Health Holland awards €3 million to Preventive Health programme Tailored Lifestyle

The EWUU alliance (TU/e, WUR, UU, UMC Utrecht) is proud to announce that their programme "Tailored Lifestyle: An Integrated Data-Driven Approach to Lifestyle and Living Environment" has officially been approved by Health Holland. With a €3 million grant, the EWUU alliance's institute 4 Preventive Health collaborates with the AI hub and the Centre for Unusual Collaborations (CUCo), to launch a call for innovative projects in 2025, aimed at building a healthier society.

Health Holland's Public-Private Partnerships

The Top Sector Life Sciences & Health (LSH), also known as Health~Holland, fosters innovation in the LSH sector by supporting public-private partnerships (PPS). Through PPS grants, they provide financial backing for programmes that align with the objectives of the sector. Within these programmes, organizing parties can select projects that contribute to these goals. In 2024, a call for proposals was launched to encourage innovative research through public-private partnerships. The institute 4 Preventive Health (i4PH) responded to this call with the Tailored Lifestyle programme, which has now been granted funding.

About the Tailored Lifestyle Programme

Health challenges such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and depression pose a significant burden on public health. These issues disproportionately affect people in lower socioeconomic positions (SEP). This programme is dedicated to reducing health disparities by promoting healthier lifestyle choices and creating environments that support sustainable behaviour change.

The programme is being coordinated by i4PH in collaboration with the AI Hub and CUCo, all part of the EWUU alliance—a collaboration between Eindhoven University of Technology, Wageningen University & Research, Utrecht University, and UMC Utrecht. Together, these partners bring leading expertise in technology, behaviour, lifestyle and living environment. This interdisciplinary approach ensures impact at both the individual and environmental levels.

Projects and impact – Addressing Health Inequalities

Starting mid-February 2025, the Tailored Lifestyle programme will launch a national call for proposals for ‘Kickstart’ projects (€125,000 - €200,000) and ‘Signature’ projects (€500,000 - €750,000). These projects will focus on the combination of:

Technology: Advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), apps, and sensors, provide personalised health advice and scalable, practical solutions.

Behaviour: Incorporating insights from behavioural science, to support sustainable behaviour change and empower individuals to make healthier choices in their daily lives.

Lifestyle: Personalised nutrition and exercise advice, helping individuals adopt and maintain healthier lifestyles tailored to their needs.

Living Environment: Community-based interventions focus on creating environments that promote health by enhancing access to healthy food and encouraging physical activity in schools, workplaces, and neighbourhoods.

Furthermore, the programme places a strong emphasis on addressing health inequities, with particular focus on underserved communities to ensure equitable access to benefits. Taking a transdisciplinary approach, it aims to deliver scalable and sustainable system solutions, fostering genuine collaboration with relevant stakeholders to enhance impact.

Projects are selected through an open and transparent process. Dutch academic institutions, together with companies (especially small and medium-sized enterprises) and public organisations, are invited to propose innovative and impactful health interventions. Proposals are evaluated based on their potential to address real-world challenges and deliver measurable outcomes.

Selected projects will be executed over three years, starting in 2026, and will align with the objectives of the Dutch Knowledge and Innovation Agenda: promoting five additional years of healthy living and reducing health disparities by 30% by 2040.

Want to learn more?

Read more about the programme and the partners involved on the i4PH website.

About alliance EWUU

In the alliance EWUU (TU/e, WUR, UU, UMC Utrecht), Eindhoven University of Technology, Wageningen University & Research, Utrecht University and University Medical Centre Utrecht connect their scientific knowledge to contribute to urgent societal transitions. The four institutions cooperate in research and education in the areas in which they are complementary to each other. Under the motto ‘Challenging future generations’, the alliance challenges researchers, teachers and students to work together in unconventional ways, across disciplines. The focus is on research results with an impact on society. To this end, alliance EWUU also cooperates with external partners.

Source: Utrecht University