The Norwegian Directorate of Health hosted the 2nd Joint Synergy Meeting on January 28th, 2025, bringing together the JA PreventNCD Consortium and four Action Grants co-funded by the EU4Health programme:
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ELISAH (European Linkage of Initiative from Science to Action in Health)
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FILTERED (From sILos To synErgies to pRevEnt ncDs)
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PEACHD (Piloting European Action on Cancer Health Determinants)
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ShowUp4Health (Building Trust in Roma Communities and Internally Displaced People for NCD Prevention).
Nearly 50 participants, both in person and online, discussed the progress of their synergy work of their projects and the way to communicate their outcomes. The meeting highlighted the increased awareness of the synergies within each project, between Action Grants, and the Joint Action as a whole.
The event brought together a collaborative network of various projects, with guidance and support from project officers from the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA), representatives of competent authorities, youth movement and enthusiastic individuals engaged in sustainable results of their activities within the EU4Health programme and beyond.
Anna Bulzacka-Bogucka from HaDEA emphasized the development of synergy work and the first results as an important milestone. JA PreventNCD Deputy Project Manager Elma Šećerović moderated the meeting, leading discussions alongside Scientific Coordinator Knut-Inge Klepp and Project manager Knut Jønsrud who led the discussion of the activity plan with a focus on synergies and how we can advance the cooperation.
The Youth Advisory Group (YAG)—a supplementary advisory body to JA PreventNCD—was recognized for its valuable contributions to various activities and its role in shaping European health policy.
The projects shared their experience of fruitful and motivating development of collaboration, links to the activities of JA PreventNCD, discussion of risk factors, communication channels, dissemination work and messages to policymakers. The meeting also shared information about the activities and conferences in 2025, relevant to the joint actions.
Highlights from the day were:
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Status of cooperation and synergies, with feedback to the activity plan.
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Lessons learned and strategies to enhance the impact of Action Grants.
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Long-term effects of collaboration.
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Planning for the final synergy conference in 2025.
The collaboration will continue, and the projects will present their results at the Synergy Conference in autumn 2025.