All proposals should address important problems in the European public health and be in line with the Commission's priorities expressed in the Work Plan.The successful proposals should concentrate on aspects of public health that cannot be achieved on a national level. They should ensure a significant impact across the EU.

Applicants should also ensure that their projects do not duplicate work already done in the previous nine public health programmes or under other Community funding programmes and, where appropriate, projects should build on work already undertaken at Community level. Details of previous funded projects are available through the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers webpage http://ec.europa.eu/eahc and the Commission’s DG SANCO public health web page http://europa.eu.int/comm/health/ph_projects/project_en.htm.

The official call, application form, annual workplan and guidelines are available from http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_programme/howtoapply/call_for_propal_en.htm

The EU Health Programme 2008-13 has three general objectives:

• to improve citizens’ health security;
• to promote health, including the reduction of health inequalities;
• to generate and disseminate health information and knowledge.

Grants for action (projects) are the main type of funding available under the EU Health Programme 2008-13. The annual work plan (Commission decision) defines priority areas for action in implementing the Programme.

Country eligibility

To receive a Community financial support for a project, i.e. to be a main beneficiary or associated partner, your organisation need to be legally established in:

• The European Union (any of the 27 Member States), or
• An EFTA country party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area (Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway), or
• Croatia (note: Organisations from Croatia are eligible for participation. However, in the case of selection for award, Croatian organisations can receive funding only if the Memorandum of Understandingsigned by Croatia and the European Community on September 30, 2008 is ratified and implemented before the adoption of the awarding decision.

Organizations from other countries can only participate as subcontractors or collaborating partners in projects.

The total budget available for the execution of the 2009 Work Plan is 48.2 million euro. Additional contributions from EFTA countries members of the European Economic Area (Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) and candidate countries participating in the Programme are estimated at EUR 1 163 520 from EEA/EFTA countries and EUR 138 000 from Croatia (Indicative amount: this figure is the maximum amount and depends on the actual amount of the contribution paid by EEA/EFTA and candidate countries).

Type of organisation
Non-governmental organisations, public sector bodies, public administrations, universities, higher education establishments, and commercial firms can submit a project proposal as the main partner or associated partners.

Up to 60 percent of the eligible costs of the project can be covered by the Community contribution. Given the complementary and motivational nature of Community grants, at least 40 percent of project costs must be funded from other sources - from the partners' sources such as staff costs pertaining to national officials and other external resources. In cases of exceptional utility, projects can receive up to 80 percent co-financing of eligible costs.

In the previous years the amount of grant varied from 120,000 euro to up to 1,200,000 euro.

The following general principles apply to funding for conferences:

• Co-financing rule: you need to have your own financial resources or financial resources of third parties to contribute to the costs of the project
• Non-profit rule: the grant may not have the purpose or effect of producing a profit for you;
• Non-retroactivity rule: you shouldn't start spending on the project before starting date stipulated in the grant agreement;
• Non-cumulative rule: each action may give rise to the award of only one grant to any one beneficiary (you can't get paid twice for the same cost);

All projects should:

• provide high added value at EU level  
• be innovative
• normally last not more than three years.

Proposals should provide a genuine European dimension in order to make sense both technically and in terms of policy. This means that they should involve at least two mutually independent legal entities - one main partner and one associated partner - established in two different eligible countries.
 

For more information please contact EAHC Helpdesk at EAHC-PHP-CALLS@ec.europa.eu