CAUTION: This message came from outside Imperial. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognise the sender and were expecting this email. Dear Franco, Thank you, I’ll check with Kremlin and revert asap. Thanks Julianne From: Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk> Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2026 2:12 PM To: WICKRAMASINGHE, Kremlin <wickramasinghek@who.int>; WILLIAMS, Julianne <williamsj@who.int> Cc: zhealth-mgmt <zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk> Subject: RE: [EXT] RE: Time Sensitive: EU Proposal on Behavioural intervention for NCD prevention in young people Dear Kremlin, Julianne, We have just finished a meeting of the management team for the Z-HEALTH proposal. We feel that the proposal will be weakened without WHO participation, and we wonder if there may be a way in which we could signal a collaboration with WHO without a formal partnership. One option would be to list WHO as a “Associated partner”, which would not require WHO to sign the grant agreement or the consortium agreement. WHO would not be receiving funding in this case. Another option would be to list a WHO participant, or participants, in the Steering Committee of the project. It would be good if we could still say that we plan to present the project’s intervention plan to the WHO for consultation and feedback from their national contact points. I am not sure how far we can go. I know International Organisations all too well and I am aware that there is limited flexibility. I hope we can still arrange something, nevertheless. Thank you. Franco From: WICKRAMASINGHE, Kremlin <wickramasinghek@who.int<mailto:wickramasinghek@who.int>> Sent: 09 April 2026 10:29 To: Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk>>; WILLIAMS, Julianne <williamsj@who.int<mailto:williamsj@who.int>>; TOKAREVA, Alena <tokarevaa@who.int<mailto:tokarevaa@who.int>> Cc: INAGAKI, Yoko <yoko.inagaki@who.int<mailto:yoko.inagaki@who.int>>; zhealth-mgmt <zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk>> Subject: RE: [EXT] RE: Time Sensitive: EU Proposal on Behavioural intervention for NCD prevention in young people Dear Franco, I can confirm that those documents will not be shared with anyone else. Thank you for your understanding. Best wishes Kremlin From: Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk>> Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2026 11:18 AM To: WICKRAMASINGHE, Kremlin <wickramasinghek@who.int<mailto:wickramasinghek@who.int>>; WILLIAMS, Julianne <williamsj@who.int<mailto:williamsj@who.int>>; TOKAREVA, Alena <tokarevaa@who.int<mailto:tokarevaa@who.int>> Cc: INAGAKI, Yoko <yoko.inagaki@who.int<mailto:yoko.inagaki@who.int>>; zhealth-mgmt <zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk>> Subject: RE: [EXT] RE: Time Sensitive: EU Proposal on Behavioural intervention for NCD prevention in young people Thank you, Kremlin. I understand. Please, make sure all the documents we have shared remain strictly confidential and are not shared with anyone. Thank you for your efforts. Franco From: WICKRAMASINGHE, Kremlin <wickramasinghek@who.int<mailto:wickramasinghek@who.int>> Sent: 09 April 2026 10:14 To: Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk>>; WILLIAMS, Julianne <williamsj@who.int<mailto:williamsj@who.int>>; TOKAREVA, Alena <tokarevaa@who.int<mailto:tokarevaa@who.int>> Cc: INAGAKI, Yoko <yoko.inagaki@who.int<mailto:yoko.inagaki@who.int>>; zhealth-mgmt <zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk>> Subject: RE: [EXT] RE: Time Sensitive: EU Proposal on Behavioural intervention for NCD prevention in young people Dear Franco, Thank you for this updated proposal. I am sorry, I have received the final decision that we cannot join your proposal. This is purely down to the lack of WHO internal capacity for clearance process. Yesterday we started to input this to our memo system. Our colleagues have checked the availability of different colleagues for the different levels of clearance and due to Easter holidays / AL and limited staff they cannot align the process to meet this deadline. We are really sorry for making you do all these changes and for not being able to join. For future Horizon applications, lets aim to have a good outline of the proposal with following points highlighted at least 4 weeks in advance and the final list of consortium partners. I am sure then we will be able to get timely clearance and join you. All the best with this one. Please keep us posted and we look forward to hearing more about the project if it is funded. Best wishes Kremlin From: Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk>> Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2026 10:43 AM To: WICKRAMASINGHE, Kremlin <wickramasinghek@who.int<mailto:wickramasinghek@who.int>>; WILLIAMS, Julianne <williamsj@who.int<mailto:williamsj@who.int>>; TOKAREVA, Alena <tokarevaa@who.int<mailto:tokarevaa@who.int>> Cc: INAGAKI, Yoko <yoko.inagaki@who.int<mailto:yoko.inagaki@who.int>>; zhealth-mgmt <zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk>> Subject: RE: [EXT] RE: Time Sensitive: EU Proposal on Behavioural intervention for NCD prevention in young people Dear Kremlin, Please, find attached a revised document in which I have included in track changes mode (to make them more visible) the elements that have been requested. In particular: 1. I have added WHO in the list of project partners in the first page of the proposal. 