On 5 May 2025, THCS, PROPHET, JA PreventNCD and JANE-2 co-organised a joint webinar to explore synergies and shared strategies for improving prevention in health and care. Titled “Fostering Synergies for Effective Prevention Strategies in Health and Care Systems”, the event moderated by Michele Calabrò (EUREGHA) highlighted the urgent need for coordinated action to close the gap between research, policy, and implementation.
The session opened with a compelling intervention from Dr. André Carvalho (IARC/WHO), who laid out the economic and societal case for prevention. He underlined that up to 40% of cancers are preventable and that investing in proven interventions can yield up to an 8-fold return. Yet, only a fraction of cancer research and funding in Europe is currently directed towards prevention. To shift the needle, Dr. Carvalho called for more implementation science, a better-trained workforce, and robust health system infrastructures to support policy uptake and behavioural change.
The webinar continued with a deep dive into the PROPHET project, introduced by Prof. Stefania Boccia (Università Cattolica & Policlinico Gemelli). The project’s goal is to co-design a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) and a Personalized Prevention Roadmap. Prof. Boccia emphasised the importance of stakeholder engagement and highlighted the roadmap’s structure, which links concrete actions to policy goals, funding sources, and implementation timelines. Key challenges addressed include equity, data integration, and building trust in personalized prevention approaches.
Building on this, Laura Motta from the THCS Coordination Team presented the partnership’s current work on advancing system-level innovation. She spotlighted THCS’s thematic Joint Transnational Calls, including JTC2024 – Innovate to Prevent, which funded 20 cutting-edge projects focused on secondary, tertiary, and quaternary prevention. These projects reflect a wide spectrum of settings, populations, diseases, and digital tools, confirming the need for multi-faceted and scalable solutions.
Representatives from JA PreventNCD offered a policy-oriented perspective. Prof. Knut-Inge Klepp and Dr. Arnfinn Helleve (Norwegian Institute of Public Health) illustrated how structural and environmental drivers—like taxation, regulation, and urban design—play a central role in reducing the burden of NCDs. Their action plan aims to support member states in implementing fiscal and regulatory measures, while enhancing intersectoral collaboration and monitoring capacities.
Dr. Delia Nicoară (Oncology Institute of Cluj-Napoca) concluded the session with a presentation on JANE-2 and its mission to establish Networks of Expertise in personalized prevention. She described how education, health policy, and omics research are being integrated into a comprehensive approach to equip professionals with tools and knowledge to apply personalized cancer prevention in practice.
Across all presentations, a common message emerged: no single initiative can address prevention alone. From upstream policy measures to grassroots digital experimentation, synergy is essential to drive meaningful, system-wide change.
The dialogue will continue in upcoming events, including stakeholder workshops at the PROPHET Annual Meeting in Amsterdam (October 2025) and the European Public Health Conference in Helsinki (November 2025). These will serve as key moments for consultation, exchange, and shared commitment to smarter prevention strategies across Europe.
You can find the full recordings of the meeting on our YouTube Channel.