ERA4HEALTH Partnership

Features

The ERA4HEALTH partnership has published a joint transnational call , “Prevent-OO: Understanding and Preventing Overweight and Obesity” Mechanisms of their onset and progression, neglected determinants, and novel strategies for critical transitional periods in life.

The call for proposals seeks to identify and implement innovative and holistic preventive and public health strategies to address obesity, taking into account environmental, psychological, and socioeconomic factors to promote healthier lifestyles. In addition, ERA4Health fosters transnational and interdisciplinary collaborations with a translational approach to generate new knowledge and develop effective prevention strategies.

The call for proposals is co-financed by the European Union and involves 25 funding organizations from 20 countries, with a total estimated budget of more than 18 million euros.

In addition, the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) is participating in this call for proposals as the national funding agency.

Requirements

Applications must cover only one of the two topics listed below and address at least one of the two specified subtopics (subtopic 1a and/or 1b for topic 1, and subtopic 2a and/or 2b for topic 2); both topics and subtopics are equally relevant for this call:

1. Understanding the causes of obesity and overweight and their complications through mechanistic research

1a. To investigate biological mechanisms—including chronobiological, genetic, and/or epigenetic mechanisms—underlying the onset and progression of overweight and obesity, as well as related diseases. Secondary factors that may influence these biological mechanisms—such as the living environment, lifestyle, or psychological status—should also be considered where relevant.

1b. To investigate how being overweight and obesity contribute to the development of related clinical complications and/or affect the mechanism of action of treatments for other diseases or disorders.

2. Prevention and public health strategies for critical transitional periods of life. Both subtopics 2a. and 2b. should address critical transitional periods of life only. The choice of the critical transitional periods of life to be studied must be clearly justified in the proposal. These periods should result from biological changes (e.g., postpartum, menopause, andropause) or socio-environmental changes (e.g., the period between pregnancies, diagnosis of a chronic disease, recovery from illness, retirement, etc.).

2a. To understand and address neglected determinants—including their interdependence—in the onset and progression of overweight and obesity during transitional periods of life.

2b. To develop novel tools or preventive strategies that can be implemented to prevent the onset and progression of overweight and obesity during transitional periods of life, taking into account physiological, pathophysiological, psychological, and behavioral influences and/or the socioeconomic status of citizens/patients. Importantly, the proposal should include an assessment of the economic impact of the proposed tools or strategies on the healthcare system and provide recommendations to help policymakers define new regulations and guidelines to prevent overweight and obesity.

Submission deadline.

The following table lists the different dates: