Become a contributing partner

The ‘contributing partner’ category was created with the goal of opening up IHI to a wide range of health stakeholders who may want to invest strategically in IHI without becoming full members. As the name suggests, contributing partners invest their own resources (which can be researchers’ time, laboratories, data) or cash in a specific IHI project or projects. Their contributions work in a similar way to contributions by IHI’s private (industry) members (i.e. COCIR, EFPIA including Vaccines Europe, EuropaBio, and MedTech Europe).

Any country, international organisation or legal entity that wants to make a meaningful, strategic contribution to the IHI objectives can apply to become an IHI contributing partner, as long as it is not a member or affiliate of one of the IHI private (industry) members.

Applications to become an IHI contributing partner are reviewed by the IHI Governing Board. Among other things, the board assesses the ability of the applicant to contribute to the wider strategic objectives of IHI as a cross-sector, public-private partnership, and the type, nature and net value of the overall contribution to the IHI programme and the proposed contribution to the specific project.

Leverage funding: In many cases, contributions from contributing partners can be matched by EU contributions. In total, the EU can match up to EUR 200 million from contributing partners. Becoming an IHI contributing partner is an excellent way to make your resources stretch further while sharing risks.

Influence research: As an investor in a project, you will be able to influence it from the earliest stages.

Networking: As an IHI contributing partner, you will be part of the wider collaborative health innovation ecosystem that we are creating. In your project(s), you will work in a neutral, pre-competitive space alongside experts from industry, universities, patient groups, regulators and others, giving you unprecedented opportunities to learn from them (and vice-versa).

Benefits of scale: IHI expects to launch ambitious, large-scale, cross-sector projects addressing major challenges in health research. Working at scale in this way increases the likelihood of the projects having a real impact.

If you want to become a contributing partner, you should do the following:

1. Check that your organisation is not affiliated to an IHI private member, i.e. COCIR, EFPIA (including Vaccines Europe), EuropaBio, and MedTech Europe. IHI private members, their constituent and affiliated entities may not apply to become IHI contributing partners. The websites of our private members include the lists of their corporate members, national associations and other entities which are the constituent and affiliated entities of the private members. Some organisations may be affiliated to IHI private members indirectly via a membership of another organisation (for example a national association), so you should check these lists extremely carefully before moving on to the next steps.

2. Check that your planned contribution to IHI is eligible. Contributions to IHI projects must meet the eligibility criteria set out in Article 6.1 of the model Grant Agreement. Among other things, the costs of contributions must be actual; be identifiable and verifiable; be recorded in the contributing partner’s accounting system; and be incurred during the project’s lifetime. Ineligible contributions will not be recognised by IHI and so will not count towards the project’s total costs. This matters because under IHI rules, at least 45% of a project’s total costs must come from IHI private members and contributing partners (if any). If your contributions as a contributing partner are judged to be ineligible, this might mean that your consortium does not meet the 45% threshold and hence the entire proposal will fail. Some types of contributions are automatically ineligible. For more details see our guide for contributing partners.

3. Read our guide for contributing partners. It details the application process and deadlines for applying to be a contributing partner for both single-stage and two-stage call. The guide also sets out how contributing partner applications are assessed, and describes how the contributing partner system works in practice in terms of things like contractual obligations and reporting requirements.

4. Prepare a draft letter of application based on the information in the guide and using the templates below. The letter should outline the scope of the proposed partnership with IHI, and in particular detail the proposed contribution to the topic in terms of activities, resources and funding to be allocated over the lifetime of the project. The information in the letter should also match the information provided in the proposal submitted by your consortium. Use of the templates is compulsory, and failure to provide the information requested may result in your application being rejected. For single-stage calls, we have prepared a checklist to help you ensure that your letter contains all the information needed to assess your application. Do not delete any sections of the template; if a section is not applicable to you, you should state this clearly.

• Single-stage calls: Letter template (Word) and checklist (Word)
• Two-stage calls:     Letter template (Word) 

Avoid these common mistakes when preparing your draft letter:

• Proposed contributions not eligible for recognition by IHI.
• Your organisation is in fact affiliated to an IHI private member.
• Mismatch between the contributing partner’s application letter and the information on the contributing partner’s role as provided in the proposal.
• Information on the value of any non-EU contribution missing. If the figure is zero, please state this clearly.
• Letter template not followed and key information missing.
• Letter not signed by someone who is legally authorised to sign on behalf of the organisation.

5. Finalise the letter of application and sign as explained in the guide.

6. Submit your letter, following the instructions and deadlines set out in the guide and templates. Note that the procedure and timelines for submitting the letter depend on the call type (single-stage / two-stage) and project status (applying as part of an applicant consortium / applying to join a project that has already started). Read the guide carefully!

Data protection

Read our privacy statement on the processing and protection of personal data relating to contributing partners.