Promoting public health research
The European Union takes pride in providing a high level of health for the people of Europe, a quest that requires constant research, improved policymaking and innovation. The EU-funded project SPHERE (Strengthening public health research in Europe) has improved knowledge and understanding on how research in public health – the practice of medicine at population and organisational level – is supported. The study brought together partners from 13 European countries to create a picture of public health research at pan-European level. It identified public health research literature published across six academic fields, and also made a separate study on French databases. It outlined structures for public health research at both national and European levels, and investigated support for public health research within the European Commission and European non-governmental organisations. SPHERE showed that Europe contributes up to one-third of all world research publications in public health. Nevertheless, at European level public health research has much less visibility that biomedical research. And there are large differences between member states: the EU-12 (New Member States) give less support, and need to give far greater attention to development of social science perspectives. Public health research underpins policies in both prevention and healthcare provision, and healthy populations in Europe contribute to both economic growth and social wellbeing. SPHERE’s study of national and European-level public health research will help shape new research programmes to tackle the major health issues facing Europe.