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Public Health

2020 EU Health Award - Call on Healthy Lifestyles

Rewarding initiatives of cities and schools seeking to promote healthy lifestyles for children (from 6 to 18 years old)

Daily healthy habits that make the difference

Submission deadline: 16 September 2020 at 11.00 in the morning, CET, Brussels time.

"If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health." This formula for a healthy life was proposed over 2000 years ago by Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician and so-called father of medicine. Two millennia later, that ancient wisdom holds as true as ever. And it’s important to “find our way” to health, not only to allow people to live their fullest lives possible, but also to keep our social security and healthcare systems healthy.

Obesity in adulthood is known to increase risk of several common cancer types. Since individual behaviour with regard to food and physical activity is largely influenced and determined early in the life course, the promotion of healthy food and being physically active need to start in childhood. Maintaining a healthy diet and increasing physical activity is an important approach to cancer control.

Given the importance of this topic, the European Commission has decided to dedicate one of the two calls under the 2020 EU Health Award to initiatives of cities and schools that contributed or are contributing to a higher level of public health in the European Union by promoting healthy lifestyle among children (6-18 years old). Practices submitted under this call must not have ended before 1 January 2017. These initiatives can have already been terminated or be still ongoing at the time of the launch of the call for applications.

The EU Action Plan on Childhood Obesity, the Tartu Call for a Healthy Lifestyle and the EU School Scheme, whereby fruit, vegetables and milk are distributed among school-aged children, and the sports chapter of the Erasmus+ programme are the main instruments through which initiatives are used to support EU Member States to promote healthier lifestyles among children. Currently there is an ongoing project on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in health and educational settings, which aims to create an overview of current initiatives and best practices on public health in medical and other health professional educational curricula. A workshop related to this project was held on 13 February 2020. The final conference to support the cooperation and exchange of information between key stakeholders will take place on 30 April 2020.

The European Commission wants to encourage cities and schools in the European Union to play their role and to reward them for the contributions they have made by inviting them to answer the call for proposals on healthy lifestyles under the 2020 EU Health Award.

Three initiatives per category in this call will be shortlisted, and each of them will receive a prize:

  • Prizes for the category CITIES:
    1. First winner: EUR 50 000
    2. Second winner: EUR 30 000
    3. Third winner: EUR 20 000
  • Prizes for the category SCHOOLS:
    1. First winner: EUR 50 000
    2. Second winner: EUR 30 000
    3. Third winner: EUR 20 000

The EU Health Award is funded under the 3rd Health Programme 2014-2020.

Award Ceremony at the EU Health Policy Platform annual meeting

Representatives from all shortlisted initiatives will be invited to the EU Health Policy Platform annual meeting where the two calls under the 2020 EU Health Award, on healthy lifestyles and vaccination, will be presented.

  • City category: maximum 5 representatives per shortlisted city will be invited and reimbursed for their travel and accommodation expenses.
  • NGO category: maximum 5 representatives per shortlisted NGO will be invited and reimbursed for their travel and accommodation expenses.
  • School category: maximum 2 representatives and maximum 10 children per shortlisted school will be invited and reimbursed for their travel and accommodation expenses.

All applicants are strongly encouraged to join the EU Health Policy Platform to follow up on the 2020 EU Health Award and engage in the discussions on health issues of common interest with international, European, national and regional stakeholders and the European Commission. The link to the Platform is https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/hpf/

Submit your proposal on healthy lifestyles

Thank you for your interest in the EU Health Award and your dedication to improving public health. Here are some tips for successfully navigating the submission process:

  • Application language and translations: Applications may be submitted in any official language of the European Union. However, in order to facilitate the evaluation process, it is recommended to submit the proposals in English.
  • Save your draft application: The submission form can be saved at any time of the process by clicking on "save as draft" on the right side of the submission page. Larger documents of over 1MB need to be uploaded in parts, each under 1MB in size. Once submitted, you can print or get your submission form in pdf by typing in your email address.
  • Do not wait until the last day to submit your application as you may encounter some difficulties reducing the size of the requested pdf documents.
  • Frequently asked questions are regularly posted in the tab “News” of this website. If you don’t find what you are looking for there, we would be happy to help you at sante-hppatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (sante-hpp[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)
  • Check the evaluation criteria: Before submitting, please check that you are not at any risk of being disqualified for any reason that is clearly listed under the “Criteria” tab of this website.

The call is now closed.