Behavioural interventions as primary prevention for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) among young people

The Horizon Europe grant opportunity titled "Behavioural interventions as primary prevention for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) among young people" identifies a specific topic (HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-STAYHLTH-02) with a focus on preventing NCDs in individuals aged 12 to 25. This call is categorized as a Research and Innovation Action (RIA) and involves a forthcoming single-stage submission procedure, opening on February 10, 2026, with a deadline set for April 16, 2026.

The available funding for this call totals €20.6 million, with individual project grants ranging from €9 million to €10 million. A total of two grants are expected to be awarded. The call emphasizes the necessity for collaborative consortia, which should include various stakeholders such as healthcare professionals, educators, families, and policymakers. The research should concentrate on implementation research, focusing on evidence-based behavioural interventions, assessing their applicability across diverse European contexts.

Eligible applicants include universities, research institutes, public research organizations, SMEs, large enterprises, hospitals, healthcare providers, non-profit organizations, and public bodies from EU member states, EEA countries, and associated countries, along with legal entities from the United States.

Projects are encouraged to leverage digital health technologies and AI to improve self-management tools and empower youth. Emphasis is placed on employing robust evaluation methods, addressing social inequalities, and ensuring interventions are designed with gender-sensitive and culturally adaptive approaches.

The application process is a single-stage submission, evaluated based on criteria of excellence, impact, and implementation. The overall success rate for this highly competitive opportunity is projected to be below 10% due to the limited number of projects funded relative to the number of applicants, highlighting the need for strong, well-prepared proposals that articulate clear strategies for achieving desired health outcomes and policy impacts.

This is a Horizon Europe (HORIZON) call under Cluster 1 Health (Single stage 2026) (HORIZON HLTH 2026 01). The topic is titled "Behavioural interventions as primary prevention for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) among young people" with the identifier HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 STAYHLTH 02. It is a HORIZON RIA (Research and Innovation Actions) with a HORIZON Action Grant Budget Based [HORIZON AG] type of Model Grant Agreement (MGA). It is forthcoming with a single stage deadline model. The planned opening date is 10 February 2026 and the deadline date is 16 April 2026 at 17:00:00 Brussels time.

The expected outcomes of this topic are:

Healthcare professionals have access to behavioural interventions that can be used to establish and reinforce healthy habits and sustain behavioural changes.

Health professionals and educators have access to evidence based strategies to mitigate risks of Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) for youth, with clear metrics that can be used to assess health outcomes.

Youth have increased individual responsibility through targeted education, digital services, including easily accessible tools for self monitoring, and community based support, stemming from increased collaboration between healthcare professionals, educators and families.

Researchers have access to Real World Data (RWD), existing health data infrastructure and digital tools, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), which can contribute to the sustained success of behavioural health interventions.

Policymakers at local, regional, national and EU levels have new knowledge on behavioural interventions on NCDs among youth, which they can use to improve interventions in diverse European contexts.

The scope of this topic is focused on behavioural interventions for youth, defined as 12 to 25 years old, for the primary prevention of the top NCDs later in life, where “top NCDs” refers to the most prevalent NCDs. For the purpose of this call, NCDs explicitly exclude cancer.

Implementation research should be conducted to implement existing behavioural interventions. These interventions should be evidence based and have an emphasis on empowerment and self management (e.g. health literacy, health education, health promotion). As self monitoring is an essential element of self management, proposals should include user friendly hardware and software for efficient self monitoring (i.e. wearables and point of care devices for measuring various physiological parameters and other predictors and other biomarkers and the corresponding apps for easy readout and tracking, possibly also including gamification elements). Hardware and software should be interoperable in line with internationally accepted standards in order to avoid lock in effects and assure scalability.

Proposals should also include most of the following aspects:

Ensure that gender sensitive and intersectional approaches are integrated, addressing potential gender specific barriers for groups at risk of discrimination, as well as cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, and should also outline how digital tools, including AI and RWD and biomarkers (e.g. genomic data, wearables, etc.) or existing relevant administrative dataset, will be integrated to enhance the scalability, personalisation, and effectiveness of interventions in the long term.

Present a clear, evidence based strategy showing how the interventions will be tailored, deployed, and assessed at individual, family, community, and societal levels, while considering social inequalities and lifestyle factors (i.e. nutrition, sleep rhythm) and ensuring a robust methodological framework for evaluating the effectiveness of interventions (e.g. randomised controlled trails, quasi experimental designs, etc.), with clearly defined indicators of success of the intervention (e.g. biometric markers, psychosocial wellbeing metrics, physical activity change, etc.). Applicants should evaluate unintended consequences for all interventions.

Include formats that will increase collaboration between healthcare professionals, educators, families, and policymakers in promoting preventive health and should include plans for longer term follow up to estimate health impact and cost savings over time. Related to this, applicants should outline how policy changes related to the intervention (e.g. school meal programmes, safe urban infrastructure for exercise, digital literacy campaigns, circadian alignment, stress reduction strategies) can reinforce and scale up successful behavioural interventions, whilst taking into account how they can be replicated or adapted to different cultural, geographic and socio economic contexts. As such, active involvement of key stakeholders throughout the study is strongly encouraged.

This topic requires the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities (SSH) disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, organisations as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.

The proposals should adhere to the FAIR data principles, adopt data quality standards, data integration operating procedures and GDPR compliant data sharing/access good practices developed by the European research infrastructures, where relevant.

Applicants should provide details of their clinical studies in the dedicated annex using the template provided in the submission system. As proposals under this topic are expected to include clinical studies, the use of the template is strongly encouraged.

EMA definition: “Real World Data are routinely collected data relating to patient health status or the delivery of healthcare from a variety of sources other than traditional clinical trials (e.g. claims databases, hospital data, electronic health records, registries, mhealth data, etc.)”.

The prevalence of a disease is the number of cases in a defined population at a specified point in time. See https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/36838/9241544465.pdf

Admissibility conditions are described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Proposal page limits and layout are described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.

Eligible countries are described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. A number of non EU/non Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

In recognition of the opening of the US National Institutes of Health’s programmes to European researchers, any legal entity established in the United States of America is eligible to receive Union funding.

If projects use satellite based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used). Subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks. Other eligibility conditions are described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Financial and operational capacity and exclusion are described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. The thresholds for each criterion will be 4 (Excellence), 4 (Impact) and 4 (Implementation). The cumulative threshold will be 12.

Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.

Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.

The granting authority may, up to 4 years after the end of the action, object to a transfer of ownership or to the exclusive licensing of results, as set out in the specific provision of Annex 5.

Legal and financial set up of the grants are described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions are described in the specific topic of the Work Programme.

Application and evaluation form templates include the Standard application form (HE RIA, IA) which is available in the Submission System, and the Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA) which will be used with the necessary adaptations.

Guidance documents include the HE Programme Guide and the Model Grant Agreement (MGA) HE MGA.

Call specific instructions and additional documents include Information on clinical studies (HE), HE Main Work Programme 2026 2027 – 1. General Introduction, HE Main Work Programme 2026 2027 – 4. Health, HE Main Work Programme 2026 2027 – 15. General Annexes, HE Programme Guide, HE Framework Programme 2021/695, HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764, EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509, Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme, Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment, EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement, Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual, Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions, and Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement.

The budget overview for the year 2026 includes several topics:

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 CARE 01 HORIZON PPI HORIZON Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions with a budget of 24,500,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions ranging from 3,000,000 to 8,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 4 grants.

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 CARE 03 HORIZON RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 38,000,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions around 10,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 4 grants.

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 DISEASE 02 HORIZON RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 44,200,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions around 8,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 6 grants.

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 DISEASE 03 HORIZON RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 39,300,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions ranging from 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 5 grants.

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 DISEASE 04 HORIZON RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 44,200,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions ranging from 9,000,000 to 11,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 5 grants.

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 DISEASE 09 HORIZON RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 9,800,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions ranging from 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 3 grants.

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 DISEASE 11 HORIZON RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 39,300,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions ranging from 6,000,000 to 7,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 6 grants.

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 DISEASE 15 HORIZON CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions with a budget of 1,900,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions around 1,900,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 1 grant.

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 ENVHLTH 01 HORIZON RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 55,000,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions ranging from 7,000,000 to 8,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 7 grants.

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 ENVHLTH 04 HORIZON RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 45,000,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions ranging from 7,000,000 to 8,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 6 grants.

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 ENVHLTH 05 HORIZON CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions with a budget of 3,000,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions around 3,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 1 grant.

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 IND 03 HORIZON RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 19,600,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions ranging from 4,000,000 to 6,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 4 grants.

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 STAYHLTH 02 HORIZON RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 20,600,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions ranging from 9,000,000 to 10,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 2 grants. This is the specific call being described.

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 STAYHLTH 03 HORIZON CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions with a budget of 1,900,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions ranging from 1,500,000 to 1,900,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 1 grant.

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 TOOL 03 HORIZON RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions with a budget of 49,000,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions ranging from 5,000,000 to 8,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 7 grants.

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 TOOL 05 HORIZON IA HORIZON Innovation Actions with a budget of 29,500,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions ranging from 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 4 grants.

