Call for proposals on lifelong prevention for a healthy life with focus on cardiovascular diseases

Grant Purpose and Target

• Core Objective: To contribute to reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), with a particular focus on cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, and their risk factors across the lifespan by supporting Member States' health promotion and prevention actions.
• Funding Organization: European Commission, managed by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA).
• Target Recipients: The call is open to a wide range of legal entities. While not exhaustively listed, this typically includes public authorities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), universities, research institutions, and private for-profit entities (such as SMEs and larger enterprises) involved in public health.
• Sector Focus: SECTOR-SPECIFIC. This grant is exclusively focused on the Healthcare and Public Health sectors.
• Geographic Scope: Applicants must be legal entities established in EU Member States or other eligible countries associated with the EU4Health programme. The specific list of eligible countries is detailed in the call document.
• Key Filtering Criteria: The grant seeks proposals for large-scale projects focused on piloting and scaling up population-level interventions. Key activities include capacity-building, developing and piloting tools, and running innovative public health campaigns. The total available budget for this topic is EUR 2,000,000.

Financial Structure

Funding Range

• Total Topic Budget: EUR 2,000,000.
• Individual Grant Size: The minimum and maximum funding amounts per project are not specified in the provided materials. Applicants should propose a budget that is realistic for the scale of their proposed action.

Co-financing

• Funding Rate: The grant provides co-financing of up to 60% of the total eligible costs.
• Exceptional Utility Bonus: The funding rate can be increased to a maximum of 80% for actions demonstrating 'exceptional utility'. The criteria for exceptional utility are defined in the EU4Health Work Programme and may be linked to factors like the Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of participating countries.

Eligible Costs

• Eligible costs are those directly linked to the action's implementation and necessary for its execution. As per the standard Model Grant Agreement, this includes:
  • Personnel costs: Salaries and social security contributions for staff working on the project.
  • Subcontracting costs: For specific tasks outsourced to third parties.
  • Purchase costs: Travel and subsistence, equipment (depreciation or full cost, depending on the rules), and other goods, works, and services (e.g., consumables, dissemination).
  • Indirect costs: A flat rate of 7% of the total eligible direct costs is applied to cover general overheads (e.g., office rent, utilities).

Ineligible Costs

• Costs that are not eligible for reimbursement include, but are not limited to:
  • Deductible or refundable VAT.
  • Debt and debt service charges.
  • Provisions for future losses or debts.
  • Interest owed and currency exchange losses.
  • Return on capital and dividends.

Payment & Reporting

• Payments are managed through the coordinator and typically consist of:
  • An initial pre-financing payment to provide a cash float.
  • One or more interim payments based on periodic reports of incurred costs.
  • A final payment of the balance upon approval of the final report.

Eligibility Requirements

Formal Criteria

• Legal Status: Applicants must be legally established legal entities, such as public bodies, non-profit organisations, or private companies.
• Consortium: While the call documents must be checked for definitive requirements, the nature of the call (supporting Member States' actions) strongly suggests that proposals should be submitted by a consortium of partners from multiple eligible countries. Single-entity applications may be permissible but are likely less competitive.
• Operational and Financial Capacity: Applicants must demonstrate they have the stable and sufficient financial resources and the necessary professional competencies and qualifications to carry out the proposed action.

Organizational Status

• The grant materials do not specify mandatory legal structures, sizes, or certifications beyond being a valid legal entity. It is open to public authorities, NGOs, educational institutions, and private for-profit organisations.

Technical Expertise

• Proposals must demonstrate expertise in areas relevant to the scope of the call, including:
  • Public health and prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), particularly cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
  • Health promotion, health literacy, and development of awareness campaigns.
  • Tackling risk factors such as tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy diets, and physical inactivity.
  • Addressing the mental wellbeing impact of social media, especially on young people.
  • Experience with piloting community-level public health interventions.

Exclusion Criteria

• Applicants will be excluded if they are in any of the situations described in the EU Financial Regulation, including:
  • Bankruptcy or similar insolvency proceedings.
  • Breach of obligations relating to the payment of taxes or social security contributions.
  • Grave professional misconduct, fraud, corruption, or involvement in a criminal organisation.

Application Practical Information

Deadlines

• Opening Date: The submission system opens on 23 September 2025.
• Application Deadline: 06 January 2026, 17:00:00 Brussels Time (CET). The specific time is not explicitly stated in the provided documents but is the standard for most EU calls. Applicants must verify the exact time on the Funding & Tenders Portal.
• Evaluation Timeline: The indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement signature is described in section 4 of the call document, which was not provided.

Required Documents

• The application must be submitted electronically via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal and must include:
  • Application Form (Part A & B): Part A contains administrative data, while Part B is the technical description of the project.
  • Detailed Budget Table: A specific Excel template for EU4H grants.

Application Process

• The application process is a single-stage procedure.
• Proposals must be submitted through the EU Funding & Tenders Portal's electronic submission service before the deadline.
• Applicants must register their organisation in the Participant Register to obtain a Participant Identification Code (PIC) before applying.

Support

• Type of Support: The grant primarily offers financial support in the form of a co-funded project grant.
• Contact for Help: For questions related to the call, applicants can contact HaDEA at [email protected]. For technical issues with the portal, an IT Helpdesk is available.

Post-Award Obligations

• Implementation: Beneficiaries are responsible for implementing the action as described in Annex 1 of the Grant Agreement.
• Reporting: Beneficiaries must submit periodic technical and financial reports throughout the project's duration, as well as a final report. Continuous reporting on deliverables and milestones is also required via the portal.

Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation criteria and scoring are detailed in section 9 of the call document. Based on standard EU grant practices and the grant's objectives, proposals will likely be assessed against the following core criteria:

Scoring Factors

• Relevance: The extent to which the project aligns with the objectives and scope of the call, particularly its focus on lifelong prevention of NCDs like cardiovascular disease and its contribution to supporting Member States' efforts.
• Quality of Design and Implementation: The clarity, pertinence, and coherence of the project's methodology, work plan, and risk management. This includes the soundness of the proposed piloting activities, capacity-building actions, and development of tools.
• Impact: The potential for the project to achieve significant and lasting positive effects. This includes the scalability of the proposed interventions, the potential to improve public health outcomes, and the effectiveness of the dissemination strategy.

Innovation & Impact

• Projects are expected to pilot innovative and ambitious public health interventions and outreach actions.
• The expected impact includes an increased number of public health interventions being scaled up in Member States, leading to measurable improvements in health promotion and the prevention of NCDs and their risk factors.
• Proposals should demonstrate how they will support the efforts of Member States in addressing the challenges of an ageing population by strengthening lifelong prevention.

Project Quality

• The project methodology must be robust and well-suited for the proposed activities, which include capacity-building, developing and piloting tools, and implementing community-level actions.
• Feasibility of the project within the proposed timeline and budget is a critical factor.
• The structure and management of the consortium, and the distribution of tasks among partners, will be assessed to ensure effective implementation.

Strategic Fit

• Projects must directly address the core objective of reducing the burden of NCDs, with a clear focus on cardiovascular diseases.
• Alignment with the specific targets mentioned in the scope is crucial: lifelong prevention, active ageing, reducing tobacco and alcohol use, promoting healthy diets/physical activity, and mitigating the mental health impact of social media on young people.

Cross-cutting Themes

• A focus on vulnerable groups is explicitly mentioned in the scope and is a key consideration. Proposals should detail how they will target and improve health literacy for these populations.
• While not explicitly detailed in the provided summary, gender equality, inclusion, and sustainability are standard cross-cutting priorities for EU funding and will likely be considered during evaluation.

Compliance and Special Requirements

Regulatory Compliance

• Ethics: Projects must adhere to the highest ethical standards and comply with all applicable EU, international, and national laws on ethical principles. If activities involve human participants (e.g., patient groups, vulnerable populations), approvals from relevant ethics committees are mandatory.
• Data Protection: Any processing of personal data must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR - Regulation (EU) 2016/679).

IP Policy

• Ownership: Results generated by the beneficiaries are owned by them.
• Rights of Use: The European Union retains a royalty-free, non-exclusive, and irrevocable license to use the action's non-sensitive information and materials for communication, dissemination, and publicity purposes.
• Specific rules on Intellectual Property are detailed in the Model Grant Agreement.

Unique Aspects

• The call has a strong focus on lifelong prevention and targets a wide range of risk factors beyond traditional health metrics, including the mental health impact of social media.
• A key element is supporting Member States' actions, which implies that projects should have a clear transnational dimension and demonstrate how they will contribute to public health policies at the national level.
• The scope explicitly targets all age groups, with a particular focus on children, adolescents, and older generations, as well as vulnerable groups.

Industry-Specific Rules

• As the grant is in the Healthcare sector, projects must comply with all relevant national and EU regulations concerning public health interventions, medical data, patient rights, and clinical practices where applicable.