HDHL Food4Health
HDHL Food4Health is a Horizon Europe Coordination and Support Action (CSA) operating at the level of research governance and running from 2025 to 2028.
The project responds to two closely connected challenges: the growing burden of diet-related non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes, and the impact of food systems on climate and environmental sustainability
By connecting research, policy and practice at the intersection of food, health and environment, the project aims to tackle fragmentation in European research and to strengthen the connection between R&I and societal needs, policy priorities, and real-world implementation.
Food4Health project aims
Food4Health is implemented by members of the Healthy Diet, Healthy Life (HDHL) network, bringing together national and regional research funders, researchers and societal actors. To read more about the project, visit the official page on HDHL website.
EPHA’s role: supporting co-creation, trust and research uptake
EPHA leads WP4 on co-creation pathways for the uptake of research and innovation solutions. Within this work, EPHA coordinates research on existing mechanisms that help integrate perspectives across science, policy, practice and society, while supporting trust-building and two-way exchange through co-creation, meaningful participation and structured dialogue.
EPHA also leads a task focusing on evidence-based policy co-creation and sharing. There, EPHA is looking into different stakeholder involvement mechanisms and their impact, contributing to the project’s objective of improving the uptake and utilisation of research by policymakers, practitioners, citizens and other actors.
Compendium of Good Practices
The work on the level of co-creation and uptake will result in a Compendium of good practices, that will gather good examples of mechanisms and practices that enable effective research co-creation and utilisation.
The Compendium is expected to include:
Share your example
By looking at real examples of science being taken up in practice, or shaped and informed by practice, WP4 aims to understand what makes these processes work, and how they can be strengthened across Europe.
Share your example via our short survey by 30 May 2026 (~25 minutes):
Shortlisted examples will be featured in a Compendium of Good Practices, guiding EU and national R&I priority setting and giving visibility to your work in a FAIR, Europe-wide repository.
Research, Innovation, Policy and Implementation Priorities (RIPI Priorities).
EPHA also contributes to the project’s work on RIPI Priorities in WP2.
This part of the project focuses on identifying and aligning common priorities between HDHL Member States, Horizon Europe Partnerships, Horizon Europe projects under the FOOD 2030 network, and other initiatives working across health, nutrition, food and sustainability.
The work aims to identify the most urgent knowledge gaps and research and innovation topics at the intersection of nutrition, health and environment. It will contribute to a set of updated strategic RIPI priorities that better integrate these domains and reflect a One Health approach.
By contributing to this work, EPHA helps ensure that public health, equity and societal needs are reflected in the way food and health research is coordinated across Europe.
Learn more
Want to learn more about EPHA’s work on food systems and health?
Stay updated on our policy work, events and project insights by subscribing to our newsletter or getting in touch with Polina Sokolkina at polina.sokolkina@epha.org.