Who we are

Paediatric palliative care (PPC) plays a crucial role in supporting children with life-threatening or life-limiting conditions and their families. Despite its benefits, access to specialised PPC remains uneven across Europe. As a result, many children and their caregivers experience insufficient symptom management, limited psychosocial support, and inadequate bereavement follow-up.

Hope4Kids is a Joint Action funded under the EU4Health Programme, bringing together 23 EU Member States and associated countries, along with over 70 organisations.

This unique collaboration connects healthcare providers, policymakers, researchers, and patient organisations with a shared goal: to ensure that all children with cancer in Europe have access to high-quality paediatric palliative care.

Together, we are building a future where every child facing serious illness can have equitable access to high-quality paediatric palliative care, regardless of where they live.

Key Facts

Runs from October 2025 – September 2029

Co-funded by the EU4Health Programme

70+

collaborating organisations

participating countries

Our Strategy

Hope4Kids is committed to driving lasting improvement in paediatric palliative care across Europe by onnecting experts, strengthening collaboration, and developing practical, scalable solutions that can be implemented in different healthcare systems.

Through international cooperation and shared knowledge, we work to ensure that children and their families have access to high-quality, compassionate care.

Objectives

Hope4Kids brings together partners from across Europe to improve access to high-quality paediatric palliative care for children with life-threatening or life-limiting conditions and their families, with an emphasis on those facing cancer. Through collaboration, research, education, and innovation, the project aims to create lasting improvements in paediatric palliative care across Europe.

Our key aims are to

Reduce inequalities in access to high-quality paediatric palliative care across Europe.
Develop harmonised European guidelines, standards, and best practices to support consistent, high-quality care.
Strengthen collaboration between healthcare professionals, researchers, institutions, policymakers, and patient organisations.
Identify gaps and unmet needs in paediatric palliative care services and promote effective models of care.
Develop, test, and scale up innovative tools and interventions that improve the quality and accessibility of paediatric palliative care.
Support healthcare professionals, children, families, and informal caregivers through education, training, and accessible information resources.
Improve the quality of life of children with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions and their families by promoting equitable and evidence-based paediatric palliative care across Europe.

Expected results

Harmonised evidence-based international guidelines for PPC: symptom management, advance care planning and shared decision-making, psychosocial care, preloss and bereavement care, models of paediatric palliative care.
Design, implementation and evaluation of four pilot studies.
Provide educational and training tools for healthcare professionals and caregivers.
Develop a European paediatric palliative care network.
Develop a European Core Curriculum in paediatric palliative care.
Host paediatric palliative care policy dialogues and stakeholder forums.
Generate synergy among European paediatric palliative care stakeholders.