One Year of OBEClust: Coordinating Europe’s Efforts on Obesity

Obesity is a complex, chronic condition shaped by biological, social, economic and environmental factors, and linked to more than 200 health complications. Tackling it effectively requires coordinated, cross-sector action rather than isolated projects.

OBEClust -the European Cluster of Obesity Research Projects - was created to do exactly that. In its first year, OBEClust has brought together nine major EU‑funded initiatives, including the Obelisk project, to align methods, share expertise and increase the collective impact of European research on obesity prevention and management.

At the centre of OBEClust are two practical goals:

• Peer support across projects so researchers can compare approaches, troubleshoot common challenges and learn from one another.
• Common, methodological and/or policy‑relevant guidance to help prevention and management across diverse European settings.

A Management Board has been formed with representatives from all nine projects, and this now guides the cluster’s priorities. So far, the group have looked at topics such as AI for risk stratification, dietary and lifestyle assessment, questionnaire design, and metabolic/omics profiling. Rather than enforcing rigid standards, these groups focus on transparency, comparability and avoiding duplicated effort.

OBEClust has also invested in responsible communication, promoting people first language and framing obesity as multifactorial. Joint webinars, shared publications and a forthcoming position paper on the role of prevention in the era of GLP 1 therapies reflect this approach. Early outcomes include stronger methodological dialogue, reduced fragmentation and richer interdisciplinary exchange.

These efforts have recently been recognised with the EASO Award for Best Collaborative Project. The awards are presented annually by the European Coalition for People Living with Obesity (ECPO) and the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) for activities and initiatives related to World Obesity Day in Europe.

For more on OBEClust and all our achievements, you can read this article.

Obelisk is proud to be part of this initiative and looks forward to our future work together to towards our goal of preventing childhood obesity, enhancing the health and quality of life of people of all ages living in Europe.