SPHERE Strengthening Public Health Research in Europe

1
SPHEREStrengthening Public Health Research in
Europe
Gabrielle Harvey Mark McCarthy Faculty of Public
Health, UK University College London
2
Can we Mobilise European Research?

• DG Health no research budget
• DG Research - limited calls for health policy in
  FP6 (2002-6)
• dominated by genomics
• disease focus, especially cancer
• environment, food, transport, informatics - all
  have different priorities

3
Public Health Research

• Population and organisational level to promote
  health and control disease
• Uses a range of observational and comparative
  methods, including surveys, registers, data sets,
  case studies and statistical modeling
• Goal-oriented addressing questions of policy
  relevance
• Disciplines include

Basic Applied
Epidemiology Environmental Health
Sociology Health Promotion
Psychology Disease Prevention
Economics Health Care Management
Health Services Research
Health Systems Research
4
SPHEREStrengthening Public Health Research in
Europe

• Discussion of FP6
• A call - support action for FP7
• Engaging partners
• Successful application
• Started 2005

5
SPHERE Aims

• To describe public health research at European
  level, including quality, effectiveness and
  impact
• Consult, and advise on, strengthening and
  integrating public health research with European
  health policy

6
SPHERE Partners

• Undertaken by a consortium of European public
  health experts from EU Member States

Faculty of Public Health, UK EUPHA
Public Health Resource Unit, UK ENSP Lisbon, Portugal
Kaunas University of Medicine, Lithuania Università Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore, Italy
ENSP Rennes, France EPHC, Germany
European Public Health Alliance SAVEZ, Slovakia
National Institute for Health Development, Estonia Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Poland
NIVEL, Netherlands University of Debrecen, Hungary
Durham University, UK Università degli Studi di Genova, Italy University College London, UK

7
SPHERE Methods

• Review
• multi-language scientific literature
• investigate viewpoints and programmes of
  stakeholders
• organise conferences and the work of European
  collaborative groups and
• assess the contribution of research training.
• Engage the public health science and policy
  communities through
• EUPHA
• National bodies
• European political administrative stakeholders
  and
• International scientific bodies and institutions.

8
SPHERE Process

• Coordination linked to annual conferences of
  European Public Health Association
• Two workshops will address methodologies and
  research policy implementation
• Continued engagement with stakeholders
• Promoting a European Research Area.

9
EPHA Workpackage

• Consult with EPHA members and other NGOs
  (especially accession countries) on their views
  on public health research
• Promote discussion of DG Research 7th Framework
  Programme with European institutions and groups.
• Consult with EUPHA to develop an expert knowledge
  base for advice on public health policy

10
EPHA Outcomes

• Include both country-level and European-level
  observations
• Particular emphasis on citizens perceptions
• Produce two reports
• Report on process and findings of consultation at
  EUPHA conference 2006
• Final report for SPHERE by June 2007

11
SPHEREStrengthening Public Health Research in
Europe