| program objectives | The aims of this cluster include improving and protecting the health and well-being of citizens of all ages by generating new knowledge, developing innovative solutions and integrating where relevant a gender perspective to prevent, diagnose, monitor, treat and cure diseases.
Further aims include developing health technologies, mitigating health risks, protecting populations and promoting good health and well-being in general and at work.
Finally, this cluster also aims to make public health systems more cost-effective, equitable and sustainable, prevent and tackle poverty-related diseases and support and enable patients' participation and self-management.
Areas of intervention
- health throughout the life course;
- environmental and social health determinants;
- non-communicable and rare diseases;
- infectious diseases including poverty-related and neglected diseases;
- tools, technologies and digital solutions for health and care including personalised medicine;
- health care systems.
Destination 1 "Staying healthy in a rapidly changing society" will focus on major societal challenges that are part of the European Commission’s political priorities, notably diet and health (obesity), ageing and demographic change, mental health, digital empowerment in health literacy, and personalised prevention.
Destination 2 "Living and working in a health-promoting environment" aims at filling knowledge gaps in the understanding of the impacts on our health and well-being of those environmental, occupational and socio-economic risk factors that have the most significant or widespread societal impacts.
Destination 3 "Tackling diseases and reducing disease burden" will focus on major societal challenges linked to the Commission’s political priorities such as the fight against cancer and other non-communicable diseases, better diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases, preparedness and response to and surveillance of health threats and epidemics, reduction of the number of antimicrobial-resistant infections, improving vaccination rates, demographic change, mental health and digital empowerment in health literacy.
Under destination 4 "Ensuring access to innovative, sustainable and high-quality health care", research and innovation aims at supporting health care systems in their transformation to ensure fair access to sustainable health care services of high quality for all citizens. Funded activities should support the development of innovative, feasible, implementable, financially sound and scalable solutions in the various dimensions of health care systems (e.g. governance, financing, human and physical resources, health service provision, and patient empowerment).
Destination 5 "Unlocking the full potential of new tools, technologies and digital solutions for a healthy society" aims to promote the development of tools, technologies and digital solutions for treatments, medicines, medical devices and improved health outcomes, taking into consideration safety, effectiveness, appropriateness, accessibility, comparative value-added and fiscal sustainability as well as issues of ethical, legal and regulatory nature.
In order to address in particular green and digital transitions and proper supply of health technologies and products, destination 6 "Maintaining an innovative, sustainable and globally competitive health industry" will focus on research and innovation activities that aim at:
- Production of pharmaceuticals in compliance with the objectives of the European Green Deal.
- Methodologies, guidelines and standards, assessment studies, and structuring activities adapted to digital solutions and interventions for GDPR compliant translation into health care practice, including inter-operability, cyber-security and data confidentiality.
- Public authorities supported with better methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches to assess and value new health technologies and interventions.
- Development of pharmaceutical products meeting unmet medical needs in the context of market failures.
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| Expected effects and impacts |
Destination 1:
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;
- Citizens´ trust in knowledge-based health interventions and in guidance from health authorities is strengthened, including through improved health literacy (including at young ages), resulting in increased engagement in and adherence to effective strategies for health promotion, diseases prevention and treatment, including increased vaccination rates and patient safety;
- Health policies and actions for health promotion and disease prevention are knowledge-based, people-centred and thus targeted and tailored to citizens' needs, and designed to reduce health inequalities.
Destination 2:
Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to living and working in a health-promoting environment, and more specifically to one or several of the following impacts:
- Policy-makers and regulators are aware and well informed about environmental, socio-economic and occupational risk factors as well as health-promoting factors across society;
- Environmental, occupational, social, economic, fiscal and health policies and practices at the EU, national and regional level are sustainable and based on solid scientific evidence. These include overarching policy frameworks such as the European Green Deal, the Chemical Strategy for Sustainability, the 8th Environment Action Programme, the EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work and the European Environment and Health Process led by the World Health Organization;
- The upstream determinants of disease - related to choices in energy generation, agricultural practices, industrial production, land use planning, built environment and construction - are known, understood and reduced;
- The health threats and burden resulting from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination is reduced, so that the related number of deaths and illnesses is substantially reduced by 2030;
- Living and working environments in European cities and regions are healthier, more inclusive, safer, resilient and sustainable;
- The adaptive capacity and resilience of populations and health systems in the EU to climate and environmental change-related health risks is strengthened;
- Citizens’ health and well-being is protected and promoted, and premature deaths, diseases and inequalities related to environmental pollution and degradation are prevented;
- Citizens understand better complex environment and health issues, and effective measures to address them and support related policies and regulations.
Destination 3:
Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to tackling diseases and reducing disease burden, and more specifically to several of the following impacts:
- Health burden of diseases in the EU and worldwide is reduced through effective disease management, including through the development and integration of innovative diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, personalised medicine approaches, digital and other people-centred solutions for health care. In particular, patients are diagnosed early and accurately and receive effective, cost-efficient and affordable treatment, including patients with a rare disease, due to effective translation of research results into new diagnostic tools and therapies;
- Premature mortality from non-communicable diseases is reduced by one third (by 2030), mental health and well-being is promoted, and the voluntary targets of the WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs 2013-2020 are attained (by 2025), with an immediate impact on the related disease burden (DALYs)[[WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs 2013-2020 (resolution WHA66.10), https://www.who.int/nmh/events/ncd_action_plan/en.]],[[Including for instance the following voluntary targets (against the 2010 baseline): A 25% relative reduction in the overall mortality from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, or chronic respiratory diseases; Halt the rise in diabetes and obesity; An 80% availability of the affordable basic technologies and essential medicines, including generics, required to treat major non-communicable diseases in both public and private facilities.]],[[Disability-adjusted life year (DALY) is a quantitative indicator of overall disease burden, expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death.]];
- Health care systems benefit from strengthened research and innovation expertise, human capacities and know-how for combatting communicable and non-communicable diseases, including through international cooperation. In particular, they are better prepared to respond rapidly and effectively to health emergencies and are able to prevent and manage communicable diseases transmissions epidemics, including within healthcare settings;
- Citizens benefit from reduced (cross-border) health threat of epidemics and AMR pathogens, in the EU and worldwide[[WHO global action plan on antimicrobial resistance, 2015.]],[[EU One Health Action Plan against AMR, 2017.]]. In particular, the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases are contained and hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases are being combated[[Target 3.3 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, 2015.]];
- Patients and citizens are knowledgeable of disease threats, involved and empowered to make and shape decisions for their health, and better adhere to knowledge-based disease management strategies and policies (especially for controlling outbreaks and emergencies).
The EU benefits from high visibility, leadership and standing in international fora on global health and global health security, especially in partnership with Africa.
Destination 4:
Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to ensuring access to innovative, sustainable and high-quality health care, and more specifically to one or several of the following impacts:
- Health and social care services and systems have improved governance mechanisms and are more effective, efficient, accessible, resilient, trusted and sustainable, both fiscally and environmentally. Health promotion and disease prevention will be at their heart, by shifting from hospital-centred to community-based, people-centred and integrated health care structures and successfully embedding technological innovations that meet public health needs, while patient safety and quality of services is increased;
- Health care providers are trained and equipped with the skills and competences suited for the future needs of health care systems that are modernised, digitally transformed and equipped with innovative tools, technologies and digital solutions for health care. They save time and resources by integrating and applying innovative technologies, which better involve patients in their own care, by reorganising workflows and redistributing tasks and responsibilities throughout the health care system, and by monitoring and analysing corresponding health care activities;
- Citizens are supported to play a key role in managing their own health care, informal carers (including unpaid carers) are fully supported (e.g. by preventing overburdening and economic stress) and specific needs of more vulnerable groups are recognised and addressed. They benefit from improved access to health care services, including financial risk protection, timely access to quality essential health care services, including safe, effective, and affordable essential medicines and vaccines;
- Health policy and systems adopt a holistic approach (individuals, communities, organisations, society) for the evaluation of health outcomes and value of public health interventions, the organisation of health care, and decision-making;
- The actions resulting from the calls under this destination will also create strong opportunities for synergies with the EU4Health programme and in particular to contribute to the goals under general objectives:
- 1a “protecting people in the Union from serious cross-border threats to health and strengthening the responsiveness of health systems and coordination among the Member States to cope with those thre;ats” and
- 3 “strengthening health systems by improving their resilience and resource efficiency, in particular through:
- supporting integrated and coordinated work between Member States;
- promoting the implementation of best practices on data sharing;
- reinforcing the healthcare workforce;
- tackling the implications of demographic challenges; and
- advancing digital transformation”.
Destination 5:
Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway towards unlocking the full potential of new tools, technologies and digital solutions for a healthy society, and more specifically to several of the following expected impacts:
- Europe’s scientific and technological expertise and know-how, its capabilities for innovation in new tools, technologies and digital solutions, and its ability to take-up, scale-up and integrate innovation in health care is world-class;
- Citizens benefit from targeted and faster research resulting in safer, more efficient, cost-effective and affordable tools, technologies and digital solutions for improved (personalised) disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring for better patient outcome and well-being, in particular through increasingly shared health resources (interoperable data, infrastructure, expertise, citizen/patient driven co-creation).[[Commission Communication on the digital transformation of health and care; COM(2018) 233 final.]];
- The EU gains high visibility and leadership in terms of health technology development, including through international cooperation;
- The burden of diseases in the EU and worldwide is reduced through the development and integration of innovative diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, personalised medicine approaches, digital and other people-centred solutions for health care;
- Both the productivity of health research and innovation, and the quality and outcome of health care is improved thanks to the use of health data and innovative analytical tools, such as artificial intelligence (AI) supported decision-making, in a secure and ethical manner, respecting individual integrity and underpinned with public acceptance and trust;
- Citizens trust and support the opportunities offered by innovative technologies for health care, based on expected health outcomes and potential risks involved.
Destination 6:
Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to maintaining an innovative, sustainable and globally competitive health industry, and more specifically to one or several of the following expected impacts:
- Health industry in the EU is more competitive and sustainable, assuring European leadership in breakthrough health technologies and strategic autonomy in essential medical supplies and digital technologies, contributing to job creation and economic growth, in particular with small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs);
- Health industry is working more efficiently along the value chain from the identification of needs to the scale-up and take-up of solutions at national, regional or local level, including through early engagement with patients, health care providers, health authorities and regulators ensuring suitability and acceptance of solutions;
- European standards, including for operations involving health data, ensure patient safety and quality of healthcare services as well as effectiveness and interoperability of health innovation and productivity of innovators;
- Citizens, health care providers and health systems benefit from a swift uptake of innovative health technologies and services offering significant improvements in health outcomes, while health industry in the EU benefits from decreased time-to-market;
- Health security in the EU benefits from reliable access to key manufacturing capacity, including timely provision of essential medical supplies of particularly complex or critical supply and distribution chains, such as regards vaccines or medical radioisotopes.
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