Today the EQT Foundation has launched another global fast-grant for rare disease science, designed to accelerate high-risk, high-reward research that rarely makes it through traditional funding filters.
Over 300 million people worldwide live with a rare disease - nearly half of them children. For most, the journey is marked by years-long diagnostic odysseys, frequent misdiagnosis, and a lifetime of symptoms with no approved or effective treatments. The result is profound suffering and an urgent unmet need.
According to Cilia Holmes Indahl, CEO of EQT Foundation, “rare diseases are among the most underserved areas in medicine, “yet they’ve catalysed some of our most transformative therapeutic breakthroughs, such as early gene therapy for severe immunodeficiencies and advanced, targeted biologics. “
EQT Foundation is seeking to award €25,000 to €100,000 in catalytic grant funding to research projects with innovative, translational approaches that have the potential for outsized patient outcomes in this space. I spoke to Cilia Holmes Indahl, CEO of EQT Foundation to learn more.
Indahl shared:
“Through our Breakthrough Science program, we’re offering fast, flexible grants to support researchers working at the edge of innovation, developing RNA-based tools, digital trial platforms, or scalable delivery technologies that can materially improve outcomes for small patient populations.”
Flipping the model on rare disease research funding
Rare disease research is often where breakthroughs begin; CRISPR, gene therapies, biologics, but the funding model hasn’t caught up. This new grant flips the model:
It offers €25–100K grants, deployed fast with decisions in weeks, not months.
Further, the grant is open globally, with a focus on underfunded and underrepresented rare conditions and is backed by EQT’s network of commercial, regulatory, and scientific experts to push ideas from lab to clinic.
According to Indahl, “many of these scientists are navigating complex, underfunded areas with limited data and fragmented infrastructure, and we want to give them the resources and support to move faster toward first-in-patient impact.”
Indahl contends that solving for rare diseases isn’t just about science:
“It’s about building the systems that allow breakthroughs to reach patients, wherever they are. At EQT Foundation, we’re focused on supporting translational science that goes beyond the lab.”
“Through the Breakthrough Science program, EQT Foundation offers more than just capital.
We connect researchers with a global network of healthcare experts, commercialisation support, and strategic partners who can help turn promising ideas into patient-ready solutions.
Whether it’s scaling trial models or improving access through decentralised diagnostics, we’re here to help science move faster, and further.”
The call out is particularly interested in funding initiatives focused on:
Novel therapeutic platforms & curative modalities: Bold approaches that treat rare diseases at their root cause with a clear path to IND/first-in-patient.
This includes enzyme replacement therapies, oral therapies (e.g. neurotransmitter modulators), gene therapies, RNA-based therapeutics (e.g. RNA-based gene modulation, RNA interference), synergistic approaches, and delivery engineering (e.g. alternative delivery approaches, vector optimisation, CMC, in-process analytics), and n-of-few/one toolchains that responsibly scale individualized medicines.
Biomarkers for trial enablement, with selective early detection: The discovery, validation, and development of assays for novel prognostic biomarkers and candidate surrogate outcome measures that improve small-population trial design. Instrument-light or ultra-rapid molecular assays using new chemistries or microfluidics that materially shorten the diagnostic odyssey for patients in underserved settings and have a clear path to impact.
Trial & evidence acceleration (path to first-in-patient): Deeptech methods that turn scarce, fragmented and small-N data into regulatory-grade evidence and accelerate the path to first-in-patient within 12-18 months.
Examples could include FAIR-aligned, interoperable registries for a specific rare disease network; submission ready natural-history and digital biomarker platforms; AI-enabled drug repurposing with a clear clinical evidence plan for new indication.
Access-enabling technology: Rare diseases affect people worldwide, and the Foundation encourages ideas that benefit patients in low-resource or remote settings.
This could mean developing cost-effective therapies or diagnostics that can be deployed in healthcare systems with limited infrastructure, or process innovations that lower cost and complexity of manufacturing/distribution suitable for constrained settings and tied to measurable patient outcomes for individuals with rare conditions.
Innovative disease models & mechanistic insights: Human-relevant models (e.g., patient-derived iPSCs, 3D organoids, organ-on-chip) that recapitulate rare-disease biology and de-risk targets/therapeutics — enabling biomarker discovery, patient stratification, and decision-grade preclinical evidence.
The EQT Foundation supports entrepreneurs, researchers, and non-profits to build a regenerative and more inclusive tomorrow. Founded by Partners at EQT, the foundation exists to push the frontiers of impact, empower the entire EQT ecosystem to give back to society in meaningful ways, and safeguard the EQT Values.
Applications are open.
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