"INTEGRATE aims at gaining valuable insights into integrated care, starting from the premise that it offers benefits for patients and for Europe’s health and social security systems, which are facing the challenges of an ageing population and increased chronic conditions. For these benefits to be realised, there is still much to be learnt in terms of process design, service delivery, skills mix, patients’ involvement, funding flows, regulatory conditions, and enabling information technologies to create connectivity, alignment and collaboration within and between the cure and care sectors.INTEGRATE will look into best practices of integrated care that have a proven impact in terms of positive patient care experiences; care outcomes and cost-effectiveness. The key aim is to define what constitutes good quality integrated care provision. By studying real case studies considered to be examples of interesting integrated approaches to medical care and a defined set of horizontal issues across different European health systems, we will identify generic success factors of care integration, taking into account context dependency. The results will be contrasted with international evidence and feed into operational and policy recommendations.INTEGRATE brings together a multi-disciplinary team with extensive knowledge of the challenges involved in promoting integrated care, drawing on financial, regulatory, human resources, technological, and managerial perspectives, covering very different European settings, including a new Member State, building on existing collaborative relationships. To ensure scientific coherence and maximise the chances of achieving effective policy change, INTEGRATE builds on the strong, existing network of IFIC (International Foundation of Integrated Care).INTEGRATE will impact on European health policies by providing managerial and policy recommendations, based on evidence from successful integrated care experiences, with the aim to support health providers and Member States in better organising health care and systems."