Dear Robert, I apologise for the delay in getting back to you on the EU proposal. We have been very busy developing aspects of the proposal, and I have been delayed in relaying more information to you. You will find two documents attached to this message, which describe the components of the two intervention packages we are planning to implement as part of the project, aimed at the age groups 12-18, and 19-25, respectively. Our plan is to implement each package in three countries, so with 6 implementing countries in total. At the moment, it looks like the countries will be Norway, Spain, Slovenia, Germany, North Macedonia, Ukraine, and possibly UK. The first component of each intervention package, as you will see, is a “Health and digital literacy” education programme. The exact content of these programmes will be the result of co-creation with youth organisations and local stakeholders, but we would like to structure the health literacy component around your intervention model. We would ask you to help us design those health literacy programmes and to train the medical students who will be delivering the programmes. I assume this will require a certain degree of language and cultural adaptation, relative to the model you are applying in the Swedish context, but you will be working closely with country partners in this adaptation work, so you will be well supported. At the end of the project, you will have a fully exportable model that can be adapted for implementation in more countries. If you are happy to proceed on this basis, I suggest we go ahead with the administrative formalities involved in joining the EU grant proposal. I am including the proposal management team in this email, so that they can follow up with you on what’s needed from the CHOICE Foundation at this stage to make you a partner in the proposal. We will need to quantify the time commitment of the CHOICE Foundation’s staff, so that we can assign a budget to your organisation in the project. I look forward to hearing further from you. Franco From: Robert Åkesson <robert@stiftelsenchoice.se> Sent: 17 March 2026 13:27 To: Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk> Cc: Olney, Jack J <jack.olney@imperial.ac.uk> Subject: Re: RE: Possible involvement in EU grant proposal CAUTION: This message came from outside Imperial. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognise the sender and were expecting this email. Add sender to Safe Senders List <https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/add-recipients-to-the-safe-senders-list-in-outlook-be1baea0-beab-4a30-b968-9004332336ce#picktab=classic_outlook> Dear Franco, Thank you for the detailed explanation – this is very helpful and the proposal sounds both important and well aligned with our work. The focus on early adolescence and health literacy, as well as the involvement of medical students, seems like a particularly strong approach and a good fit with what we do at CHOICE Foundation. I would be very interested to learn more about the planned intervention package and how you envision our role in shaping the training and delivery. It would also be helpful, when possible, to understand the expected level of involvement and timeline for partners at this stage of the proposal. I look forward to your follow-up message. Best regards, Robert - Vänliga hälsningar Robert Åkesson CEO Insamlingsstiftelsen Choice Tfn: +46 (0)70 795 71 98 robert@stiftelsenchoice.se<mailto:robert@stiftelsenchoice.se> www.stiftelsenchoice.se<http://www.stiftelsenchoice.se> [cid:image001.png@01DCBDF6.78872700] 17 mars 2026, 13:10 centraleuropeisk normaltid, skrev Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk>>: Dear Robert, Thank you for your prompt and interested reply. Let me answer first your two specific questions. We are working on a proposal that will be submitted to the European Commission (DG Research) on 16th April, so this is not yet approved or funded. We are still in the process of shaping it up. On your other question, we would include the CHOICE Foundation as a partner receiving funding from the EU, like all partners in the project. Let me try to provide additional information on the scope of the proposal in this message. I will then follow up later today or tomorrow with a more comprehensive description of the intervention package in which we would like your Foundation to contribute. The proposal is focused on three key health areas that are strongly associated with young people's behaviours (age 12-25, this is prescribed by the EU call). The three areas are obesity and metabolic health; mental health; and addictions (broadly covering, alcohol, tobacco, substance use, gambling, screen addictions etc.). We are breaking up the prescribed age range into two key transitions, one in the earlier age range (12-18) from early to late adolescence, and the second in the later age range (19-25), from school to tertiary education or work. We would see your involvement mainly in the earlier age range, if the information I have on your approach is accurate. For each of these transitions, we are developing a multi-component intervention package that covers multiple dimensions related with behaviour and habit formation in young people. In the adolescence age range, we envisage the intervention package to be implemented in secondary schools, covering the following four domains: (a) health and digital literacy; (b) self-management of digital media use; (c) healthy school environments and nudges; and (d) provision of resources and services. Your approach would fit within the first domain, as a way of improving children’s health literacy in the three health areas mentioned above. We are exploring the possibility to work with EMSA, the European Medical Students’ Association, who may be able to help us deploy the intervention in at least three countries (Norway and Spain would be two of them, we are currently selecting a third one), but we would be counting on your organisation’s experience to support the design of the training of medical students and the organisations of the format and contents of the sessions to be delivered in schools. As I mentioned, I will follow up with more details about the intervention package and the current structure of the proposal and partners in a separate email. Franco From: Robert Åkesson <robert@stiftelsenchoice.se<mailto:robert@stiftelsenchoice.se>> Sent: 17 March 2026 06:48 To: Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk>> Cc: Olney, Jack J <jack.olney@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:jack.olney@imperial.ac.uk>> Subject: Re: Possible involvement in EU grant proposal 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 for your kind email and for reaching out. We are pleased to hear about your proposal, and the CHOICE Foundation is indeed interested in exploring the possibility of contributing to this project. Before proceeding further, I would appreciate receiving some additional details about the proposal, particularly regarding the overall scope, planned interventions, and the expected role of CHOICE Foundation. I also have a couple of initial questions: • Would participation in the project require any financial contribution from our side? • Has the proposal already been submitted or approved, or is it still under development? I look forward to learning more and continuing the discussion. Kind regards, Robert - Vänliga hälsningar Robert Åkesson CEO Insamlingsstiftelsen Choice Tfn: +46 (0)70 795 71 98 robert@stiftelsenchoice.se<mailto:robert@stiftelsenchoice.se> www.stiftelsenchoice.se<http://www.stiftelsenchoice.se> [cid:image001.png@01DCBDF6.78872700] 16 mars 2026, 14:00 centraleuropeisk normaltid, skrev Sassi, Franco <f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk>>: Dear Robert, I am following up on a contact that my colleague Jack Olney established with you over the past weekend. I am leading the development of a grant proposal under a current EU Horizon programme call on Behavioural interventions for the prevention of non-communicable diseases in young people. I have recently come across the work of the CHOICE Foundation, and I find it very interesting and potentially a great fit for our proposal. I wonder if you would consider a collaboration on this proposal. This would involve exporting your intervention model to at least three European countries (at the moment we are not planning interventions specifically in Sweden) and supporting implementation in those countries. In each of the countries in which we intend to implement interventions, we are partnering with the relevant National Public Health Institutes, and we have the support of the European Office of the WHO. If you have an interest in exploring this opportunity, I would be happy to provide further details about the proposal and to discuss a possible role for the CHOICE Foundation. I look forward to hearing from you. Franco Franco Sassi PhD Chair in International Health Policy and Economics Director, Centre for Health Economics and Policy Innovation (CHEPI) Imperial Business School London SW7 2AZ United Kingdom Email: f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk<mailto:f.sassi@imperial.ac.uk> Tel: +44(0)207 594 9157