To this end, they are receiving nearly €6 million from a joint funding initiative by the British Heart Foundation, the Dutch Heart Foundation, the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK), and the Lefoulon Delalande Foundation. The funding supports international research consortia over a period of four years. The aim is to bring together knowledge, methods, and resources across locations and thus generate new momentum for cardiovascular medicine.
A total of four international research teams are being funded. The projects involving German researchers are listed below.
With this call, the program enters its seventh funding round. To date, a total of 23 international research projects have been supported.
The partnership is intended to enable researchers to more closely connect expertise, data, and resources across Europe in order to jointly address key challenges in cardiovascular research. At the same time, the program aims to specifically strengthen the next generation of scientific leaders.
The success of the initiative has led to the inclusion of researchers from Spain for the first time in the current eighth call. This is made possible through the support of two Spanish cardiovascular research organizations: the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) and the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Cardiovasculares (CIBER-CV). The successful projects are expected to be announced in spring 2027.
AID-MI – Impact of Aging on Organ Dysfunction After Acute Myocardial Infarction
Naveed Akbar (University of Oxford, United Kingdom), Clement Cochain (Université Paris Cité, France), Jana Grune (German Heart Center of the Charité, Germany)
The project investigates why older individuals recover less well from complications such as lung or kidney damage following a heart attack. The researchers suspect that age-related changes impair communication between organs.
To address this, they combine large patient datasets with modern laboratory studies and analyze immune cells as well as endothelial cells—the cells lining the inner surface of blood vessels. The goal is to understand how inter-organ communication changes with age after a heart attack.
In the long term, the project aims to enable earlier detection and more targeted treatment of lung and kidney complications following myocardial infarction.
PATCH – Platelets as a Novel Approach for the Treatment of Cerebral Aneurysms
Yacine Boulaftali (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale, France), Remco Megens (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany), Ynte Ruigrok (University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands)
Around 15 million people in Europe have a bulging of a blood vessel in the brain, known as a cerebral aneurysm. In most cases, this remains unnoticed. However, if the weakened vessel wall ruptures, it can lead to a severe brain hemorrhage, known as a subarachnoid hemorrhage, which is often life-threatening or results in permanent damage.
To date, there is no reliable non-surgical treatment option for cerebral aneurysms. Physicians often have to weigh the risks between an invasive procedure and close monitoring. It is still not fully understood why some aneurysms rupture while others remain stable.
Recent research suggests that platelets may play an important role. They appear to accumulate at aneurysms even before rupture. A key role may be played by the protein PF4.
In the PATCH consortium, researchers combine advanced imaging, laboratory research, and genetic analyses to better understand these mechanisms. The aim of the project is to determine whether PF4 could serve as a future target for a safe, non-invasive treatment of aneurysms to prevent dangerous ruptures.
