As part of the Joint Programming Initiative on a Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life (JPI HDHL), 28 research institutes from seven European countries and New Zealand combined their expertise to form the Policy Evaluation Network (PEN). PEN’s vision is to provide Europe with tools to identify, evaluate and benchmark policies designed to directly or indirectly address physical inactivity, unhealthy diets and sedentary behaviour while accounting for existing health inequities. In operation for one year, PEN through a series of consortium-wide activities, network meetings, PEN presentations at national and international conferences, PEN publications and capacity building workshops with policy makers has ensured that its scientists have met project milestones and deliverables. In summary, the Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI), originally developed in New Zealand was reviewed for acceptability across all PEN countries and subsequently updated and improved for application in Europe. A Health Enhancing Physical Activity Policy Audit (HEPA-PAT) was carried out in the Netherlands, Poland, Ireland and Germany, the results of which are in review for publication. Experts in policy, within and beyond PEN, have identified key policy impact indicators and the potential for their adoption by large EU surveillance systems through an iterative process led by PEN scientists. The aim is to embed policy evaluation measures within existing surveillance systems across the EU. Modelling is an important part of PEN, and to date novel and innovative methods have been applied to data to determine the impact of sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes. Three systematic literature review protocols on policy implementation have been registered on PROSPERO, with recommendations from a fourth systematic review already indicating strategies that national policy makers could put into practice to enhance the acceptability of SSB taxes. PEN has also developed collaborations with other EU funded projects, namely CO-CREATE and STOP. As each project is examining different aspects of policy, our aim is to maximise the impact of each individual project through collaboration and to date, we have shared training resources and are co-presenting a workshop at an international conference. PEN is keen to support and harness the potential of its early stage researchers (<7 years post PhD), and a PEN Early Research network is being established. In conclusion, PEN’s first project year has been a hive of activity resulting in increased collaboration, networking and led to quality scientific outputs from the consortium.

WP1

Building on INFORMAS work, the Food-EPI Best Practice Exemplars (BPEs) and all FOOD-EPI indicators across 13 domains of the food system in PEN countries were extensively reviewed and updated by PEN/STOP partners.

WHO’s Health Enhancing Physical Activity policy audit tool (HEPA PAT) was completed for Ireland, Germany, The Netherlands and Poland.

WP2

Selection and prioritisation of key indicators for EU health monitoring: a) A list of 177 diet-related and 144 physical activity and sedentary behaviour indicators for policy monitoring in Europe was collated based on existing frameworks; and b) The original indicators were then prioritized during a 2-day expert workshop in September 2019, attended by researchers and policy makers (N=39) with a final list published in Nov. 2019.

WP3

A scoping review on the application of the GRADE system to support health policy making (e.g. guidelines) and policy evaluation (e.g. systematic reviews evaluating policy interventions) was completed and is currently under review.

A variety of ex-post counterfactual methods and data is considered and compared to evaluate the impact of sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes, including household budget data for the 2017 Catalunya tax, and home scan data for the planned 2020 Italian tax.

Collaboration with the University of Liverpool will allow exploitation and adaptation of an existing simulation model to quantify the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and equity of a wide range of interventions and public health policies.

A protocol to run a review of methods to simulate the health impact of policies aiming for changes in the distribution of dietary- and PA-related risk factors has been produced.

WP4

Two review protocols have been registered: a) Frameworks of implementation (ID CRD42019133251); and b) Determinants, barriers and facilitators for implementation (ID CRD42019133341).

Stakeholder consultation to assess policy implementation was conducted in terms of a Theory of Change workshop in Stuttgart, Germany.

WP5

A review protocols on inequalities and food environment-related policies has been registered (https://osf.io/fm4xv). A systems map is developed to understand implications for policies to improve diet in low-income groups.

WP6

Based on a systematic review of the literature, several recommendations to increase acceptability and enhance successful adoption and implementation of an SSB tax have been formulated, namely: (i) address inconsistencies between identified beliefs and scientific literature, (ii) use raised revenue for health initiatives, (iii) communicate transparently about the true purpose of the tax, and (iv) generate political priority for solutions supporting implementation (https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-019-0843-0).

WP7

The core paper describing the scope and design of PEN was published in Food Policy (DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2020.101873).

Collaboration with the Horizon2020 projects CO-CREATE and STOP was established to create synergies.