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1) The WE&ME Foundation has launched a major international call for ME/CFS research in collaboration with the Science for ME forum. It aims to fund 7 projects with a budget of €120,000-180,000 per project. The stage 1, short proposal, deadline is 25 August 2026.

2) Projects must focus on ME/CFS, demonstrate a clear innovation in methodology or clinical approach and meaningful involvement of patient representatives is mandatory. Study participants must meet a formal ME/CFS diagnosis that includes post-exertional malaise (PEM).

3) Inclusion of severely affected (housebound or bedbound) patients is not mandatory but strongly encouraged. Options include home visits, remote measurements, or use of existing data collected from this group.

4) Proposals will be reviewed by an international jury of experts including three members nominated by the Science for ME forum. This embeds patient expertise and community involvement directly into proposal assessment. Check out the forum here:

6) Research teams are strongly encouraged to bring in expertise from outside the field. Projects investigating patients from other post-acute infection contexts are eligible provided participants fulfil established ME/CFS diagnostic criteria.

7) The call is managed professionally by the Vienna Science and Technology Funds (WWTF). It works with two stages. In the first stage researchers only have to provide a short proposal to minimise the burden of writing applications and other formalities.

8) The best proposals are then invited to submit a full proposal in stage 2. The deadline for the (invitation-only) stage 2 is 10 November 2026. The expected funding decision will be around mid-December 2026. And the actual start of the projects is estimated at January 2027.