Dr. Laura Leonardis has been appointed as an expert member of the MIUR (Italian Ministry of University and Research) Advisory Board for the WIDERA programme (Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area) under Horizon Europe.
The Board will be responsible for contributing to the development of the 2026–2027 Work Programme, expected to be approved by autumn 2025.
In addition, the Board will actively contribute to shaping the new 2025–2027 European Research Area (ERA) Policy Agenda and the programming phase of the upcoming Tenth Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP10), which will replace Horizon Europe as the main EU funding instrument starting in 2028.
HEAL Italia is also represented on the Horizon Europe Cluster Health Advisory Board (WP 2026–2027) through the participation of Prof. Mauro Piacentini and Dr. Laura Leonardis.
In preparation for these key milestones, the Foundation is planning a strategic planning meeting with its full partnership network in September, with the goal of launching a joint programming table to identify priority areas of research and innovation and define a unified, strategic proposal.