 2 |
| COST Association | Public | Intergovernmental network | EU | COST member countries | Open to all | 1 |
| Danish Cancer Society | Unclassified | Unclassified | — | Not stated | Sex-specific | 8 |
| EIT Health | Unclassified | Unclassified | — | Not stated | Open to all | 4 |
| Eureka Network | Public | Intergovernmental programme | EU | Cross-border consortium (2+ Eureka countries) | Open to all | 2 |
| European Commission | Public | EU institution | EU | EU + associated countries | Open to all | 3 |
| European Innovation Council | Public | EU programme | EU | EU + Horizon-associated countries | Women's health | 3 |
| Helse Sør-Øst RHF | Unclassified | Unclassified | — | Not stated | Open to all | 1 |
| Helse Vest RHF (Western Norway Regional Health Authority) | Unclassified | Unclassified | — | Not stated | Open to all | 1 |
| Helsefonden | Private | Foundation | DK | Denmark | Open to all | 2 |
| Horizon Europe | Public | EU programme | EU | EU + Horizon-associated countries | Open to all | 4 |
| Innovation Fund Denmark | Public | National innovation agency | DK | Denmark | Open to all | 1 |
| Innovative Health Initiative | Public | EU public-private partnership | EU | EU + Horizon-associated countries | Open to all | 1 |
| Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation | Private | Foundation | FI | Finland | Open to all | 2 |
| Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation | Private | Foundation | SE | Sweden | Open to all | 2 |
| Lundbeck Foundation | Private | Foundation | DK | Denmark | Open to all | 1 |
| Nasjonalforeningen for folkehelsen | Private | Charity | NO | Norway | Sex-specific | 3 |
| Nordic Cancer Union | Private | Charity (Nordic) | Nordic | Nordic countries | Sex-specific | 2 |
| Novo Nordisk Foundation | Private | Foundation | DK | Nordic (varies by call) | Sex-specific | 6 |
| Region Syddanmark | Public | Regional health authority | DK | Denmark (Region Syddanmark) | Women's health | 1 |
| Research Council of Finland | Public | National research council | FI | Finland | Open to all | 1 |
| Research Council of Norway | Public | National research council | NO | Norway | Women's health | 4 |
| Sigrid Jusélius Foundation | Private | Foundation | FI | Finland | Open to all | 1 |
| Sundhedsstyrelsen (Danish Health Authority) | Public | National health authority | DK | Denmark | Women's health | 1 |
| Swedish Cancer Society | Private | Charity | SE | Sweden | Sex-specific | 7 |
| Swedish Research Council | Public | National research council | SE | Sweden | Open to all | 1 |
| Tannlege Olaf Aase og frues stiftelse | Unclassified | Unclassified | — | Not stated | Sex-specific | 1 |
| The Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannís) | Public | National research council | IS | Iceland | Open to all | 3 |
Method. Every call is checked for a working link and carries a written women's-health rationale before it is listed; a card without one is dropped rather than published. A working link is not proof that a call is open: a call with a published deadline is removed once that date passes, but a rolling call has no date to cross, so those are re-checked against the funder's page on a schedule and carry the date they were last checked. Always confirm eligibility and deadlines on the funder's own page. Amounts are shown only where the funder publishes them, per call, and are never aggregated — comparing totals would require award data that these bodies do not publish consistently.
Disclosure. Women's Health 2040 is held as open commons. Its founder, Julia Persson, also founded Scita Health ApS, which is eligible for and may apply to programmes of the kind listed here. Listings are criteria-based and applied uniformly: a call appears because it passes the relevance, link and eligibility checks, never because of any relationship to it. No funder pays for placement.
Tell us what we have missed. This radar is built from public sources, so it is only as good as what funders publish and what we can see. If a call is missing, misclassified, or has closed, write to hello@womenshealth2040.org and it will be corrected in the next weekly update.
Generated 2026-08-25 · Women's Health 2040