The YoPA project, ‘a youth-centred preventive action approach towards co-created implementation of socially and physically activating environmental interventions’ obtained funding from Horizon Europe’s Health Cluster. The project addresses the multifaceted challenges of physical inactivity and health inequalities through a unique participatory approach. The project places teenagers between 12 and 18 years old in vulnerable situations at the forefront of the intervention process. The Institute of Tropical Medicine is a partner in the project and will conduct a Realist Evaluation to understand how youth co-creation contributes to improved adolescent health and well-being in four cities in Denmark, Netherlands, Nigeria and South Africa.  By integrating its results and sharing its approach in an open access Toolbox, ITM aims to contribute to fostering sustainable, youth-led solutions for healthier urban environments.

The METHYLOMIC project, ‘targeting hope for personalised medicine in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases’ obtained funding from Horizon Europe’s Health Cluster. The project aims to personalise treatment allocation and enhance the effectiveness of medications for chronic immune-mediated diseases such as Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis. BIRD, the Belgian inflammatory bowel disease research and development group, is a partner in the project and is involved in the OmiCrohn trial, a prospective randomised clinical trial for individualised therapy in Crohn’s disease patients. With BIRD’s active role in this trial, the project is set to deliver predictive, biomarker-based therapies that bring renewed hope for Crohn’s disease patients across Europe.

The Horizon2020 project BEAT-AF brings together 9 European renowned clinical centres in France, Belgium, Czechia, Germany and Austria. Together, the consortium strives to revolutionize Atrial Fibrillation (AF) treatment through catheter ablation and contribute to decrease the huge burden of AF in Europe. The BEAT-AF project kicked off in 2021 and will run until 2026. The department of electrophysiology of the AZ Sint-Jan Hospital in Bruges is partner in the project and has so far contributed to the pre-clinical development, the first in man studies and first registries of the revolutionary AF treatment put forward by the consortium. The first pilot studies show that the treatment is safe, effective and efficient.