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Call key data
Resilience and mental wellbeing of the health and care workforce
Call number
HORIZON-HLTH-2023-CARE-04-02
deadlines
Opening
12.01.2023
Deadline
13.04.2023 17:00
Funding rate
100%
Call budget
€ 20,000,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
between € 4,000,000.00 and € 6,000,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
Call objectives
A resilient workforce in the health and care sectors is essential for the sustainability and prosperity of our societies. However, careers in the health and care sector can be physically and mentally taxing by submitting health professionals and carers to psychosocial risks (for example heavy workload, stressful working conditions, risk of exposure to infectious agents, precariousness, ethical stress etc.). Many health professionals and carers also commute to work or have migrated to work in a new country. This adds to the struggle of health and care systems to attract new people to their workforce, but also to maintain the ones already working. A combination of factors such as changes in work organisation, budgetary and administrative pressures faced by health and care systems, systemic shortages of health professionals, precarious working conditions, structural inequalities and leaps in technological innovation may leave health and care workers with feelings of helplessness, physical or mental vulnerability or moral injury.
Technological innovations (including digitisation, big data and artificial intelligence applications) provide opportunities for a more efficient provision of health and care services, and for lightening the workload of health and care workers. However, they also create new risks, potentially affecting the mental wellbeing of the workforce. For example, new skills, requirements, new organisational models, performance monitoring by algorithms, lack of control or accountability in workplace decisions, ethical questions, are elements that can increase stress and hamper the ability of health and care workers to function in their jobs on a daily basis.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put a strain on health and care workers’ resilience and exacerbated mental health issues that were already a problem pre-pandemic, ranging from anxiety due to increased workload to burnout and post-traumatic stress disorder. Informal carers suffer from similar stress, potentially caused by different factors, such as the need to provide care which keeps them away from employment and puts them at an increased risk of poverty. Lack of acknowledgement that one’s mental health is deteriorating, barriers to seeking help or the stigma that still surrounds mental illness may impede people from addressing such problems early enough. Different socio-economic groups are affected to different extents: in emerging virus outbreaks prior to the COVID-19 pandemic lower educational level among other things was associated with higher risk for adverse psychological outcomes among health workers.
Successful proposals should address several of the following activities:
- Collect and analyse new evidence and data generation – on occupation-specific factors building the resilience, mental health well-being of health and care workers, or informal carers. Where appropriate, evidence should be gathered and analysed on the interplay of such factors with non-occupation specific factors (e.g. genetic, social etc.). Where relevant, such evidence should be target-group specific, considering variation of challenges for professionals working in various settings (primary care, hospitals, residential care institutions, disadvantaged geographic locations).
- Develop action-oriented recommendations to policymakers, employers, social partners and relevant civil society organisations at the appropriate levels (EU, national, regional, local) based on evidence generated by the proposed action. Such recommendations should suggest (cost-)effective policy interventions or elements for further research aiming to promote the resilience, mental health and well-being of health and care workers. They should be based on cost-benefit studies and ex-ante evaluations of proposed interventions.
- Develop, or identify, innovative solutions (including digitally enabled ones), organisational models and management approaches to support health policymakers, employers and formal or informal health and care workers in promoting resilience, mental health and well-being in the workplace.
- Develop financing and resource allocation models to ensure access to support and mental health services for health and care workers and informal carers.
- Carry out testing and validation activities for new or improved solutions improving conditions for health and care workers or informal carers according to specific factors influencing their mental well-being.
Proposals can identify one or more worker groups or informal carers as target of R&I activities, based on credible scientific criteria.
This topic requires the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities (SSH) disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, health and care professionals associations and (informal) carers associations, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.
All projects funded under this topic are strongly encouraged to participate in networking and joint activities, as appropriate. Therefore, proposals should include a budget for the attendance to regular joint meetings and may consider covering the costs of any other potential joint activities without the prerequisite to detail concrete joint activities at this stage. The details of these joint activities will be defined during the grant agreement preparation phase.
With women making up over 70% of EU health care professionals and employees in the care sector and a great part of informal carers, an appropriate gender approach is essential in research and policy interventions, to prevent or mitigate workplace inequalities and imbalances. Researchers and policymakers should also take into account the inclusion dimension, as a significant share of health professionals or care workers typically come from minority groups, whether through declared or undeclared work.
Proposals should consider potential synergies and avoid overlaps with ongoing calls or actions funded under EU or national programmes for example the future cofunded partnership on Transforming Health and Care Systems (THCS).
Proposals are encouraged to take into account, when relevant, the EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work (2021-2027), the report on mental health and most importantly, the recommendations and analysis presented in the Expert Panel on effective ways of investing in health (EXPH) opinion on supporting the mental health of the health workforce and of other essential workers.
Applicants envisaging to include clinical studies should provide details of their clinical studies in the dedicated annex using the template provided in the submission system. See definition of clinical studies in the introduction to this work programme part.
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Expected effects and impacts
Expected results
- Health and care workers receive support (including mental health support), access to tools and guidance that enhances their wellbeing and ability to adapt to changing working conditions, as a result of new technologies, new work models or unexpected adverse events, including during public health emergencies and when under ethical stress.
- Decision- and policymakers, employers and social partners in the health and care sectors have knowledge of the specific risks for the resilience, mental health and well-being of health and care professionals and informal carers. They have access to solutions (regulatory, organisational, technological, educational, HR, health services) to prevent and manage them, based on the integrated development of work processes and wellbeing at work and on the study of effects of clustered work stressors on work ability and recovery from work.
- Funders of health and care provision have access to evidence, novel approaches and cost-effective recommendations for interventions supporting the mental health and well-being of health and care workers at individual, organisation and sector levels.
- Policymakers cooperate with relevant stakeholders, including health and care professionals associations and social partners to foster specific solutions to improve resilience and well-being of health workers and carers including informal carers, and fight the accumulation of stressors.
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
Moldova (Moldova), Albania (Shqipëria), Armenia (Հայաստան), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина), Faeroes (Føroyar / Færøerne), Georgia (საქართველო), Iceland (Ísland), Israel (ישראל / إِسْرَائِيل), Kosovo (Kosova/Kosovë / Косово), Montenegro (Црна Гора), Morocco (المغرب), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Norway (Norge), Serbia (Srbija/Сpбија), Tunisia (تونس /Tūnis), Türkiye, Ukraine (Україна), United Kingdom
eligible entities
EU Body, Education and training institution, International organization, Natural Person, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)
Mandatory partnership
Yes
Project Partnership
To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
- the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions
- the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States
- third countries associated to Horizon Europe - see list of particpating countries
Applications may be submitted by one or more legal entities, which may be established in a Member State, Associated Country or, in exceptional cases and if provided for in the specific call conditions, in another third country.
In recognition of the opening of the US National Institutes of Health’s programmes to European researchers, any legal entity established in the United States of America is eligible to receive Union funding.
Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call topic.
A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.
Specific cases:
- Affiliated entities — Affiliated entities (i.e. entities with a legal or capital link to a beneficiary which participate in the action with similar rights and obligations to the beneficiaries, but which do not sign the grant agreement and therefore do not become beneficiaries themselves) are allowed, if they are eligible for participation and funding.
- Associated partners — Associated partners (i.e. entities which participate in the action without signing the grant agreement, and without the right to charge costs or claim contributions) are allowed, subject to any conditions regarding associated partners set out in the specific call conditions.
- Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees to protect the EU’s financial interests equivalent to those offered by legal persons.
- EU bodies — Legal entities created under EU law including decentralised agencies may be part of the consortium, unless provided for otherwise in their basic act.
- Joint Research Centre (‘JRC’)— Where provided for in the specific call conditions, applicants may include in their proposals the possible contribution of the JRC but the JRC will not participate in the preparation and submission of the proposal. Applicants will indicate the contribution that the JRC could bring to the project based on the scope of the topic text. After the evaluation process, the JRC and the consortium selected for funding may come to an agreement on the specific terms of the participation of the JRC. If an agreement is found, the JRC may accede to the grant agreement as beneficiary requesting zero funding or participate as an associated partner, and would accede to the consortium as a member.
- Associations and interest groupings — Entities composed of members (e.g. European research infrastructure consortia (ERICs)) may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality’. However, if the action is in practice implemented by the individual members, those members should also participate (either as beneficiaries or as affiliated entities, otherwise their costs will NOT be eligible.
Additional information
Topics
Relevance for EU Macro-Region
EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region
UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)
Additional Information
All proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funders & Tenders Portal electronic submission system (accessible via the topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section). Paper submissions are NOT possible.
Proposals must be complete and contain all parts and mandatory annexes and supporting documents, e.g. plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results including communication activities, etc.
The application form will have two parts:
- Part A (to be filled in directly online) contains administrative information about the applicant organisations (future coordinator and beneficiaries and affiliated entities), the summarised budget for the proposal and call-specific questions;
- Part B (to be downloaded from the Portal submission system, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded as a PDF in the system) contains the technical description of the project.
Annexes and supporting documents will be directly available in the submission system and must be uploaded as PDF files (or other formats allowed by the system).
The limit for a full application (Part B) is 45 pages.
The award criteria are described in General Annex D. The following exceptions apply: The thresholds for each criterion will be 4 (Excellence), 4 (Impact) and 3 (Implementation). The cumulative threshold will be 12.
Call documents
HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 1, Destination 4HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 1, Destination 4(379kB)
Contact
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