Dear Robert,
I have removed the Consortium address from the address list, because I realised we were including everyone in this exchange. Thank you for the additional clarifications you have
provided. If the scale of the payments to medical students delivering sessions is the one you have indicated in your last message, I think this is already well covered in the allocations we have made to the public health institutes leading each intervention,
so we should not worry too much about this.
In the budget tables I circulated last Friday (attached again here for convenience), your “other costs” (14,750 Euros) were based on the initial estimate of three countries. Now
we are planning to cover 7 countries, so those costs will need to be adjusted accordingly. Does anything else need to be adjusted in those budget tables, in your view? We’ll probably need to increase your person months to some extent. Anything else?
Thank you,
Franco
From: Robert Åkesson <robert@stiftelsenchoice.se>
Sent: 12 April 2026 13:19
To: Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk>
Cc: zhealth-consort <zhealth-consort@imperial.ac.uk>; zhealth-mgmt <zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: RE: [Z-health-consortium] Update on progress with EU bid
Dear Franco,
Thank you for your message, and no problem at all – I am happy to clarify.
It is also great to hear about the expansion of the intervention and the involvement of the European Medical Students’ Association – this sounds like a very
strong addition to the consortium.
Our budget estimate is based on delivering the full methodology, which consists of several components beyond the delivery of sessions to students. To summarise,
our cost structure includes:
• Project management and coordination throughout the project
• Preparation and adaptation of materials to each national context
• Recruitment and onboarding of medical students and/or junior doctors in each country (typically 8–10 per country), including outreach, coordination and,
where needed, interviews
• Establishing collaboration with participating schools, including planning and scheduling of activities
• Training of medical students and/or junior doctors who will deliver the sessions (train-the-trainer component)
• Support and quality assurance before, during, and after implementation
• Follow-up and contribution to evaluation activities
Regarding the delivery model, our approach relies on locally trained medical students (and in some cases junior doctors) who deliver the sessions to students.
In our initial calculation, we included compensation for these student trainers as part of ensuring consistent quality and commitment.
To give a brief indication, student trainers typically deliver sessions in pairs and receive a modest compensation per session. Based on our experience,
this usually results in approximately 30–40 sessions per country over a year, corresponding to an estimated cost in the range of 4,000–6,000 € per country.
With the extension of the intervention to additional age groups and countries, we fully agree that this would imply an increased level of involvement from
our side. We also very much welcome the involvement of the European Medical Students’ Association, which we believe can be a strong support in areas such as recruitment and local adaptation. At the same time, we would still foresee a continuous role in ensuring
training, coordination and quality assurance across countries.
We understand your point regarding whether these costs should sit with us or with the national implementing partners. We are flexible on this and can adapt
depending on what works best for the overall project structure. From our perspective, the key point is to ensure that these costs are adequately covered somewhere in the budget to maintain the quality of delivery.
Based on this full implementation approach, our original estimate reflects a continuous level of effort across the project period, rather than being limited
to the in-person delivery moments only.
We are, of course, happy to provide a more detailed breakdown if that would be helpful.
Many thanks again, and we look forward to aligning on the most appropriate structure.
All the best,
Robert
-
Vänliga hälsningar
Robert Åkesson
CEO
Insamlingsstiftelsen Choice
Tfn: +46 (0)70 795 71 98
robert@stiftelsenchoice.se
12 april 2026, 12:05 centraleuropeisk sommartid, skrev Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk>:
Sorry, Robert, a quick follow up. I should say that we are increasingly leaning towards the idea of using an approach relying on delivery by medical students also for the intervention in the slightly older age group (in this group, the health and digital/AI literacy programme will be delivered in the final year of secondary school). This will mean that your involvement will have to be increased correspondingly (although two countries will be implementing both interventions, so the number of countries to be covered will “only” in crease from 5 to 7). The good news is that the European Medical Students’ Association (EMSA) has now confirmed their participation in the project, which means that they can support you in a number of ways, from the design of the prorammes to the cultural adaptation in countries, to the recruitment of medical students etc.
