Personalised computer models and in-silico systems for well-being

There is continuous progress in systems medicine, multi-scale modelling and patient-specific modelling aspects. But these opportunities have been inconstantly explored for the entire chain of health and disease. Thus, there are very few in well-being, prevention or rehabilitation while these areas are crucial for reducing healthcare needs, building sustainable healthcare and for assuring a healthy and motivated workforce. More, innovative methods are needed for better understanding and analysing brain, neurobiological and the gut-brain axis and the stress-related disorders or whole body data (e.g. where the development of multiscale and high spatiotemporal resolution imaging methods are critical) and their interactions with social, environmental, lifestyle, occupational, economic etc. factors that promote well-being and health. Well-being is a consequence of resilience to challenges and illness and of better prevention adapted to predispositions and behaviours (including gender), of better consideration given to the functional troubles, of better recovery and rehabilitation after illness.

Scope

Proposals should aim at the development of new integrative dynamic computer-models and simulation systems of acceptable validity, with the potential to being reused, build on open service platforms and with application in well-being, health and disease. The projects have to support computer modelling and simulations able to aggregate various information sets e.g. molecular, biochemical, medical imaging, social, lifestyle, economic, occupational, microbiome, environmental, developmental, psychological, gender etc. into robust predictors for resilience in coping with and overcoming challenges and stresses and for recovery after challenges and illness. They will process and apply individual/patient-specific information in a multi-scale approach required for integrating information at a certain biological level within a wider context (at least one biological level from molecule to entire body). Proposals will focus on multi-disciplinary research in medicine, SSH and ICT and should take advantage when relevant of existing large databases in clinical medicine, biomedical or occupational research, environmental sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), so enabling and facilitating the accumulation and relinking of complex and heterogeneous data collections. The models integrated in these multi-scale and multi-disciplinary approaches will have their predictive capability validated by state-of-the-art clinical and/or laboratorial studies and/or against large health registries. Whenever relevant, proposals will integrate data collected over time in order to inform on individual trajectories with periods of well-being and periods of illness and on the heterogeneity of resilience and recovery that can be different during the individual lifetime.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 4 and 6 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact

• Benefit for health and well-being: new personalised interventions for increasing resilience and recovery.
• Advancements in medical computer-modelling and simulation that takes into account time and spatial scales.
• Supporting predictive and preventive approaches in medicine, neurosciences and life sciences.
• Improving knowledge about well-being and association with life circumstances.