Treats preventive health as a shared public good and a community responsibility rather than an individual one. Embeds “Health in All Policies” across housing, education, urban planning, and social policy; develops community-based services, and participatory governance. Tackles structural drivers — poverty, loneliness, discrimination, poor housing, unhealthy commercial practices — and scales local innovations such as caring neighbourhoods and community health platforms. 

Makes healthy living the default by redesigning physical, social, fiscal, and digital environments. Moves beyond education and individual responsibility toward structural prevention: restricting unhealthy food marketing, reducing fast-food outlet density, investing in cycling and green infrastructure, and embedding health impact assessments in spatial planning. Healthy behaviour becomes the norm and enabled through coordinated action by governments, schools, employers, communities, and digital platforms. 

Integrates planetary health into prevention by recognising the interdependence of human wellbeing, ecological sustainability, and the health of other species. Aligns health, climate, environmental, agricultural, and spatial policies across governance levels: reducing environmental exposures, expanding green infrastructure, embedding planetary metrics in decision-making, and building integrated environmental–health monitoring. Governments, universities, NGOs, businesses, and communities collaborate on sustainable lifestyles and preventive systems that minimise their own ecological footprint.  

Frames prevention as a long-term societal investment in health, wellbeing, equity, productivity, and welfare — not merely a way to cut healthcare costs. The pathway promotes cross-sector financing, joint investment funds, broader return-on-investment frameworks, and structural embedding of prevention in governance and financial systems. 

By focusing on children and families, particularly during the transition from primary to secondary school and onwards until children leave home, we aim to address societal challenges such as peer pressure, limited access to healthy lifestyle options, and mental health issues. Particular attention is given to children and young people with somatic and non-somatic limitations, recognising the importance of resilience, adaptive capacity, and inclusive support systems in promoting healthy development during critical life stages. We welcome research proposals that contribute to healthy development, resilience, inclusive participation, and successful life-course transitions through preventive, technological, social, or environmental approaches.

Our living environment is a major structural driver of our health and wellbeing, significantly impacting health. Our living environment provides us with a large arsenal of health-promoting interventions in four interacting dimensions of the living environment: built environment (e.g., roads, bike lanes, parks), chemical/biological environment (e.g., pollutants), social environment (e.g., social networks, participation, safety) and food environment (e.g. healthy food outlets). We welcome research proposals that develop, evaluate, or implement interventions and policies aimed at creating healthier, more inclusive, and sustainable living environments for diverse populations. 

Cancer affects people of all ages and has major impacts on individuals, families, and society throughout the life course. This theme focuses on supporting people under the age of 49 during and after cancer treatment by improving quality of life, resilience, participation in society, and long-term physical, mental, and social wellbeing. We explore how lifestyle, living environment, technology, and supportive care can help patients during treatment, improve outcomes, enable timely detection of complications or deterioration, and strengthen recovery and functioning for individuals living with or beyond cancer. We welcome research proposals focused on supportive care, remote patient monitoring, recovery, survivorship, prevention of recurrence, and improving long-term wellbeing and participation for people affected by cancer. 

With the goal of promoting digital self-management and self-organization, this research theme focuses on frail elderly individuals and those at risk of institutionalization. By harnessing technological innovations and implementing living lab environments, we seek to optimize functioning, enhance participation in society, and improve overall well-being of this group. We welcome research proposals that advance digital health, remote monitoring, self-management, healthy ageing in place, and innovative home-based support systems that enable independent living and societal participation.