Background Ageing populations, rising costs and sustainable delivery of high-quality care are increasingly common concerns in all EU countries. PACE is a EU-funded FP7 project (2014–2019) performing comparative effectiveness research concerning palliative care in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) in six EU countries (BE, UK, IT, FI, PL, NL) www.eupace.eu"

Aim To develop and evaluate an innovative intervention to integrate palliative care and advance care planning in LTCFs.

Methods The ‘PACE Steps to Success’ intervention is a complex health service intervention originally developed for UK care homes. Key elements of the intervention are advance care planning, symptom assessment/review, coordination of care, staff education, care in the last days of life and care after death, to be implemented over a one-year period, by appointed key champions in the facilities.

Using a randomised controlled cluster trial design, PACE will evaluate the impact of the intervention on patient, family and staff outcomes in 36 LTCFs accros the six countries.  Quantitative and qualitative outcome, process and economic evaluation are included.

Results The intervention has been culturally adapted through an iterative process of consortium meetings, teleconferences, emails and implementation process reviews performed in facilities in all countries. We focus the presentation on the developmental process of the PACE intervention and its key components, and outline the methods used for its evaluation.

Discussion PACE aims to develop a training package of the intervention ‘PACE Steps to Success’ to be disseminated across Europe, including particular preconditions, barriers and facilitators for implementation in countries with different long term care systems.