Health promotion and disease prevention: translating 'omics' into stratified approaches

Specific challenge: ‘Omics’ research (including but not limited to genomics, epi-genomics, meta-genomics and proteomics) is moving at a breath-taking pace. A major challenge for the next decade is to determine when and how this wealth of ‘omics’ information can be usefully applied by both the public and private sectors for the development of personalised /stratified approaches in health promotion and disease prevention.

Scope: Proposals should address all of the following elements:

Develop and assess a personalised / stratified health promotion or disease prevention programme, taking into account the ‘omics’ characteristics of individuals, complemented by environmental and/or lifestyle factors;

Include the development of tools and methods for the use of 'omics' data in such programmes;

Include a multi-disciplinary approach to assess the validity and utility of ‘omics’ data in preventive medicine or in prevention programmes targeting specific population groups. This should include:

• The assessment of the predictive value of such programmes in identifying at-risk groups throughout their lives, as compared with conventional methods;
• The assessment of the usefulness of ‘omics’ data for improving the health of individuals or populations;
• The assessment should include account age and gender aspects where appropriate.
• The assessment of the behavioural, ethical, legal, regulatory and social implications, as well as of the cost-effectiveness of the programme;

Include risk-benefit communication to various groups involved in such a programme, including individuals, policy makers and regulators.

Preference will be given to proposals focusing on diseases with either high prevalence or which present a high risk to the individual, or a high cost to society.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 4 and 6 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected impact: This should provide:

• Evidence on the validity, utility and cost-effectiveness of ‘omics’ based health promotion and disease prevention programmes, allowing informed decisions on the organisation of health and care systems.

Type of action: Research and innovation actions