A collaborative start to improving prevention, detection and care
Birmingham is proud to join cities from across Europe for the Cities@Heart Kick-Off Meeting, marking the official start of an ambitious five-year collaboration to transform cardiovascular health in urban areas. The project—supported by the Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking—aims to tackle some of the most pressing health challenges facing city populations today, including obesity, hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes. These conditions are recognised as major drivers of cardiovascular disease and disproportionately affect underserved communities in urban environments.
For Birmingham, colleagues from the Directorate of Public Health at Birmingham City Council took part in the two-day programme, contributing their expertise on tackling health inequalities advancing prevention-focused approaches at city level. As one of the project’s seven partner cities—alongside Izmir, Belfast, Łódź, Cork, Udine and Utrecht—Birmingham plays an important role in shaping strategies that will be piloted, tested and refined across European urban settings.
A whole-city approach to better heart health
The kick-off meeting laid out a comprehensive and inspiring programme that reflects the project’s whole-city vision. Key sessions explored the burden of cardiovascular disease and its deep links with inequality, the importance of digital integration, and the need for robust evaluation frameworks to ensure interventions are meaningful and scalable.
Breakout discussion brought together clinicians, researchers, policymakers and city representatives to collectively identify:
These co-creation sessions reflect one of the core strengths of the Cities@Heart approach: designing solutions with communities, not simply for them.
In addition to the thematic deep dives, the programme also introduced four strategic pillars guiding the project’s work:
These pillars will shape Birmingham’s involvement as the city works closely with local communities, health professionals and European partners to adopt integrated and sustainable solutions.
Bringing innovation, data and collaboration to the forefront
A strong theme running throughout the meeting was the project’s commitment to building a European digital data ecosystem—improving data integration across systems, enabling better insights into urban health disparities and supporting the next generation of health technologies. This includes identifying relevant data sources, exploring opportunities for new data collection, and working towards harmonised standards.
For Birmingham, this aligns closely with the city’s ongoing work to make public health interventions more targeted, evidence-driven and equitable. The chance to shape and test new digital tools, alongside leading European experts, represents an important opportunity for the city’s future health planning and service design.
The meeting also benefited from the presence of University of Birmingham, a key scientific partner in the consortium. Their involvement reinforces Birmingham’s position as a place where world-leading research and strong public service values come together to address major health challenges.
Looking ahead
Cities@Heart is an ambitious project—and Birmingham is delighted to be at the table from the start. Cardiovascular disease remains one of the biggest health challenges facing cities across the world, and addressing it requires exactly the kind of collaboration, innovation and community engagement that Cities@Heart embodies.
Over the coming months and years, Birmingham will work side-by-side with European partners to co-design, pilot and scale solutions that make heart-healthier living possible for all residents.
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