Calls for proposals under this destination are directed towards the Key Strategic Orientation KSO-D ‘Creating a more resilient, inclusive and democratic European society’ of Horizon Europe’s Strategic Plan 2021-2024. Research and innovation supported under this destination should contribute to the impact area ‘Good health and high-quality accessible health care’ and in particular to the following expected impact, set out in the Strategic Plan for the health cluster: ‘citizens of all ages stay healthy and independent in a rapidly changing society thanks to healthier lifestyles and behaviours, healthier diets, healthier environments, improved evidence-based health policies, and more effective solutions for health promotion and disease prevention’. In addition, research and innovation supported under this destination could also contribute to the following impact areas: ‘High quality digital services for all’, ‘Sustainable food systems from farm to fork on land and sea’, and ‘Climate change mitigation and adaptation’.

People´s health care needs are different, depending on their age, stage of life and socio-economic background. Their physical and mental health and well-being can be influenced by their individual situation as well as the broader societal context they are living in. Furthermore, health education and behaviour are important factors. Currently, more than 790 000 deaths per year in Europe are due to risk factors such as smoking, drinking, physical inactivity, and obesity. Upbringing, income, education levels, social and gender aspects also have an impact on health risks and how diseases can be prevented. Moreover, people´s health can be impacted by a rapidly changing society, making it challenging to keep pace and find its way through new technological tools and societal changes, which both are increasing demands on the individual´s resilience. In order to leave no one behind, to reduce health inequalities and to support healthy and active lives for all, it is crucial to provide suitable and tailor-made solutions, including for people with specific needs. Preventing diseases from developing in the first place is at the core of successful public health programmes in the future.

As set out in the Strategic Plan 2021-2024, destination 1 focuses on major societal challenges that are part of the European Commission’s political priorities. This is why destination 1 in the work programme 2021-2022 covered immediate urgencies, notably a better understanding and prevention of mental illness, prevention of obesity, digital empowerment in health literacy, understanding the transition from health to disease and making use of AI tools to predict the risk for onset and progression of chronic diseases. The work programme 2023-2024 will complete the ambitions of the Strategic Plan by focussing on holistic and integrated approaches to disease prevention and health promotion, notably healthy ageing, on a life course approach to physical and mental health starting in early childhood and on personalised approaches to prevention of diseases.

More specifically, research and innovation supported under this destination will provide new tools, digitally enabled solutions and evidence-based health and care services to prevent and delay progression of age-related diseases. Research and innovation will also provide tailor made strategies and solutions to support children and adolescents adopting and maintaining person-centred healthy lifestyles. Specific measures will be developed to educate and empower citizens of all ages and throughout their life to play an active role in the self-management of their own health and self-care, to the benefit of an active and healthy ageing. This destination will also call for proposals specifically aiming to develop integrated and holistic personalised disease prevention strategies, making use of multiple data sources, including real-world health data. This initiative will build on the impressive advances made in the area of personalised medicine to treat diseases, but here the focus will be on personalised approaches to prevent rather than treat diseases.

Dialogue and coordination between stakeholders and policymakers as well as integration across different settings will be needed to develop more effective cross-sectoral solutions for holistic approaches to health promotion and disease prevention and deliver improved evidence-based health for all.

In view of increasing the impact of EU investments under Horizon Europe, the European Commission welcomes and supports cooperation between EU-funded projects to enable cross-fertilisation and other synergies. This could range from networking to joint activities such as the participation in joint workshops, the exchange of knowledge, the development and adoption of best practices, or joint communication activities. Opportunities for potential synergies exist between projects funded under the same topic, but also between other projects funded under another topic, cluster or pillar of Horizon Europe. In particular, this could involve projects related to European health research infrastructures (under pillar I of Horizon Europe), the EIC strategic challenges on health and EIT-KIC Health (under pillar III of Horizon Europe), or in areas cutting across the health and other clusters (under pillar II of Horizon Europe). For instance, with cluster 2 “Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society” such as on health inequalities, on other inequalities affecting health, or on citizens’ behaviour and engagement; with cluster 4 “Digital, Industry and Space” such as on digital tools, telemedicine or smart homes; with cluster 5 “Climate, Energy and Mobility” such as on urban health or on mitigating the impact of road traffic accidents and related injuries; with cluster 6 “Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment” such as on the role of nutrition for health (incl. human microbiome, mal- and over-nutrition, safe food), personalised diets (incl. food habits in general and childhood obesity in particular) and the impact of food-related environmental stressors on human health (incl. marketing and consumer habits).^[1]

Expected impacts:

Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to staying healthy in a rapidly changing society, and more specifically to one or several of the following impacts:

• Citizens adopt healthier lifestyles and behaviours, make healthier choices and maintain longer a healthy, independent and active life with a reduced disease burden, including at old ages or in other vulnerable stages of life.
• Citizens are able and empowered to manage better their own physical and mental health and well-being, monitor their health, and interact with their doctors and health care providers.
• Children and adolescents are empowered to better monitor and manage their physical, social and mental health with a view to lifelong healthy lifestyles.
• Society benefits from reduced economic and health burden from avoidable sickness, disease and premature death. Efficiency is increased by targeting scarce resources in appropriate, cost-effective ways, to areas of high social return, contributing to an improvement and optimisation of health and well-being of citizens and reduction of health inequalities.
• Citizens´ trust in knowledge-based health interventions and in guidance from health authorities is strengthened, including through improved health literacy, resulting in increased engagement in and adherence to effective strategies for health promotion, disease prevention and treatment, while digital literacy inequalities are minimised.
• Health policies and actions for health promotion and disease prevention are knowledge-based, people-centred, personalised and thus targeted and tailored to citizens' needs, and designed to reduce health inequalities.

[1] Strategic Plan 2021-2024 of Horizon Europe, Annex I, Table 2.

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