🧬 Be DynaMIC — Issue #2 Microfluidics, Macro Impact
Your monthly pulse on what’s flowing in the field
Published by the Microfluidics Innovation Center (MIC)
⏱️ Reading time: 4 min
Here’s where Flowbert was hiding last month! Scroll down for a fresh challenge in this issue.
👀 What You’ll Learn This Issue
Funding Smarts: Sneak Peek! Leaked Drafts of Horizon Europe 2026 Health Calls
Fluid Innovation: A microdevice that spins clots away, and what it teaches us about flow.
Find Flowbert: Our Chief Curiosity Cat has traveled to the 1990s for this one.
🧭 Funding & Policy
Sneak Peek: Leaked Drafts of Horizon Europe 2026 Health Calls
Unofficial (but historically accurate) drafts of the Horizon Europe 2026–2027 Cluster 1 Health calls are circulating, and they’re packed with early opportunities where microfluidics could add impact.
🗓️ Indicative timeline:
Opening: 10 Feb 2026
Deadline: 16 Apr 2026 (single-stage)
1. Emphasis on Translational & Regulatory Relevance
There’s a strong push for in vitro, human-relevant models (e.g., TOOL-03: NAMs) that explicitly mention regulatory alignment and animal model replacement.
Calls increasingly expect proposals to include pathways to clinical or policy translation, not just proof-of-concept science.
💡 For microfluidics: Organ-on-chip and perfused models fit perfectly, especially if tied to real-world validation or regulatory contexts.
2. Cross-cutting Links with Environment & Climate
ENVHLTH-01 ties health impacts directly to climate stressors (pollutants, heat).
This suggests environmental exposure modeling (e.g., air–tissue interfaces, water contaminants) will be fundable outside pure environmental clusters.
💡 Opportunities: Microfluidics can provide controlled exposure platforms bridging climate science and health biology, but there are also opportunities in epidemiological modeling, AI-driven early warning systems, socio-behavioral studies, and more.
3. Integration of Digital and Data Layers
DISEASE-02 (Youth mental health & digital tech) implies a behavioral + biological intersection.
There’s language encouraging the integration of wearables, sensors, and data streams with lab models.
💡 Trend: Pairing microfluidic outputs (biomarkers, organ-chip data) with AI/data-driven analysis could be a differentiator. Digital phenotyping, AI-driven mental health screening tools, VR/AR-based interventions, and longitudinal cohort studies are also emerging trends.
4. Pandemic Preparedness Is Still Front-and-Center
DISEASE-04 (Epidemic virus vaccines) continues the COVID-driven emphasis, with scope for rapid-response preclinical systems.
💡 Opportunities: mRNA vaccine formulation and delivery systems, clinical trial acceleration tools, biomanufacturing innovations, cold-chain logistics and distribution modeling, and behavioral science approaches are all interesting areas. For microfluidics, droplet-based high-throughput screening or miniaturized immune assays align well here.
5. Personalization & Biological Diversity
DISEASE-11 (Sex-specific cardiovascular pathways) explicitly calls out sex differences, signaling broader interest in personalized/stratified approaches (age, sex, genetics).
💡 Angle: Sex-specific genomics and proteomics, stratified clinical trials, hormone-modulating therapies, data harmonization across cohorts, and regulatory frameworks are possible avenues to explore. Microfluidics can enable integration of sex-specific organ-on-chip assays with genomic and proteomic analyses to study diversity in drug response or disease risk.
6. Early Signaling on 2027 Priorities
The drafts hint at mental health, aging populations, and AI-integrated health tools extending into 2027, a good window for building capacity early.
⚠️ Reminder: These are unofficial drafts but typically align closely with the final calls. Starting discussions early could give your consortium a competitive edge.
Want early input or a partner? MIC brings flow expertise (perfusion, droplet, organ-on-chip) and EU project experience (15 ongoing). Let’s explore synergies while these drafts are still fresh.
📄 Curious to dive deeper? [Download the unofficial Horizon Europe 2026–2027 Health Work Programme PDF here.]
👉 And stay tuned: Next month, we’ll cover the Food & Agriculture (Cluster 6) drafts, with a spotlight on where microfluidics might make a surprising impact.
🧪 Flow Curious
From serendipity to surgery: spinning clots away
Bundell, Nature (July 2025)
📖 Read the article
💡 In a nutshell: A chance observation of spinning effects on clots led to the ‘Milli-spinner’, a device that gently rotates blood clots out of vessels. It could transform how strokes and vascular blockages are treated.
🌀 Why it’s clever:
Traditional suction thrombectomy often leaves clots behind.
Fluid vortices draw clots away from vessel walls, reducing trauma.
Small enough to target fragile or narrow vessels.
🕵️♂️ Where’s Flowbert?
Flowbert, our Chief Curiosity Cat, is also a time traveller!
Each month, he hides in an image: a chip close-up, a lab scene, or even an unexpected era.
This time, he’s prowling a 1990s wastewater bio-lab in Germany.
Your mission:
🔍 Find Flowbert, our black-and-white cat, and claim eternal bragging rights in the microfluidics world.
(No prizes, just pride.)
Happy Flow-hunting!