New EU-funded SUPPORT-Y project launches to strengthen youth mental health across education, training and work
A consortium of twelve partners from eight European countries will co-create, pilot and scale mental health interventions for young people aged 12–25, backed by a five-year Horizon Europe grant.
A new five-year research and innovation project, SUPPORT-Y (Supporting the Mental Health of Youth in Education, Training and Work), is launching this autumn with funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme. Coordinated by the University of Eastern Finland, the project brings together twelve partners from England, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Malta and Portugal to address one of Europe’s most urgent and underserved challenges: the mental health of young people navigating school, vocational training and the transition into work.
Almost one in two Europeans reported experiencing an emotional or psycho-social issue in the past year, and an estimated one in four young people aged 12 to 25 is at risk of depression, anxiety or another mental health condition. Despite this, support inside vocational education and training (VET) and early workplaces remains scarce: only five EU member states currently mandate mental health provision in VET, and many young apprentices receive no employer support at all. The economic cost of mental ill-health across the partner countries is estimated at roughly 350 billion euros each year.
SUPPORT-Y is designed to close that gap with interventions that are co-created with young people themselves — including those most often left out of research, such as marginalised girls, young people with disabilities, and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
What the project will deliver
Over five years, SUPPORT-Y will develop and test two complementary, evidence-based interventions:
- A blended SUPPORT-Y intervention — combining a youth-friendly webapp (mood check-ins, goal tracking, psycho-educational modules, with offline functionality on Android, iOS and desktop) with in-person mentoring, peer groups and creative workshops, supported by an open-access resource hub for educators, trainers and employers.
- An in-person SUPPORT-Y seminar — a programme for young apprentices and vocational students covering four thematic areas: own value, unfolding in working life, resources, and team.
Both interventions will be co-created with around 100–150 young people and stakeholders across England, Finland, Germany, Malta and Portugal, then piloted, scaled and evaluated in real-world education, training and workplace settings. The project will also deliver longitudinal mental health outcome data, a health-economic evaluation, a scalability assessment tool, transferability guidelines, and policy recommendations for local, national and EU decision-makers.
“Young people are experts in their own lives, yet they have rarely been meaningfully involved in designing the mental health support offered to them. SUPPORT-Y puts that right — by co-creating, testing and scaling interventions together with young people, educators and employers across Europe.”
— Kaisa Pihlainen, Project Coordinator, University of Eastern Finland
More information about the project, its activities and outputs will be available at project website https://support-y.eu, as the project progresses.
The SUPPORT-Y consortium
The project is coordinated by the University of Eastern Finland and brings together a multidisciplinary partnership spanning education sciences, psychology, health economics, public health, software engineering, civil society and youth media:
- University of Eastern Finland (Coordinator) — Finland
- University of York — England
- Durham University — England
- University of Beira Interior — Portugal
- University of Malta — Malta
- Stockholm School of Economics in Riga — Latvia
- University Hospital of Cologne — Germany
- Institute for Workplace Health Promotion (BGF) — Germany
- Youth in Science and Business Foundation (YSBF) — Estonia
- Mental Health Europe — Belgium
- European Youth Press — Germany
- Luovi Vocational College — Finland
The consortium is supported by an international advisory board including members of the European Parliament, the Finnish National Board of Education, leading universities and civil society organisations.
About the project
Project title: Supporting the Mental Health of Youth in Education, Training and Work (SUPPORT-Y)
Funding: Horizon Europe, Cluster 2 (Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society), call HORIZON-CL2-2025-01
Grant agreement: 101287389
Duration: Five years (2026–2031)
Coordinator: University of Eastern Finland
SUPPORT-Y is funded by the European Union under Horizon Europe (grant agreement no. 101287389). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
