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The European mHealth Hub established by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Regional Ministry of Health of Andalusia (Spain), together with 17 other European partners, to support the integration of mHealth programmes and services into national or regional health systems, is a project funded by the European Commission. Part of the work was to develop a Policy Framework Report aimed to contribute towards developing a policy framework for EU on cross-border adoption and assessment of innovation in mHealth to help pave the way for moving towards a “Single Healthcare Digital Market” in Europe. The Report aims to contribute to the development of a Common Policy Framework for mHealth in Europe, by sharing lessons learnt and recommendations, with the goal of promoting harmonization. Even so, app developers, industries, academia, research institutions and end-users (citizens and healthcare professionals) are seen as key actors for the Policy Framework development, and their role should be highlighted.
Pain Alliance Europe (PAE), of which Cittadinanzattiva/Active Citizenship Network is a Board Member, is delighted to present the third edition of the Brain Mind Pain (BMP) Grant with the theme of “Healthy Sleep for People Living with Brain, Mind and Pain Conditions”. PAE represents the voice of people living with chronic pain. Pain, in a nutshell, is a significant disruptor of overall well-being, quality of daily life, and lifestyle choices. Chronic pain impacts mental health and healthy sleep. The latter is crucial for general health. With this vicious cycle in mind, the BMP Grant aims to explore and provide practical solutions for people living with pain and struggling with healthy sleep. PAE seeks all projects, big or small, that offer functional outcomes for people living with pain. They welcome applicants from various backgrounds, such as patient-centered NGOs, research/academia, medicine, and commercial organizations. Past BMP Grant winners include projects that utilized digital technology, such as an app for monitoring symptoms, an eHealth system with a self-help guide, or a social media campaign. Moreover, the BMP Grant also welcomes offline strategies for healthy sleep. This year, the BMP Grant fund is EUR 60,000.
Active Citizenship Network’s Community, shortly “ACN Community”, has been launched as a development of the “Active for Young professionals” program, realized back in 2014.
This Community distinguishes itself as a network of individuals rather than associations aiming at fostering the relationship of ACN with the single individuals that ACN has met and gotten to know in the last years through the program. In order to keep in touch with these people, the Community allows all its members the opportunity not only to remain in contact with the network itself but also to interact with each other. Furthermore, reuniting all the interns and volunteers who collaborated with ACN through the years within an informal network to continue to cooperate with them as well as provide them help and support throughout their professional paths makes the initiative mutually beneficial for both ACN and individuals themselves. The Community is addressed to all those young people who, with different roles, have been involved in the program “Active for Young Professionals”, including youths that have been supported in their studies, especially with the drafting of their thesis, youths that have been given the opportunity to work, either as volunteers or as interns, at the ACN’s headquarters, and all those young people and adults, either patients or not, that have volunteered or cooperated with Cittadinanzattiva/Active Citizenship Network to support and promote its work at the national and international level. If you wish to become a member of ACN’s Community, you can write to
During these months I have lived an extremely enriching and formative volunteering experience within the Active Citizenship Network office. The path I have taken in ACN has helped me to broaden my interests and improve my skills in the social field. Thanks to this experience I understood the value of networking, I had the opportunity to get in touch with doctors and researchers from various European countries and I acquired a wealth of new knowledge and skills that I will treasure in my future. Furthermore, thanks to this work, I had the opportunity to test myself by undertaking new work paths that allowed me to face new future possibilities. I am very grateful for this experience and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to deal with this working world. My experience with ACN has pushed me to want to know, in a much more in-depth way, the functioning of European policies related to citizens' rights, especially in the health sector. I had the opportunity to deal with local health policies within some European countries and this allowed me to learn different models from ours and through which it is possible to enrich our skills on the subject. The fundamental element that I made mine as a result of this experience undoubtedly concerns the importance of having access and promoting correct information regarding the sphere of rights and protections of citizens in the field of health and which are of public interest.
I started the collaboration with Cittadinanzattiva Onlus - Active Citizenship Network Brussels’ office in October 2016. I collaborated on European policies regarding civil society and the protection of patients’ and consumers’ rights and on project activities. Among all, the participation in the evaluation focus group of the Europe for Citizens Programme, the organisation of the Citizenergy project event at the European Parliament and the organization of a session of the European Sustainable Energy Week 2017.
I would have never thought that at the age of 30 I would have such an enriching and formative exchange experience outside of my country. The path I undertook as a volunteer for ACN has first of all formed me as a person, helping me to become aware of my abilities and potentialities, but also of my interests and language skills. Thanks to the experiences I have lived, I have improved in my path as a volunteer, I understood the importance of networking at the European level and not only at the local level, and I understood how necessary it is to build synergies to be more effective towards the achievement of our goals as volunteers. My experience with ACN has led me to study how European policies work, and all those policies that serve activists and volunteers. I also got to know the European model of participatory democracy which, although it still has room for improvement, represents a chance and a fundamental opportunity for us citizens to have our say on so many local issues that can be developed in the European context. In a world in which we are increasingly interconnected and interdependent, these aspects are fundamental for obtaining rights, protection and correct information for the benefit of citizens and patients.
During my internship with Active Citizenship Network, I had the chance to see how civic participation can be a decisive factor in EU policymaking. From the start, I received lots of responsibilities and projects, such as the Launch of the second term of the MEPs Interest Group “Cross-Border Healthcare and Patients’ Rights”, which we held at the European Parliament. Thanks to my stay at Active Citizenship Network, I was able to understand how important discussion among different stakeholders takes place in order to further common goals, such as in the field of Health Policy.
Since 2014, Active Citizenship Network has launched both in Italy and abroad the educational and training program “Active for Young Professionals”, which regularly offers internship and volunteering opportunities to undergraduate students and recent graduates from different universities. Below, read directly from who lived this experience.
Student in political sciences, interested in the changes in the expressions of "traditional" democracy, thanks to the experience at ACN, I was able to begin the study of a nascent European phenomenon to go back in subsequent years to its origins. A speaker and events manager, I nowadays work for the European Parliament at the Maison Jean Monnet in Paris, which is part of the House of European History in Brussels.
For its Brussels office, Active Citizenship Network-Cittadinanzattiva is recruiting a part time EU project manager. The successful applicant will represent Active Citizenship Network-Cittadinanzattiva as a consortium partner in European projects - funded by the EU Commission - already in place, as well as supporting the team in liaising with the EU Institutions, organizing events, contents and the general management of the job. If interested, please read more and send a CV with a motivation letter via email to
Are you interested in an internship in EU policy? Cittadinanzattiva APS is looking for a trainee to contribute to the development of its activities in the European framework. The selected candidate will be part of Active Citizenship Network (ACN) and will work together with the Director of European policies of Cittadinanzattiva and its team, located in Rome and Brussels. The candidate will have the opportunity to develop competencies in the field of European projects, citizen’s involvement, advocacy, and policy making at the European Union level, communication, corporate governance, and citizens’ rights. He or she will also be involved in the management of other European initiatives and projects, particularly dealing with ACN’s Network and having relations with partners, institutions and private and public stakeholders.
Cittadinanzattiva APS
p.iva: 02142701008
via Imera, 2
00183 Roma
Tel: (+39) 06.36.71.81
Fax: (+39) 06.36.71.83.33
Rue Philippe Le Bon, 46
1000 Brussels - Belgium
