The Transforming Health and Care Systems (THCS) Partnership will host its Annual Conference 2026 as a one-day pre-conference session at the European Public Health Conference in Bilbao. The event will bring together policymakers, researchers, institutions, practitioners, ecosystems and THCS-funded projects to explore how health and care systems can be transformed to address today’s most pressing societal challenges.
Aligned with the priorities of the European public health community and with the overarching theme of the EPH Conference, the event will focus on interconnected entry points for system transformation: climate resilience, circularity, urban and rural health systems, equity, and research and innovation priorities.
In this perspective, the conference will highlight how THCS contributes to European public health priorities by fostering collaboration across countries, sectors, disciplines and levels of governance. It will also explore how research and innovation can be translated into concrete transformative actions, embedded into health and care systems, and scaled across different territorial and organisational contexts.
Thematic Sessions
Session 1 – Healing Without Harming: Climate-Ready Health and Care Systems
This session will explore the two-way relationship between health and care systems and climate change: the impact of the health sector on climate change, and the impact of climate change on health and care systems. Through expert discussion and examples from THCS-funded projects, it will address sustainability, circularity, resilience and adaptation. The aim is to understand how health and care systems can reduce their environmental footprint while becoming better prepared for climate-related pressures.
Session 2 – From Cities to villages: transformative ecosystems driving system change
This session will focus on cities, regions and local ecosystems as drivers of health and care transformation. Building on the work of THCS WP9, it will bring in innovative ecosystems from across Europe to showcase real-world practices in both urban and rural settings. The discussion will highlight similarities and differences across contexts, while identifying structural enablers of transformation such as governance, workforce, financing, infrastructure and scaling pathways.
Session 3 – Who Benefits from Transformation? Equity, Access and Inclusion
This session will address equity as a core condition for meaningful health and care system transformation. It will explore what THCS has funded so far on this topic and present preliminary reflections from the JTC 2026 on Access to Care. The discussion will focus on inequalities in access, outcomes and innovation, with attention to vulnerable populations, digital and intergenerational equity, workforce conditions and inclusive implementation.
Session 4 – What the R&I Community Wants: Priorities for Climate Resilience, Equity and Innovation
The final session will be designed as a more participatory and interactive moment, tapping into the EPH Conference community. Building on the WP4 survey on research trends in transforming health and care systems, it will collect participants’ views on future research and innovation priorities. The aim is to generate useful input for THCS strategic discussions, future collaboration opportunities and possible orientations for future JTC calls.
The final part of the day will be designed as a more participatory moment, inviting the EPH community to contribute to the reflection on future research and innovation priorities for climate-resilient, equitable and innovative health and care systems.