Deadline: January 06, 2026
The European Commission announces a flagship initiative to harness artificial intelligence and health data for transforming cardiovascular health and related non-communicable diseases through advanced risk prediction, prevention, treatments, personalised care, and rehabilitation.
This initiative aims to leverage AI and health data to accelerate the early detection, prediction, personalised prevention, integrated management and rehabilitation of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and related non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including rare and complex forms. The initiative is structured around two complementary and mutually reinforcing objectives. Together, they aim to lay the foundations for a European model of AI-enabled cardiovascular and comorbid chronic disease care, grounded in high-quality health data and real-world validated solutions. The initiative should take into account the distinctive features of different population groups with regards to NCDs; such as socio-economic differences, gender differences etc.
Non-communicable diseases are responsible for approximately 86% of all deaths in the EU, with cardiovascular diseases being the largest contributor, causing over 3.9 million deaths annually in Europe. CVDs often coexist with conditions like cancer, diabetes, obesity, and hypertension, representing a sentinel for broader chronic disease and morbidity risk. Cardiovascular health serves as a proxy for broader metabolic and chronic health, influenced by genetic, social, and environmental determinants and modifiable risk factors like unhealthy diet and processed food intake.
Preserving cardiovascular health requires early and intelligent intervention to prevent disease escalation across interrelated NCDs. Despite clinical knowledge on risk factors, many CVDs remain undetected until late stages when irreversible damage occurs. Fragmented health data and limited use of AI hinder timely, targeted, and scalable interventions.
This initiative addresses these challenges by promoting the responsible adoption of AI in healthcare, supported by regulatory frameworks such as the European Health Data Space (EHDS) and the AI Act. The project focuses on structuring and federating high-quality health data across the EU to support AI tool development for cardiovascular and related diseases. It also promotes piloting mature AI solutions in real-world settings to improve early detection, personalised prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation.
Activities planned include federating diverse cardiovascular health datasets, defining technical specifications for datasets, supporting targeted data collection, and establishing a federated data infrastructure under the EHDS framework. Additionally, it will develop strategic roadmaps for AI deployment, pilot AI solutions in diverse healthcare environments, design deployment protocols, and produce evidence-based clinical and organisational guidelines.
The initiative aims to enhance health outcomes through earlier diagnosis and targeted prevention of NCDs, increase equity by improving access to personalised diagnostics especially in underserved regions, and improve health system efficiency by reducing the burden of chronic conditions.
For all activities, there will be a special focus on AI models for individual cardiovascular risk prediction, prevention, and treatment, ensuring broad stakeholder engagement to foster trust, clinical effectiveness, and ethical compliance in AI health applications.
The estimated EU contribution for this topic is € 20,000,000.
For more information, visit EC.
