Youth hEAlth from a Holistic perspective.

YEAH! helps young Europeans adopt healthier lifestyles and reduces health inequalities

YEAH! is an EU-funded project for children aged 8 to 10 and adolescents aged 14 to 16. It develops a digital, evidence-based and person-centered intervention that tackles physical activity, diet, sleep and screen time together. The intervention also involves the people around young people every day, including parents, teachers, educators, healthcare professionals and peers.

By bridging science, technology and community engagement, YEAH! designs personalized solutions that can scale across Europe and reach every young person fairly.

Discover our project

Addressing youth health challenges : aligning with Europe priorities

Youth health and well-being sit at the heart of crucial European challenges. Despite real progress, youth overweight and obesity have tripled over the past 40 years, and 9 million adolescents now live with anxiety or depression. Children and adolescents from disadvantaged backgrounds remain the most exposed.

The WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health recommends three strategies:

improve daily living conditions

involve young people meaningfully in policy decisions

evaluate and disseminate evidence-based interventions

The YEAH! project is fully aligned with these priorities. The project strengthens the health-promoting factors in young people’s psychosocial environment to create lasting change in their health and well-being.

YEAH! pursues four objectives

YEAH! empowers young people through their social circle. The project trains parents, teachers, educators, healthcare professionals and peers in interpersonal approaches that support young people’s autonomy and build supportive environments around them.
YEAH! targets several health behaviors at once. The intervention promotes physical activity, better diet and sleep quality, and less sedentary time, especially screen time.
YEAH! combines evidence and co-creation. Researchers tailor the intervention to each local context by blending scientific evidence with input from young people, families, schools and other stakeholders.
YEAH! ensures scalability, sustainability and equity. Privacy-preserving digital tools allow the intervention to reach a large number of European youth. Rigorous assessments then measure its cost-effectiveness, its equity and its long-term impact in community settings.

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YEAH! follows three steps, each led by dedicated experts

The team identifies what drives health behaviors and designs the intervention.

Experts in epidemiology, health psychology study the determinants of youth behaviors. Together with specialists in digital health and information technology, they turn these findings into a robust, evidence-based design.

Young people co-create the intervention with the research team.

Children, adolescents, parents, teachers and other stakeholders shape the prototypes so that they match real needs. Specialists in public health, social marketing and psychology develop, deliver and evaluate the co-creation labs.

Researchers evaluate the intervention rigorously.

Experts in public health, psychology, psychiatry and geomatics run a randomized controlled trial and case studies. They measure the intervention's effectiveness, equity, sustainability and cost-effectiveness.

More about research

YEAH! reaches young people through three complementary modules

The adults' module trains the grown-ups around young people.

Parents, teachers, educators and healthcare professionals follow online training with behaviour change coaches. A dedicated app and website give them extra ressources to encourage healthy habits.

Selected student leaders receive training to inspire their classmates and guide them toward healthier lifestyles through peer-led initiatives.

Interactive group activities, delivered face to face, teach young people about healthy habits in an engaging way.

Our consortium

A multidisciplinary consortium of 16 European organizations drives YEAH!

The consortium brings together 16 partners organizations. Its teams cover epidemiology, health psychology, information technology, public health, sport psychology and behavioral medicine. Specialists in social marketing, economics, geography, psychiatry and physiology complete this expertise, and the association keeps the work close to young people's daily reality.

These figures sum up YEAH!

Partners organizations
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11 universities, 2 research institutes, 2 university hospitals, 1 youth health promotion association
Countries
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France, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Romania, Spain, United Kingdom
Researchers involved
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The number of researchers involved in the YEAH! project across the 12 work packages.
Young participants
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The total number of children and adolescents to be recruited for the Randomised Controlled Trial across all implementation sites.

Million euros
€ 0

The EU funding to carry out YEAH! project

ASSOCIATION FLEURBAIX LAVENTIE VILLE
ACCARE
GCU
JYVASKYLAN YLIOPISTO
isglobal
UNIVERSITE RENNES II
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Logo UMM MedMa
sdu
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FUNDACIO INSTITUT D'INVESTIGACIO IISPV
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logo CYIM

Transforming health outcomes: empowering youth, reducing inequalities

Empowered Youth:

children and adolescents gain the tools to monitor and manage their physical, social, and mental health, laying the foundation for lifelong healthy habits.

individuals adopt sustainable health behaviors, maintain active and independent lifestyles, and experience a reduced burden of disease.

economic and healthcare costs linked to preventable illnesses decrease, enabling more efficient resource allocation to high-impact areas and reducing health inequalities.

improved health and digital literacy foster public trust, encouraging greater engagement and adherence to effective health strategies.

health policies evolve to become more knowledge-based, people-centered, and responsive to citizens’ needs, addressing inequalities and enhancing overall well-being.

Impacts of the YEAH! Project

Empowered Youth:

children and adolescents gain the tools to monitor and manage their physical, social, and mental health, laying the foundation for lifelong healthy habits.

individuals adopt sustainable health behaviors, maintain active and independent lifestyles, and experience a reduced burden of disease.

economic and healthcare costs linked to preventable illnesses decrease, enabling more efficient resource allocation to high-impact areas and reducing health inequalities.

improved health and digital literacy foster public trust, encouraging greater engagement and adherence to effective health strategies.

health policies evolve to become more knowledge-based, people-centered, and responsive to citizens’ needs, addressing inequalities and enhancing overall well-being.

