Phire – Public Health Innovation & Research in Europe

RESULTS

Of the 30 countries included, we obtained answers from 25, and of these 16 had at least one calls or program on public health research announced in 2010 whilst nine did not find information on calls or programmes opened in the same period (Table 2).

Table 2 - Countries with or without calls or programmes on public health research opened in 2010.

No calls on public health research announced in 2010	Calls on public health research announced in 2010
Bulgaria Cyprus Greece Latvia Malta Poland Portugal Slovakia Slovenia	Belgium Denmark Finland France Germany Iceland Ireland Italy Lithuania Netherlands Norway Romania Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom

Note: No answers received from: Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary and Luxembourg.

The number of calls or programmes on public health research opened in 2010 and financed by the main national commissioners is shown in Table 3. While the median value is two calls or programmes per country, France and United Kingdom described 41 calls, more than 50% of the total.

Table 3 - Number of calls included by country

Country	Number of forms/calls
Belgium	3
Denmark	5
Finland	2
France	27
Germany	5
Iceland	1
Ireland	1
Italy	1
Lithuania	2
Netherlands	6
Norway	3
Romania	1
Spain	1
Sweden	2
Switzerland	1
United Kingdom	14
Total	75

We have previously worked with country respondents, using phone calls and emails to build knowledge on public health research systems³, and recognise that the final information obtained may not be complete. Only France had an organized database to record calls or programmes on public health research across a full range of commissioning organisations. The data are collected by IReSP (French Institute for Public Health Research) within the national medical research institute (INSERM) and distributed with the collaboration of the French Society of Public Health.

Aspects of bias that may be present in these results are:

1. Reporting. The extent of informants’ knowledge of, and engagement in, systems of public health research differ in European countries to an unknown degree.

2. Country systems. Larger countries tend to organise research calls separately, while smaller countries may make a single overall call for research. For a smaller country, the opportunity (in principle) for public health research may exist within a broader call.

3. In some countries, research is supported through the traditional method of institutional grants (negotiated directly between institution and government department), rather than through the competitive calls and programmes recorded by this WP.

4. Only one year was chosen, and in some countries calls for research are not made every year. Moreover, 2010 was a particularly difficult budget year.

Thematic areas of public health research (research fields) which were financed through national programmes and calls in 2010

Tables 4 and 5 summarise the number of calls/ programmes in each thematic area in total and without France and United Kingdom. Tables 6-18 (page xx) information obtained on commissioning agency and objectives of calls and programmes.

Table 4 - Number of calls or programmes by areas of research.

			Number of calls/programmes
Open calls / All public health			11
Thematic areas of public health research			Number of calls/programmes
Disease control	Non-communicable chronic diseases	Cancer	7
		Mental health	3
		Non-specified and other non-communicable chronic diseases	8
	Other or non-specified diseases		3
	Communicable Disease		4
Health promotion	Environmental, occupational		11
	Health promotion (general)		8
Health services	Health services, statistics, information, screening, organization		12
	Other		2
Methods	Epidemiology, social sciences, other		4
Target groups	Youth		1
	Ageing		1

Table 5 - Number of calls or programmes by main areas of research financed in 2010, total and without France and the United Kingdom.

	Total		Without France and United Kingdom
	Number of calls/programmes	% of calls/ programmes	Number of calls/programmes	% of calls/ programmes
Open calls / All public health	11	15	6	18
Thematic areas of public health research	64	85	28	82
Disease control	25	33	10	29
Health promotion	19	25	9	26
Health services	14	19	7	21
Methods (Epidemiology, social sciences, other)	4	5	2	6
Target groups (Youth, Ageing)	2	3	0	0
Total	75	100	34	100

Many countries have open calls on “health” research (Table 19). However we were looking for specific programmes for Public Health Research areas. Some countries do also have open calls on public health research (details on these calls on Tables 6-18). The countries where we could find these generic calls on public health research in 2010 were: France, Ireland, Lithuania, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom.

The area with the most calls or programmes was “Disease control” (total of 25 calls with 18 on non-communicable chronic diseases) concerned with specific diseases, their prevention and health services control of the problem. The second most frequent area was “Health promotion” with research on generic determinants of health, especially environment and social. The third area with more calls was “health services”, including information systems, organization of services and effectiveness of interventions. A small group of calls was on development of methodologies of research (Belgium, France, Netherlands and United Kingdom). Finally two calls were classified on an approach by target age group: research on ageing and on youth.
Appendix 9 provides complementary information provided in forms. In general, calls did not have target groups in terms of age group or sex. Also calls or programmes were not specifically directed to disciplines as epidemiology, economics or biostatistics.

The total amount available for each program or call was from a minimum of € 135.000 (one of the calls from Belgium) to a maximum of € 101 million (Italy). The maximum funding available for each project was from € 3.000 (Iceland) to € 21 million (one of the calls from Sweden). However this could be assigned to projects from 10 months (one of one project from France 5) until 10 years duration (one programme from France). However, in many call or programmes, this funding was available for broad research areas and the proportion of funding for public health research was not known (see content of call or programmes, Tables 6-18).

When reported for (32 calls/programmes), the nationality of the research team had to be national in 19 and could involve foreigners in 13. When further explanation was provided, the involvement of foreigners meant that: i) foreigners could be from EU countries with no further explanation (three calls, Denmark); ii) foreigners could be involved if initiative, coordination or collaboration was from a national team (three calls, France); iii) foreigners are allowed if no national expertise is available (two calls, United Kingdom); iv) international teams are allowed but only the national part will be financed by the call/ program (one call, Ireland); v) foreigners are allowed if working in the country (one call, United Kingdom).

In general the potential beneficiaries of the competitive grant were public institutions. In all cases where private institutions could apply (36) also public ones also could (50).

Tables 6-18 provides information obtained on calls or programmes on public health research opened in 2010, organized by theme of research, country, code of call, commissioning agency and objectives.
Although some countries did not open specific calls or programmes on public health research some valuable information and comments were provided. Some further information was provided on:

• 
  calls or programmes on public health research but without the time range established for this research (2010) or without information available on dates where calls were opened;
  
• 
  other mechanism for support of public health research in the country;
  
• 
  calls or programmes that were not earmarked for public health research, nor included in the objectives aspects of public health research, but where PH projects could be eligible. In this group it is frequent to find broader calls on “health” or “medical sciences”.
  

This information is summarized on Table 20 and more detailed information is provided on Appendix 10 and 11. In this table and appendix it is also included information on programmes and calls provided by respondents but not considered (either by researchers or researchers and respondents) as calls or programmes in public health research.
Table 19 – Additional information provided by countries, summary.

Type of additional information		Country / code of call or programme (details in Table20)
Calls or programmes on public health research	Opened before or after 2010; With no available information on date to apply for	Cyprus Germany b) Poland
Information on public health research support but through other mechanisms than calls or programmes	Funding research centres	Greece a) Ireland
	Funding Scholarship programmes (e.g. PhD Scholars in health services research); Awards	Ireland Malta Portugal
	Support to infrastructure development	Ireland Romania b)
Calls or programmes not considered on public health research themes	Calls on broader area as “health”	Germany a) Italy a) Italy b) Latvia Portugal. Romania a) Slovakia b) Slovenia
	Other	Italy c) Greece b) Greece c) Norway Romania c) Romania d) Slovakia a) Slovakia c)