Franco
From: Sassi, Franco
Sent: 12 April 2026 12:00
To: 'robert@stiftelsenchoice.se' <robert@stiftelsenchoice.se>
Cc: zhealth-consort <zhealth-consort@imperial.ac.uk>; zhealth-mgmt <zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: [Z-health-consortium] Update on progress with EU bid
Dear Robert,
We definitely want to make sure that all costs are budgeted for, in view of a “full” (as opposed to “light”) delivery of the intervention, and I was indeed slightly puzzled when I read in your previous message that you had accounted for the payment of medical students who will deliver the sessions, because we do not seem to be able to find that information in our records. I am sorry if we have missed any communications from you (it may have happened, as we have been having a few problems with the group email addresses). Would you be so kind as to recap in a new email the budget information you have sent us previously, just to make sure we understand what we may have missed? There is, of course, a question of where the budgets for paying medical students who will be delivering the sessions in each country should sit. Arguably, it may be easier and more appropriate for the National Public Health Institutes that will be leading the implementation in each country to pay those medical students, but at this stage we are primarily concerned about ensuring that the budget is adequate, regardless of where it sits.
I look forward to hearing further from you. Thank you.
Franco
From: Robert Åkesson <robert@stiftelsenchoice.se>
Sent: 12 April 2026 11:17
To: Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk>
Cc: zhealth-consort <zhealth-consort@imperial.ac.uk>; zhealth-mgmt <zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: [Z-health-consortium] Update on progress with EU bid
Dear Franco,
Thank you for the update, and congratulations on the strong progress – it is great to see the proposal coming together and the consortium expanding.
We will review the updated version of the proposal once circulated on Monday and provide input where needed.
Regarding the preliminary budget, thank you for sharing this at this stage. From our side, we just wanted to flag one point for clarification. Our initial estimate was based on implementing the full methodology, which includes not only the in-person training sessions but also preparation, training of student educators, local adaptation, coordination with schools, and follow-up to ensure quality and impact.
From the current allocation, it seems that the level of effort may be primarily linked to the number of training visits. We are of course happy to align with the overall project design, but it would be helpful to confirm whether the intention is a lighter delivery model or a more comprehensive implementation of the methodology in each country.
We are very happy to discuss and adjust accordingly to best fit the project.
Many thanks again, and we look forward to the next version.
All the best,
Robert
-
Vänliga hälsningar
Robert Åkesson
CEO
Insamlingsstiftelsen Choice
Tfn: +46 (0)70 795 71 98
robert@stiftelsenchoice.se
Den fredag 10 april 2026 kl. 18:10:26 +02:00, skrev Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk>:
Dear All,
I would like to thank all those who have been working hard on various aspects of the proposal since our last Consortium meeting. We have made substantial progress, and we are now seeing light at the end of the tunnel. First of all, I would like to inform you that we have changed the title and acronym of the project, which are now as follows:
A-Z-HEALTH: Health in the digital generations, from Alpha to Zoomer
So, don’t be surprised if you see the slightly changed acronym. It’s the same project!
We have virtually completed our line up of partners, with more countries implementing interventions than we had originally envisaged (5 for the 12-18 intervention; 4 for the 19-25 intervention). On the academic research side, the Amsterdam University Medical Centre has joined the proposal to lead WP3.
The proposal is always accessible in Box (version that includes 3103 in the file name). It is not yet complete or polished, but we are getting there. We have been having some issues with the Box system, particularly with simultaneous editing, therefore we have decided that we will circulate a version of the proposal on Monday morning as an email attachment to all of you, so that you can work offline. We will ask you to check for places where your name is mentioned in the comments, and to provide the information requested, in addition to making any edits that you think would be useful.
In the meantime, I am attaching a document that includes preliminary budget allocations. The budgeting process is complex, as you know, and it is still under way, but we would like you to flag any issues that you may spot in the attached, for the time being. Please, note that the attached document does not contain subcontracting costs.
Please, do not hesitate to let me know if you have any questions before I circulate the proposal on Monday.
All the best,
Franco
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