Invest4Health – New Horizon Europe project to mobilise novel finance models for health promotion and disease prevention

Invest4Health, a €5.5 million Horizon Europe project launched in January 2023, aims to incentivise new ways of financing health promotion and disease prevention. It uses a model called ‘smart capacitating investment’ (SCI), in which long-term financial benefits to health and related sectors outweigh initial costs and deliver a sustainable return on investment.

The fiscal space and budgetary resources of many governments are shrinking, all while demand for public services, including healthcare, is rising sharply. Current models are inadequate, as illustrated by the strikes and demonstrations being organised by health professionals in countries across Europe. Invest4Health (“Mobilising novel finance models for health promotion and disease prevention”) aims to disrupt traditional approaches by building on the concept of social investment and developing sustainable financing mechanisms that incentivize and boost investment within and between sectors.

Invest4Health is coordinated by Region Skåne in Sweden. Using an interdisciplinary approach, ideas will be implemented and evaluated in four regional testbeds in Sweden, Spain, Germany, and the UK. Feedback from citizens and local communities will also be gathered to inform further development of the business and financing models and tools. In addition, an open call will be launched to attract a second group of regions to test and provide feedback on the effectiveness of the proposed models and tools.

The Invest4Health project manager, Jolanda van Vliet from Region Skåne, highlighted:

‘I am honoured to lead this exciting and large-scale project. With the diverse expertise of the consortium partners, our objective is to develop an innovative investment model that effectively demonstrates practical applications in support of health promotion and prevention. We believe that by strengthening health promotion and prevention through innovative investment, we will make significant progress towards improving the health outcomes of our populations, transforming our health care systems, and tackling the health challenges all societies are facing in both the short and long run.’

EuroHealthNet will lead a work package on ‘Operational readiness and capacity building,’ which aims to: (1) achieve stronger cooperation between health systems, public health entities, and other key actors; (2) support integration of locally-run and financially sustainable interventions, and (3) support decision and policymakers to bring about change in financing health promotion.

Caroline Costongs, EuroHealthNet Director, stated:

“The scale of investments needed to maintain health services and achieve health equity requires us to act smartly and differently, to create new partnerships and to liaise better with other sectors. We aim to mobilise health policy makers and managers to explore new investment structures and we welcome the opportunity to further work on these challenges within the Invest4Health project.”

In total, the Invest4Health consortium brings together 18 partners from across Europe and will run 3.5 years from 2023-2026.

Further information

Contact Lina Papartyte, Project Coordinator, EuroHealthNet (l.papartyte@eurohealthnet.eu).

Invest4Health website.

Find further updates on the project here.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme, under Grant Agreement 101095522.