Work Plan 2015 of the 3rd Health Programme published

The annual work plan 2015 for the Health programme 2014-2020 was adopted on 2 June 2015. The call for proposals for projects under the 2015 work plan will be published on Friday 5 June 2015 and the deadline for submissions is set for 15 September. For submitting a proposal for a project, the electronic submission system of the EU Research & Innovation Participant Portal will be used. More information will be available when the call is launched.

The maximum contribution for the implementation of the Programme for the year 2015 is set at € 59,750,000.

The third EU Health Programme 2014 - 2020 is aimed at encouraging innovation in healthcare, increasing the sustainability of health systems, improving the health of EU citizens and protecting them from cross-border health threats. The Health for Growth programme builds on the two previous programmes covering the periods 2003-2008 and 2008-2013. Compared to the former programmes the new one concentrates support on a smaller number of activities in priority areas, in line with the Europe 2020 strategy. More precisely, it seeks to complement member states' health policies in the following four areas:

• promotion of good health and prevention of diseases; eligible actions include for instance the exchange of good practices for addressing risk factors such as smoking, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy dietary habits and physical inactivity;

• protection from cross-border health threats which might be improved via an increase of the capacities for scientific expertise;

• innovative and sustainable health systems; in this area, the new EU health programme could provide support of the voluntary cooperation between member states on health technology assessment (HTA), an EU-wide network of member states' to share information on the effectiveness of health technologies which was established by the directive on patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare;

• increased access to better and safer healthcare; eligible actions include support for member states and patient organisations to help patients affected by rare diseases and the reduction of practices that increase antimicrobial resistance.