Dear Nadica,

Following my previous message, I would like to clarify the role we had in mind for your institute within our proposal.

Rather than leading a full Work Package, we see a strong fit for your institute as the country implementation partner, taking a leading role in delivering one of the intervention packages in North Macedonia — most likely focusing on the older 19-25 age range.

This would involve working closely with the Work Package leads and the wider consortium to support national-level implementation, stakeholder engagement, and adaptation of the intervention to the local context.

I hope this clarifies, and I would be very happy to discuss this further. If this aligns with your interests, we can arrange a call early next week to go through the details.

Regards,

Jack

(on behalf of the Z-Health coordination team)

From: Olney, Jack J <jack.olney@imperial.ac.uk>
Sent: 25 March 2026 16:58
To: nadica.totikj@iph.mk <nadica.totikj@iph.mk>
Cc: To: Caroline Costongs <c.costongs@eurohealthnet.eu>; Cc: Dorota Sienkiewicz <d.sienkiewicz@eurohealthnet.eu>; David Hargitt <d.hargitt@eurohealthnet.eu>; ivica.atanasovski@iph.mk <ivica.atanasovski@iph.mk>; zhealth-mgmt <zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk>
Subject: Fw: Horizon Europe call on youth NCD prevention - invitation to explore participation in the Z-Health consortium

Dear Nadica,

Thank you for your message, and to Caroline for the introduction.

I am writing on behalf of Prof. Franco Sassi at Imperial College London, where we are coordinating the Z-Health proposal in response to the European Commission call.

We would be very pleased to involve your institute in the consortium. Based on your expertise, we see a strong fit for a leadership role within the project — specifically as Work Package (WP) leader for one of the intervention packages, with a preference for the 19–25 age group.

To support this, I'm sharing brief descriptions of the two intervention packages. It would be helpful if you could review these and confirm whether this aligns with your institute’s interests and capacity.

If this is of interest, can I suggest we schedule a call early next week to discuss scope, expectations, and next steps.

Regards,

Jack

(on behalf of the Z-Health coordination team)

From: Nadica Totikj <nadica.totikj@iph.mk>
Sent: 25 March 2026 11:17
To: Caroline Costongs <c.costongs@eurohealthnet.eu>
Cc: Dorota Sienkiewicz <d.sienkiewicz@eurohealthnet.eu>; David Hargitt <d.hargitt@eurohealthnet.eu>; ivica.atanasovski@iph.mk <ivica.atanasovski@iph.mk>
Subject: RE: Horizon Europe call on youth NCD prevention - invitation to explore participation in the Z-Health consortium

Dear Caroline,

Thank you for your email and for considering the Institute of Public Health of the Republic of North Macedonia as a potential partner in the Z-Health proposal.

We would like to express our interest in participating in the project as an Institute. The proposed focus and objectives are highly relevant to our work, and we would welcome the opportunity to contribute, particularly in the areas of public health, health promotion, and implementation of activities at national level.

We would appreciate it if you could keep us informed regarding the envisaged role and scope of our participation, should the collaboration move forward.

Kind regards,
Nadica

From: Caroline Costongs [mailto:c.costongs@eurohealthnet.eu]
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2026 6:02 PM
To: Nadica Totikj; ivica.atanasovski@iph.mk
Cc: Dorota Sienkiewicz; David Hargitt
Subject: Horizon Europe call on youth NCD prevention – invitation to explore participation in the Z-Health consortium

Dear Nadica and Ivica,

I hope you are well.

I am writing from EuroHealthNet regarding a Horizon Europe proposal currently under development, entitled Z-Health (alluding to health of Generation Z), and to explore whether the Institute of Public Health of the Republic of North Macedonia might be interested in joining the consortium as a partner.

The proposal is being prepared under the Horizon Europe Health call HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-STAYHLTH-02: Behavioural interventions as primary prevention for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) among young people. In broad terms, the project is focused on developing, implementing and evaluating evidence-based behavioural interventions for young people aged 12–25, with the aim of promoting healthier habits early in life and reducing the risk of NCDs later on. The call places particular emphasis on health promotion, empowerment and self-management, including health literacy, and on tailoring interventions to different social and socioeconomic realities - its architecture will be organised around implementing and scaling up/out interventions on diets, mental health, and addictions (tobacco, alcohol, drugs, gambling).

As the concept currently stands, Z-Health would bring together a European consortium led by Imperial College London, with EuroHealthNet already involved alongside a number of research and public health partners from different European countries (UK, Denmark, Norway, Slovenia). The project is expected to combine a strong central research and evaluation backbone with implementation in selected countries, supported by policy, modelling, dissemination and stakeholder engagement components.

The emerging focus includes areas such as health behaviours and wider prevention-related determinants relevant to young people’s longer-term health, including issues linked to nutrition, physical activity, sleep and stress, as well as the conditions needed for interventions to be equitable, feasible and sustainable in real-world settings. The topic also explicitly encourages collaboration between healthcare professionals, educators, families and policymakers, and active stakeholder involvement throughout.

At this stage, we are reaching out to a small number of potential implementation partners to gauge interest and assess fit. In this context, we would be very pleased to explore whether your Institute might be interested in participating, particularly in supporting the national implementation of intervention activities and collaborating with the wider consortium on country-level delivery, stakeholder engagement and related public health input.

We are also considering, where relevant, complementary links with youth-facing organisations in participating countries, but our first priority is to understand whether there is interest from the national public health institute side.

Given the proposal timeline, it would be very helpful if you could let us know by mid next week, if feasible, whether this might be of interest. A preliminary expression of interest would be entirely sufficient at this stage, and we would of course be happy to share further information and discuss possible roles in more detail.

We would be very glad to hear from you and hope there may be an opportunity to work together on this important initiative.

With best regards,
Caroline Costongs

Caroline Costongs
Director

+32 2 235 03 20

146 Rue Royale

1000 Brussels, Belgium

www.eurohealthnet.eu
www.eurohealthnet-magazine.eu

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