The EU funds unique project on communicating health research

The EU funded project CommHERE, valued at € 2 million, was officially launched by the end of October. The project brings prominent research institutions together in an effort to enhance communication of health research results to the general public. The objective is to contribute to the improvement of health in the European Union and beyond.

Within the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, the EU is funding research projects in the health area with 6 billion Euros between 2007 and 2013. The results of these projects are regularly communicated in peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals, but routines for dissemination to a broader audience, i.e. outside of the research community are scarce. Therefore, the overall aim of CommHERE is to improve communication on the outcome of EU funded health research projects to the media and the general public in all member states. Project activities will include finding better routines for science communication through media and the web as well as outreach activities on a local, national and European arena. All activities are performed in close collaboration with the scientists to make them aware and to empower them to communicate to the general public.

The CommHERE project is funded by the FP7 funding scheme for coordination and support actions, which does not cover actual research, but the coordination and networking of projects, programmes and policies within the FP7 framework. This includes dissemination, transfer of knowledge, support for translational access to research results and actions to stimulate engagement between the research community and the general public.

The CommHERE consortium comprises ten partners originating from 7 nations:
• Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) - Coordinator
• Centre de Regulació Genòmica (Spain)
• Charité Universitätsmedizin (Germany)
• The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (Germany)
• Erasmus MC (Netherlands)
• Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (France)
• Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Spain), Imperial College London (UK)
• Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (Germany)
• Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi (Italy)

Countries

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom