European Commission DG Health and Consumer Protection – Public Health 2008 – 2013
Application deadline: May 23, 2008


The overall aim of the Health Programme is to finance actions which contribute to improving and protecting human health.

The general objectives of the programme are:
To improve citizens’ health security:
– developing EU and Member States’ capacity to respond to health threats, for example with health emergency planning and preparedness measures
– actions related to patient safety, injuries and accidents, risk assessment and community legislation on blood, tissues and cells
To promote health, including the reduction of health inequalities:
– action on health determinants – such as nutrition, alcohol, tobacco and drug consumption, as well as social and environmental determinants
– measures on the prevention of major diseases and bridging health inequalities across the EU
– increasing healthy life years and promoting healthy ageing
To generate and disseminate health information and knowledge:
– action on health indicators and ways of disseminating information to citizens
– focus on Community added-value action to exchange knowledge in areas such as gender issues, children’s health or rare diseases.

Financing mechanisms: To ensure full participation in the Programme by organisations which promote a health agenda in line with the Programme objectives, a wider variety of financing mechanisms are offered. These include:
– cofinancing of projects intended to achieve a Programme objective
– tendering actions to achieve a Programme objective
– cofinancing of the operating costs of a non-governmental organisation or a specialised network
– joint financing of a public body or non-governmental organisation by the Community and one or more Member States
– joint actions with other Community programmes, which will generate coherence between this instrument and other Community programmes.

Countries eligible to participate: 27 EU Member States: Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway; the candidate countries -Turkey and Croatia according to the co-operation agreements.

Participation is open to a wide range of organisations, including:
– research institutes and universities
– public administrations
– non-governmental organisations
– commercial firms
Different participation rules apply, depending on the funding scheme of the initiative in question.

More information
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_programme/howtoapply/call_for_propal_en.htm
E-mail: sanco-mailbox@ec.europa.eu