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 TOOL 06 HORIZON CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions with a budget of 2,900,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions around 2,900,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 1 grant.

HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 TOOL 07 HORIZON CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions with a budget of 3,900,000 EUR, a single stage, opening date of 2026 02 10, a deadline of 2026 04 16, contributions around 3,900,000 EUR, and an indicative number of 1 grant.

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The submission system is planned to be opened on the date stated on the topic header.

There are no topic Q&As available.

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In summary, this Horizon Europe call aims to fund research and innovation actions focused on behavioral interventions for young people (12 25 years old) to prevent non communicable diseases (excluding cancer). The goal is to develop and implement evidence based interventions that empower youth to take responsibility for their health, utilizing digital tools and real world data. The call encourages collaboration between healthcare professionals, educators, families, and policymakers, and emphasizes the importance of gender sensitive, intersectional approaches, and adherence to FAIR data principles and GDPR. The total budget for this specific topic (HORIZON HLTH 2026 01 STAYHLTH 02) is 20,600,000 EUR, with an expected contribution of 9,000,000 to 10,000,000 EUR per project, and an indicative number of 2 grants to be awarded. The call opens on February 10, 2026, and the deadline for submissions is April 16, 2026.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly stated but can be inferred from the type of action which is HORIZON-RIA (Research and Innovation Actions) and HORIZON-CSA (Coordination and Support Actions). Therefore, eligible applicants could include universities, research institutes, SMEs, large enterprises, and other organizations capable of conducting research and innovation activities. The inclusion of clinical studies suggests hospitals and healthcare organizations are also eligible. The explicit mention of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) disciplines implies that SSH experts and organizations are also eligible. The eligibility of legal entities established in the United States of America is also explicitly mentioned.

Funding Type: The primary financial mechanism is a grant, as indicated by the "HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG]" type of Model Grant Agreement (MGA). The call also includes Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions (PPI).

Consortium Requirement: The information does not explicitly state whether a consortium is required, but the nature of Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) suggests that a consortium of multiple applicants is generally preferred, if not required, to bring together the necessary expertise and resources. The partner search announcements further imply that consortia are expected.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): Eligible countries are described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. In recognition of the opening of the US National Institutes of Health’s programmes to European researchers, any legal entity established in the United States of America is eligible to receive Union funding.

Target Sector: The program targets the health sector, specifically focusing on behavioral interventions for the primary prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among young people. It also involves digital services, including easily accessible tools for self-monitoring, and community-based support. The program also targets social sciences and humanities (SSH) disciplines.

Mentioned Countries: The United States of America is explicitly mentioned as having eligible legal entities due to the opening of the US National Institutes of Health’s programmes to European researchers. The program is geared towards diverse European contexts, implying that EU member states and associated countries are the primary geographic focus.

Project Stage: The project stage is implementation research, focusing on implementing existing evidence-based behavioral interventions. This suggests a stage of development, validation, and demonstration, rather than basic research or idea generation.

Funding Amount: The funding range varies depending on the specific topic within the call. For the specific topic "HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-STAYHLTH-02," the contribution is between €9,000,000 to €10,000,000. Other topics within the same call have different funding ranges, as detailed in the budget overview.

Application Type: The application type is an open call, with a single-stage submission process.

Nature of Support: Beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a grant to support their research and innovation activities.

Application Stages: The application process is a single-stage process.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned, but the "Indicative number of grants" column in the budget overview provides some insight. For the specific topic "HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-STAYHLTH-02," the indicative number of grants is 2. Given the competitive nature of Horizon Europe, the success rate is likely to be below 10%, but this is speculative without more data.

Co-funding Requirement: The information does not explicitly state whether co-funding is required.

Summary: This Horizon Europe call, specifically the HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-STAYHLTH-02 topic, focuses on supporting research and innovation actions related to behavioral interventions for young people aged 12 to 25, aiming to prevent non-communicable diseases (NCDs), excluding cancer. The call encourages the implementation of evidence-based interventions with an emphasis on empowerment, self-management, and the use of digital tools like wearables and AI for self-monitoring. Projects should integrate gender-sensitive approaches, consider social inequalities, and involve collaboration between healthcare professionals, educators, families, and policymakers. The funding is provided through grants, with contributions ranging from €9,000,000 to €10,000,000 for this specific topic, and is open to a wide range of eligible entities, including research organizations, SMEs, and healthcare providers, primarily within the EU and associated countries, as well as legal entities established in the United States of America. The application process is a single-stage open call with a deadline of April 16, 2026. The call aims to improve access to behavioral interventions, enhance individual responsibility for health, and inform policymakers on effective strategies for NCD prevention among youth.