Brain Innovation Days 2025: Join the event and meet EU-funded projects advancing mental health research

The Brain Innovation Days 2025 are fast approaching, taking place on 15-16 October in Brussels. This key event is set to inspire collaboration and accelerate innovation across the brain ecosystem, bringing together leading experts, researchers, clinicians and industry pioneers. 

This fifth edition will welcome two projects funded under the Horizon Europe ‘Health’ programme and managed by HaDEA that are contributing to improving the mental health and wellbeing of EU citizens: RECONNECTED and EQUICARES.  

Participants in the Brain Innovation Days will have the chance to meet the projects’ representatives at the Innovation Hall and gain first-hand insights into their work.  

RECONNECTED works to improve mental health, increase awareness, reduce stigma and enhance social participation among vulnerable segments of the population. To achieve this, the project aims to examine how factors at individual, social, environmental and societal levels interact under global challenges such as climate change, migration and digitalisation.  

Being currently halfway through, RECONNECTED will co-create affordable, non-stigmatising digital intervention tools and run trials in nine European countries to test their feasibility and effectiveness, with the goal of bolstering mental health literacy, psychological resilience and social participation of vulnerable groups including the youth, the elderly, people with low socioeconomic status and migrants. 

EQUICARES aims to improve access to mental healthcare services for people in vulnerable situations such as migrants, Roma, the LGBTIQ+ community, citizens with mental and or physical disabilities and the elderly. 

Fueled by a vision to shape a future where mental healthcare services are inclusive, accessible and innovative, EQUICARES works towards five main objectives:  

• To analyse factors that determine access to mental health services; 

• To identify, test and assess cost-effective solutions;  

• To engage communities through “Smart Health Labs” and an AI-based assistant to enhance digital literacy;  

• To test solutions in eight pilot areas across seven countries; 

• To provide evidence-based policy recommendations after evaluating impact, costs and unmet needs. 

Participate in the Brain Innovation Days and meet these HaDEA-managed projects advancing mental health research. If you’re not registered yet, you can get your ticket on the event page. 

Background 

Horizon Europe is the research and innovation programme of the EU for the period 2021-2027. The aims of Cluster 1 ‘Health’ include improving and protecting the health and well-being of citizens of all ages by generating new knowledge, developing innovative solutions and integrating where relevant a gender perspective to prevent, diagnose, monitor, treat and cure diseases. Horizon 2020 (H2020) was the EU’s multiannual funding programme between 2014 and 2020.