2. I have listed WHO as task leader or co-leader in the following tasks: 4.1, 5.1, 7.4, 8.3, 9.3, 9.4, in each task description I have added brief sentences on the specific WHO contributions 3. I have provided a comprehensive description of the role of WHO and why it is essential to the project in the section “Consortium as a whole” at the end of the document, and I have specified the task leadership/co-leadership roles in the table in the same section. 4. Some part of the methodology section are not yet finalised, and the role of the WHO will be further emphasised there, but I am not able to share that text now. It will be in line with what I have included in the document so far. Please, let me know if you would like me to make any further changes before yu submit it for clearance. Franco From: WICKRAMASINGHE, Kremlin <wickramasinghek@who.int<mailto:wickramasinghek@who.int>> Sent: 07 April 2026 23:08 To: Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk>>; WILLIAMS, Julianne <williamsj@who.int<mailto:williamsj@who.int>>; TOKAREVA, Alena <tokarevaa@who.int<mailto:tokarevaa@who.int>> Cc: INAGAKI, Yoko <yoko.inagaki@who.int<mailto:yoko.inagaki@who.int>>; zhealth-mgmt <zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk>> Subject: Re: [EXT] RE: Time Sensitive: EU Proposal on Behavioural intervention for NCD prevention in young people Dear Franco : Please see initial comments by email from the review team : I have pasted them below : Dear Kremlin, To receive funds * WHO needs to be a consortium partner. At present, WHO is not included as a partner in the table on the first page of Part B. Also, does not have any specific role within WPs (WP lead, owner of a task or deliverable) * WHO’s role must also be clearly defined as essential throughout the proposal. One clear example is when WHO leads a work package. If WHO is not leading a WP, there still needs to be a clear description of WHO’s role, why it is critical to the project, and which tasks and deliverables WHO would own as a consortium partner. Section 3.1 describes all work packages, their lead partners, and contributing consortium partners, but WHO is not listed there either (unless I have missed something). In response to your question on whether WHO must lead a WP to be a partner: no, this is not mandatory (however this is the case in vast majority of our submissions), but WHO must have an essential role clearly described in the proposal. If you initiate clearance in CEM now, I would need to make the same comments in the system and wait for a revised version before our team can clear it. You can therefore decide whether to proceed with clearance at this stage or wait for revisions. ——————————— My response about WHO role was this : WHO’s role will be when the interventions are being developed, we will identify a set of interventions first, based on literature and latest evidence. WHO will be a key partner in this process. Then we will invite our NCD risk factor Member State focal points from these countries for a consultation. Then based on their experience, local factors, context, they will help us to prioritize and develop the final set of interventions which are more applicable to countries. WHO will facilitate the process of development of final set of interventions. During the implementation phase, since we are going to have a full-time consultant, we will collect regular updates about implementation of interventions ,including barriers faced and level of interventions. This will help the project and also WHO to learn despite what we develop as evidence based and feasible package of interventions , what the real life barriers we face during implementation. Then we will support dissemination at the end, with all EU countries, based on the findings of the project. ——- Can you please use this information and send us a revised proposal ? Please include WHO as a partner to lead a task or tasks , not a full WP leader due to limited budget. Please specify the role of WHO to demonstrate the added value and write it clearly in the proposal. I think we need only few sentences. When you send the next version, I will initiate the official clearance process using the relevant memo process. I have a slighter more positive feeling than last week , if we are able to get the paperwork completed on time. Are you able to send this update proposal on Wednesday? Best wishes Kremlin Sent from Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef> ________________________________ From: Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk>> Sent: Tuesday, April 7, 2026 4:15:01 PM To: WILLIAMS, Julianne <williamsj@who.int<mailto:williamsj@who.int>>; TOKAREVA, Alena <tokarevaa@who.int<mailto:tokarevaa@who.int>> Cc: WICKRAMASINGHE, Kremlin <wickramasinghek@who.int<mailto:wickramasinghek@who.int>>; INAGAKI, Yoko <yoko.inagaki@who.int<mailto:yoko.inagaki@who.int>>; zhealth-mgmt <zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk>> Subject: RE: [EXT] RE: Time Sensitive: EU Proposal on Behavioural intervention for NCD prevention in young people Dear Julianne, As promised, please, find attached a current version of the proposal (not 100% complete and polished at this stage, of course, but close). I am also attaching a couple of budget tables that will give you and Pierre an overall picture of budget allocations (again, subject to refinement before submission) and details of the WHO budget. Please, let me know if you need anything else at this stage. Franco From: WILLIAMS, Julianne <williamsj@who.int<mailto:williamsj@who.int>> Sent: 07 April 2026 11:54 To: Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk>>; TOKAREVA, Alena <tokarevaa@who.int<mailto:tokarevaa@who.int>> Cc: WICKRAMASINGHE, Kremlin <wickramasinghek@who.int<mailto:wickramasinghek@who.int>>; INAGAKI, Yoko <yoko.inagaki@who.int<mailto:yoko.inagaki@who.int>>; zhealth-mgmt <zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk>> Subject: Re: [EXT] RE: Time Sensitive: EU Proposal on Behavioural intervention for NCD prevention in young people Dear Franco Thank you. This sounds good! If you can send us the budget and proposal this afternoon we will send to Pierre and his team. We will check the FENSA materials now. Thanks Julianne ________________________________ From: Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk>> Sent: Tuesday, April 7, 2026 11:22:31 AM To: WILLIAMS, Julianne <williamsj@who.int<mailto:williamsj@who.int>> Cc: WICKRAMASINGHE, Kremlin <wickramasinghek@who.int<mailto:wickramasinghek@who.int>>; INAGAKI, Yoko <yoko.inagaki@who.int<mailto:yoko.inagaki@who.int>>; TOKAREVA, Alena <tokarevaa@who.int<mailto:tokarevaa@who.int>>; zhealth-mgmt <zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:zhealth-mgmt@imperial.ac.uk>> Subject: RE: [EXT] RE: Time Sensitive: EU Proposal on Behavioural intervention for NCD prevention in young people Dear Julianne and Kremlin, I hope you had a good break. We have placed in the SharePoint folder you have created the completed FENSA spreadsheet and the signed disclosure forms we have been able to collect so far. A few are still missing, because the holiday break has slowed down responses. As for the budget, we have calculated an average monthly rate for WHO of €9556, corresponding to the mix we have agreed between P3 time, consultant time, and a small share of administrative support. Considering the activities we have agreed (involvement and consultation of national focal points as part of the co-design of interventions, and as part of the dissemination and sustainability activities; and co-production of policy briefs with project partners), we have calculated the following: • 17 Person Months of effort (1 under WP1, 4 in WPs 4 and 5, 4 in WP8 and 8 in WP9) corresponding to 162K€ • 7.500€ for travel cost • a total budget of 212K€. Please, let me know if the FENSA materials and the budget proposal look OK at this stage. We are preparing a version of the proposal that we will share with you early in the afternoon today. Please, let meknow if you can pass on these documents to Pierre or if you would like me to do that. Best, Franco From: WILLIAMS, Julianne <williamsj@who.int<mailto:williamsj@who.int>> Sent: 31 March 2026 12:20 To: Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk>> Cc: WICKRAMASINGHE, Kremlin <wickramasinghek@who.int<mailto:wickramasinghek@who.int>>; INAGAKI, Yoko <yoko.inagaki@who.int<mailto:yoko.inagaki@who.int>>; TOKAREVA, Alena <tokarevaa@who.int<mailto:tokarevaa@who.int>> Subject: FW: [EXT] RE: Time Sensitive: EU Proposal on Behavioural intervention for NCD prevention in young people CAUTION: This message came from outside Imperial. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognise the sender and were expecting this email. Dear Franco, Please find enclosed the tobacco and arms disclosure statement which needs to be signed and then uploaded here [Folder icon] Horizon 2026 Imperial<https://worldhealthorg-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/williamsj_who_int/IgDAlw8GNk4zRZxk45cQ_3BpAbLzsNYILU4HEEq0WHfc2Co?e=ZWsZqH> As discussed with Kremlin I’ve put the FENSA assessment in this folder—if you can ask people to complete it. [xlsx icon] Partners - FENSA assessment.xlsx<https://worldhealthorg-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/williamsj_who_int/IQA3n_sz-OsPRZHMdhS4flLlAW4FSu1vEmWKQCrMAIXcVwg?e=bsuoNY> Unfortunately on our internal system I could not find additional guidance for that spreadsheet, and I wanted to send this without delay. I’ll keep looking for that and for the staff costs requested. Thanks Julianne Dr Julianne Williams Technical Officer, Noncommunicable Diseases Prevention and Health Promotion (PHP) (formerly Special Initiative on NCDs and Innovation – SNI)<https://www.who.int/europe/teams/special-initiative-on-ncds-and-innovation> [cid:image003.png@01DCC82E.5550ED10]
