The Scientific program "Social Variations in Health Expectancy in Europe" ran from July 1999 until June 2003.

This interdisciplinary programme in epidemiology, sociology, psychology and biomedicine involved the European Medical Research Councils (ERMC) and the Standing Committee for the Social Sciences (SCSS). At the time of preparing the programme proposal (1999), substantial evidence on social inequalities in health between and within European countries was available. It was also obvious that reduction in inequalities in health had become a priority for several European governments.

The past 25 years of social epidemiological research on health inequalities have provided basic tools, standardised methods and rich empirical evidence. Most importantly cross-national comparative analyses on socio-economic differences in mortality in Europe revealed a consistent pattern of a stepwise increased risk according to lower educational and occupational standing. However, less evidence was available on what factors may influence the observed mortality differences.
It was concluded that, building on these achievements, it is now the task of science to move from describing towards explaining social variations in health. In an exploratory workshop, leading researchers from 14 European countries identified research areas which offer particular potential for scientific advance through European and transatlantic collaboration.