Follow YEAH! on Linkedin

YEAH! Project

Our latest posts on LinkedIn

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  • YEAH! Project

    🎉 YEAH! is heading to Oxford on 11 January 2027!

    We are delighted to share that YEAH! is one of four European projects selected to be showcased at RISE4HEALTH, hosted by the University of Oxford

    This second edition of RISE Fr-UK is dedicated to health. It celebrates scientific excellence and the added value of Franco-British cooperation within Europe.

    Our presentation in Oxford will tell the story of our Franco-British partnership. It will show how French and British teams combine their strengths to achieve advances that neither could deliver alone.

    We warmly thank the organisers for their trust. Will you be in Oxford in January? We would love to see you there 👋

    Glasgow Caledonian University
    hashtag#HorizonEurope hashtag#RISE4HEALTH hashtag#YouthHealth hashtag#PhysicalActivity hashtag#FrancoBritish hashtag#UGA

  • YEAH! Project

    🎬 Our first YEAH! video is out!

    9 million young Europeans live with anxiety or depression, and childhood obesity has tripled in 40 years. These challenges hit the most vulnerable children hardest, and they often last a lifetime.
    YEAH! wants to change that. We are building a personalised digital intervention that tackles physical activity, diet, sleep and screen time together, with families, teachers, peers and health professionals on board.
    More than 2,500 young people in 7 European countries will take part. 🌍

    👉 You can watch the video here and see how we are rethinking youth health.
    ▶️ https://lnkd.in/eyvVD46f
    If you care about young people’s health, please share it! 🔁

    This project has received funding from the European Union´s Horizon Europe under grant agreement No 101155977.

    hashtag#YouthHealth hashtag#PublicHealth hashtag#HorizonEurope hashtag#YEAH hashtag#HealthHeroes hashtag#EuropeanResearch

  • YEAH! Project

    📢 We're recruiting a PhD student to join the YEAH! project!

    Glasgow Caledonian University is funding a new, fully-funded PhD studentship to strengthen the EU-funded YEAH! project, focusing on the design and delivery of our multicentre trial of the co-created coached intervention across 7 European countries (Scotland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, Romania and Denmark).

    The successful candidate will help evaluate YEAH!'s person-centred, behaviour-change approach to improving youth wellbeing, working alongside some of the world's leading health psychologists and behaviour scientists. Supervised by Prof. Sebastien Chastin, Dr Bryan McCann and Dr Giuliana Longworth.

    ✅ 3-year full-time programme starting 1 October 2026
    ✅ Fully funded for UK/Home students: fees covered + annual UKRI stipend (£21,805 from Oct 2026)
    ✅ Ideal for a behavioural, nutrition, psychology, health or sports scientist
    📌 Please note: this studentship is open to UK/Home students only (funding and visa restrictions).
    🗓️ Application deadline: 31 July 2026
    🔗 Application website: https://lnkd.in/e7cFKiKG
    Know someone who'd be a great fit? Please share widely!

    🔗 Reference SHLS26145 – Chastin | Apply via GCU (Health and Social Care, Full-time Sept 2026 start)

    hashtag#PhD hashtag#YEAH hashtag#ResearchOpportunity hashtag#BehaviourChange hashtag#YouthWellbeing hashtag#GCU hashtag#FundedPhD
    Glasgow Caledonian University

  • YEAH! Project

    📢 PhD position – Université Grenoble Alpes
    The Laboratoire SENS at Université Grenoble Alpes is recruiting a PhD student as part of our European project YEAH! Youth hEAlth from a Holistic perspective, funded by Horizon Europe.

    🎓 PhD topic
    Development and evaluation of the YEAH! behavioural intervention to promote youth health

    This PhD will contribute to the development and evaluation of an innovative digital intervention aimed at children (8–10 years) and adolescents (14–16 years) across 7 European countries.

    The PhD student will be involved in particular in:
    ✔️ validating measurement tools;
    ✔️ developing the intervention content;
    ✔️ implementing a multicentre randomised controlled trial;

    👤 Candidate profile: Master's degree in sport sciences (STAPS), psychology, public health or education sciences, with solid training in quantitative methods and a good level of English.

    📅 Application deadline: 22 June 2026
    📅 Contract start: autumn 2026

    📩 Application (CV, cover letter, Master's transcript) to be sent to: damien.tessier@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr
    aina.chalabaev@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr

    🌍 More information about the project: http://www.yeah-project.eu

    Please feel free to share this offer with students and early-career researchers interested in health promotion, behavioural interventions and European research.

    hashtag#PhD hashtag#Doctorat hashtag#HorizonEurope hashtag#YouthHealth hashtag#DigitalHealth hashtag#BehaviourChange hashtag#PublicHealth hashtag#Psychology hashtag#UniversitéGrenobleAlpes ACAPS

  • YEAH! Project

    Our YEAH! heroes are getting their gear! 🦸‍♀️🦸‍♂️✨

    You might have already seen it on our collaborators' pages, "Health Heroes" hoodies are landing at our co-creation sites, for participants of all ages involved in our incredible European research project.

    Because every hero deserves recognition. Big or small, your contribution matters. 💪

    hashtag#YEAH hashtag#HealthHeroes hashtag#EuropeanResearch hashtag#HeroesInAction hashtag#CoCreation

  • YEAH! Project

    See all our posts on LinkedIn

This project has received funding from the European Union´s Horizon Europe under grant agreement No 101155977
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Health and Digital Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the European Health and Digital Executive Agency can be held responsible for them.