The Ministry of Health, Programme Operator for European Public Health Challenges Programme financed by EEA Grants 2014-2021, has announced a Call for Proposals nr. 1: Improving the access to health care services for vulnerable groups, including Roma to support measures for improving access to healthcare for vulnerable groups, with a focus on awareness raising, capacity-building and educational promotions.

The aim of this call is to increase the access to quality, equitable and inclusive health services for people from vulnerable groups. Well-proven and documented approaches, activities and methodologies that bring new solutions to address the needs of the target groups, are encouraged in this call.

Funding Information

• The total amount allocated to this call is 9,000,000 euro, including EEA Grants 2014-2021 (85%) and public co-financing (15%).
• The minimum grant amount that can be requested for the implementation of one project is 500,000 Euro and the maximum grant amount is 1,000,000 euro.

Eligible Activities

Within the call of proposals, the following activities are eligible:

• Direct measures to improve preventive health services in vulnerable communities, including Roma, for ensuring access to healthcare and reduction of social inequalities in health:
  • activities concerning the provision of health services for mother and child health and ‘women’s health’;
  • activities concerning the prevention of infectious diseases (for example, but not limited to tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C, HIV/AIDS, COVID-19);
  • activities concerning the prevention of non-communicable diseases (cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, respiratory diseases, mental health, oral health, nutrition and physical activity, etc);
• Investments in healthcare infrastructure that contribute to reducing inequalities in health status in relation with activities from point 1 (rehabilitation of buildings for facilitating the provision of preventive health services, purchases of medical equipment, IT equipment exclusively for carrying out medical activities, IT equipment for management activities.)
• Training services, information and awareness raising promotions (training of target groups or personnel, organising events and materials to raise awareness among target groups to health issues in relation with activities mentioned on point 1).

Eligible Partners

• The programme aims to support initiatives to strengthen the cooperation at different levels between public entities and the civil society, between entities in Romania and Donor States. In this respect, partnership projects with entities from Romania and/or Donor States are encouraged and will receive specific points in evaluation.
• The Partners (from Romania and/or Donor States) shall be actively involved and shall effectively contribute to the implementation of the project, sharing with PP the joint goal which is to be achieved through the implementation of the project. In this respect, it is recommended that partners have the capacity to act in the project's area, in accordance with the role assumed and in accordance with their legal responsibilities or status.
• Under this call of proposals, the following public or private legal entities are eligible as partners:
  • from Romania: Public entities, NGOs, private entities, established as Romanian legal persons. The private entities will need to comply with TFEU art 107 by way of providing goods or services which do not affect the trade with EU Member States;
  • from Donor States: Any public or private entity, commercial or non-commercial, as well as non-governmental organisations established as a legal person in one of the Donor States.
• In case of partners from Romania, the same entity can be project partner in maximum two projects submitted under this call (in case it has submitted one project as PP, it can act as project partner in only one other project).

Eligibility of Target Groups & Beneficiaries

• The projects submitted under the present call for proposals shall mandatorily address the needs of the main target groups:
  • Persons from vulnerable groups, including Roma;
• Each person will be calculated within target group of the project once.
• The "vulnerability situation" represents one of the following situations in which the person is:
  • they do not earn their own income or their income or those of legal supporters are not sufficient to ensure a decent and safe living environment;
  • they are unable to care for him/herself and/or live alone without assistance and care;
  • they do not have a home nor the possibility of ensuring their living conditions with their own resources;
  • resides in remote areas where access is difficult, in segregated settlements or in areas where housing is located at considerable distance from health infrastructure and from health and health related services;
  • lives in areas where they do not have access to basic medical services (without general practitioners);
  • Medically vulnerable who are at risk of ill-health or worsening health status due to (1) biological, physical, socioeconomic, behavioral or health determinants; (2) having an increased probability of developing certain diseases or pathological conditions; (3) having certain personal characteristics related to age, disability or other related situations; (4) mental health issues.
• At the time of entry into operation, for each participant (the person belonging to the target group) it will be collected the supporting documents regarding:
  • residence;
  • affiliation of at least one vulnerable group.
• The following secondary target groups may also benefit from project activities:
  • family members of the persons from the main target group;
  • staff from the primary care and community medical care assistance (general practitioners, nurses, community nurses, midwives, Roma mediators);
  • central and local public administration staff.

For more information, visit Call for Proposals.