Latvia approves information report on IntegroHEALTH project: funding, scope and implications for science policy

The Latvian government has approved an information report (informatīvais ziņojums) on the proposed IntegroHEALTH project — a large-scale biomedical and data-driven research initiative planned for a six-year period.

The document does not constitute a final legal agreement. However, it defines the scope, financing model, partner structure and implementation logic of the project and enables further steps toward submission under the EU’s Horizon Europe framework.

Project overview

IntegroHEALTH is designed as a national competence centre focusing on:

• biomedicine and molecular research;

• pathogen and antimicrobial resistance monitoring;

• biobanking and multi-omics analysis;

• high-performance computing (HPC) and data integration;

• decision-support tools for public health and biosecurity.

The project is positioned not only as a research initiative, but also as infrastructure supporting health surveillance and biological risk monitoring at national level.

Financing structure

Total planned budget: €30 million (6 years)

• €15 million — EU funding (Horizon Europe, Teaming for Excellence);

• €15 million — national co-financing by Latvia.

According to the Ministry of Education and Science (IZM), the national share does not represent new funding, but will be covered through reallocation within the existing science budget.

Key reallocations proposed by the ministry include:

• €7.54 million from postdoctoral research programmes;

• €5.01 million from science digitalisation measures;

• approximately €2 million from instruments supporting participation in Horizon Europe.

As a result, during the implementation period the project implies a temporary reduction in available funding for distributed research instruments outside the competence centre framework.

Partners

Latvian partners

• Biomedical Research and Study Centre (BMC);

• Riga Technical University (RTU);

• BIOR;

• associated institutions, including SPKC and LVĢMC.

International partners

• University of Dundee (United Kingdom);

• European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).

According to the information report, approximately €3 million from the EU contribution is allocated to foreign partners for their role in the consortium.

What Latvia gains

According to the approved report, IntegroHEALTH would deliver:

• large-scale laboratory infrastructure, including multi-omics platforms and biobanking;

• €6.5 million in laboratory equipment investments;

• €3.0 million in HPC and IT capacity;

• integration into EU-level biomedical research networks;

• 24 new research positions, including doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and group leaders;

• at least 10 clinical studies and multiple applied research pilots;

• provision of research and analytical services to at least 20 enterprises.

The project is intended to strengthen Latvia’s autonomy in biomedical research and improve preparedness for health-related risks. Note: This is Part 1 of a two-part analysis. Part 2 focuses on governance, licensing and system-level implications.

Biosecurity focus and governance considerations

A key factor strengthening IntegroHEALTH at both government and EU level is its explicit biosecurity dimension.

The project links biomedical research with pathogen surveillance, antimicrobial resistance monitoring and wastewater-based epidemiology, positioning the centre as part of health resilience and early-warning infrastructure, rather than solely an academic facility.

In the current security environment, this framing increases the project’s strategic relevance and helps justify long-term public investment in advanced laboratory and computing capacity.

At the same time, the information report embeds commercial performance requirements into the project design. Among the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) specified are:

• the conclusion of at least four licensing agreements related to developed technologies;

• provision of analytical or research services to at least 20 enterprises.

Such KPIs are standard for Horizon Europe instruments. However, in a project operating at population scale, they place additional importance on future governance choices.

The core assets of IntegroHEALTH are expected to include biobanking infrastructure, integrated biomedical datasets and analytical platforms. Whether licensing will apply strictly to downstream technologies and methods, or also to access to analytical environments, will depend on subsequent Cabinet regulations and internal rules of the restructured national research institute.

For residents, this matters insofar as the project combines public-interest functions (health monitoring and biosecurity) with commercial incentives for the managing institution. Maintaining public trust will depend on a clear separation between population-derived data and market-oriented outputs, as well as transparent oversight of licensing decisions.

At the information-report stage, these mechanisms are not yet specified, but the presence of predefined licensing KPIs makes early clarification particularly important.

Implications for the national science system

While IntegroHEALTH offers clear infrastructure benefits, the proposed funding model implies several system-level effects for Latvian science:

1. Concentration of resources

A single, well-funded competence centre receives multi-year stability, while other fields face tighter competition for reduced funding pools.

2. Impact on postdoctoral research

Postdoctoral funding outside the IntegroHEALTH framework becomes more limited, particularly in disciplines not aligned with the centre’s thematic priorities.

3. Institutional asymmetry

Research areas integrated into the centre gain access to advanced equipment, data and international partners; other fields increasingly rely on shrinking distributed instruments.

These effects follow directly from the proposed financing reallocations, rather than from the scientific concept of the project itself.

Conclusion

IntegroHEALTH represents one of the most significant science-policy initiatives currently under consideration in Latvia, combining €30 million in funding, international partners and a strong biosecurity narrative.

The project strengthens Latvia’s biomedical infrastructure and integration into European research networks, but also reshapes the internal balance of science funding during its implementation period. Researchers and institutions aligned with the competence centre are likely to benefit most, while other areas may face increased competition for limited resources.