Deadline: 25-Jan-22
European Commission is calling for proposals for Action Grants for the Initiative ‘Healthylifestyle4all: promotion of healthy lifestyles.
The ‘HealthyLifestyle4All’ is an initiative, which will build upon the Tartu Call for a Healthy Lifestyle. The aim of this initiative will be to promote healthy lifestyles in the Union, in particular amongst children, and its scope will be widened to involve various Commission services, civil society organisations and the Member States.
Scope
- This specific action will support the ‘HealthyLifestyle4All’ initiative by strengthening the health literacy component for the promotion of healthy lifestyles with a focus on the school setting, ensuring equal access to the activities by all socio-economic groups, and thereby reducing health inequalities. The work will be done through a holistic approach of a healthy school initiative, supporting Member States to create a healthy school environment. The action will support public authorities to increase opportunities for regular physical activity, to promote healthy lifestyles by exchanges of best practices on health literacy, including the health aspects of the Union school scheme and the promotion of the European Code against Cancer. The project will develop proposals for effective uptake of successful practices on health literacy and healthy lifestyles including, nutrition, regular health-enhancing physical activity and mental health in schools.
- This action will support activities involving key actors, including the Member States, regional and local governments, education establishments and civil society organisations, to help promote healthy choices and to make them easy and affordable choices. A Union approach will be developed and shared to promote investment in active mobility infrastructures, healthy canteens and to develop outreach measures. Targeted activities of the initiative will complement major Union initiatives, including the European Week of Sport, the EU school scheme, and the EU promotion policy for agri-food products, as well as the Action Plan for the Development of Organic Production.
Focus Areas
The best practices should address most of these areas:
- Regular physical activity including methodologies to measure children’s physical fitness
- Food and nutrition with a view to increasing the currently low uptake of fruit and vegetables among children
- Work to ensure that school canteens and cafeterias are designed to encourage children to choose healthier snacks and meals, in line with school national dietary recommendations and food-based dietary guidelines, including technical assistance to intervene and transform the school environment (layout of the canteens, making them smart, inexpensive, attractive and healthier)
- Assessment of the training needs of school staff including the knowledge of school cooks of healthy diets
- Awareness campaigns with social influencers at schools, nudging kids to healthy lives, improvements for vending and items they contain, reducing ads for junk food in the vicinity of schools, strategies and activities to include school staff, children and their parents in the school approach.
- Promotion of healthy lifestyles with a specific focus on tackling childhood obesity and other key risk factors
- Mental health and well-being
- Overarching objective of focus on vulnerable groups/reducing health inequalities
Funding Information
- Total Amount: 4.400.000
- The duration of proposals should range between 12 and 36 months
Expected Outcomes
- Lifestyle factors, including healthy diet and physical activity, have long been recognised as potentially important determinants of cancer risk and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as obesity and cardiovascular disease. The 4th edition of the European Code against Cancer recommends that to reduce their risk of cancer people have a healthy diet, are physically active in everyday life and limit the time spent sitting. However, only 3% of national health budgets are currently spent on health promotion and disease prevention. Therefore, there is a need to support Member States’ and stakeholders’ actions to promote healthy diets regular physical activity and the creation of physical and social environments where making healthy choices is easy.
- The action supports the implementation of the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan objective to improve health promotion through access to healthy diets and physical activity, and implements the EU4Health Programme’s general objective of improving and fostering health in the Union
Eligibility Criteria
In order to be eligible for funding, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
- be legal entities (public or private bodies) created under Union law or an international organisation, or
- be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories linked to it (OCTs)
- eligible non-EU countries:
- EEA countries and countries associated to the EU4Health Programme (third countries, candidate countries and potential candidate countries, neighbourhood countries) or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature.
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