Phire – Public Health Innovation & Research in Europe

CONCLUSION

This is the first description that has been made of public health research calls or programmes across Europe. Restricted, for practical reasons, to one year (2010), and using information from 25 of 30 European countries, it has classified 75 calls and projects. While the broad topics in countries were similar, there was less coherence shown in comparison between the national programmes, and it was impossible to assess the funding for public health research compared with other medical research.

Public health actions achieve as much in improving health and lengthening life as bio-medical advances, yet public health research receives far less support than biomedical research. To maintain and develop the evidence base for public health, more investment is needed for public health research. Yet also, to maximise the benefit of this investment, European countries – their ministries of science, ministries of health, health services, industry and civil society – must work much more closely together.

Shared information is at the heart of cooperation. We present this report towards the success of combined research calls, programmes and projects in public health research for Europe.
Table 6 - Open calls or programmes in public health research opened in 2010, by country, code of call, commissioning agency and objectives

Open calls / All public health
Country / code	Commissioning agency	Name of the program/call	Overall objective of the program/call
France	Institut de recherche en santé publique (IReSP) / French Institute for Public Health Research	2010 call for research projects	Public health research (mental health, prevention, new paradigms in health, general issues of IReSP: health services research, public policies and their impact on health, health determinants)
Ireland	Health Research Board	Health Research Awards (population health sciences research and health services research)	To fund individual researchers and research teams, who will conduct internationally competitive and innovative research, through population health sciences research and health services research that will create new knowledge and evidence of benefit to health.
Lithuania	Research Council of Lithuania	Social Challenges to National Security	To reveal the nature, content, extent and trends of the social phenomena of the threats to national security, and to develop strategic solutions and recommendations to overcome these threats. Goals and measures for their implementation: birth studies (determinants and consequences, fertility behaviour and factors, family and household transformation factors), mortality and public health research (impacts and potential consequences).
Norway	Norwegian Research Council	Programme for Public Health (FOLKEHELSE)	To generate new knowledge about the factors that affect public health, the causes of social inequalities in health, and the measures that can reduce these inequalities and improve public health.
Spain	Ministry of Science and Innovation/ Institute of Health Carlos III	National Plan on Research, Development and Innovation 2008-2011: Strategic Agenda on Health 2010 Public Health, Enviromental, Ocupational, Health Service Research Subprogramme	Generating knowledge for the health and welfare of citizens and for the development of the preventive, diagnostic, curative, rehabilitative techniques. Reinforcing and increasing the competitiveness and ability in R&D&I of Spanish National Health System and companies in this sector. The Subprogramme aims at producing evidence for policy making decisions as well as knowledge to clinical practice.

Table 6 - Open calls or programmes in public health research opened in 2010, by country, code of call, commissioning agency and objectives (continuation).

Country / code	Commissioning agency	Name of the program/call	Overall objective of the program/call
Sweden	(FAS) Swedish council for working life and social research.	Public Health	The Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research funds research on living conditions, environment and social conditions, lifestyles, and the healthcare system for public health, as well on the efficiency of the healthcare system. Causes, prevalence and prevention of illness in the population are also studied, as is the distribution of illness by class, gender, ethnicity, age and education.
Sweden	Swedish Research Council	Epidemiology, Public Health and Caring sciences	Supports research on how disease occurs and how our genetics interacts with the environment, childhood circumstances and other living conditions
United Kingdom	Medical Research Council	Population and Systems Medicine Board	This is the main decision board within the MRC covering population health sciences. Calls are open for any research proposal, but the current thematic priorities include Nutrition … obesity; Ageing and lifelong health; Maternal health and the early origins of health and disease; Medical sociology; lifestyle, socio-economic and behavioural impacts on general health and health inequalities. Alongside the full range of ‘clinical’ (disease-based) research, Population Health Sciences - include population-based studies into aetiology of disease, traditional epidemiology and social and behavioural medicine.
United Kingdom	NIHR - National Institute for health Research	Programme grants for applied research	Applied health research including health services research; public health research; behavioural research; economic evaluations; and modelling. It is a national “response mode” programme that aims to provide evidence to improve health outcomes in England through promotion of health, prevention of ill health, and optimal disease management (including safety and quality), with particular emphasis on conditions causing significant disease burden.
United Kingdom	NIHR - National Institute for health Research	Public Health Research	Evaluate public health interventions: new knowledge on the benefits, costs, acceptability and wider impacts of non-NHS interventions intended to improve the health of the public and reduce inequalities in health.
United Kingdom	NIHR - National Institute for health Research	Research capability programme	Use of national electronic records system. Most of the research studies within the pilot are non-interventional (interventional studies are known as clinical trials). 10 pilot studies were commissioned in 2010.

Table 7 - Calls or programmes in methods in public health research opened in 2010, by country, code of call, commissioning agency and objectives.

Methods / Epidemiology, social sciences, other
Country / code	Commissioning agency	Name of the program/call	Overall objective of the program/call
Belgium	French Community – Health Directorate	Socio-Medical Information – Customer support and logistics	To make a technical and scientific support to the achievement of the obligations of the French Community as regards statistics relating to death causes To develop the medical data and to support their use in the preparation and the implementation of the five-year program of promotion of health, the operational community programme of promotion of health and the declaration of Community policy
France	Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) / National Research Agency	Investments for the Future: Cohorts - Public loan	To develop, over time, a small number of cohorts for health research : • ongoing cohorts, to ensure their durability and widen their investigation scope • new cohorts aimed at covering public health fields that have not been deeply studied yet
Netherlands	The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development	Program Prevention & Methodology	Research program on the development of (research) methods or –instruments on (cost)effectiveness, implementation and issues in public administration in public health. Projects should develop instruments to be used in research in public health. Priorities, instruments that can be used: 1. To prove (cost-) effectiveness in public health, especially in health promotion; 2. To prove societal benefits of prevention; 3. Implementation research; 4. Research on instruments to support analyses on the evidence of public health.
United Kingdom	Medical Research Council and NIHR - National Institute for health Research	Methodologies Research Programme	Methods development and methodological outputs that are applicable beyond a specific case-study. The programme includes research on: methods for the design and analysis of primary descriptive and evaluative studies; and secondary reviews and evidence synthesis of descriptive and evaluative studies; methodologies in the applied disciplines underpinning research in the health science, for example; the assessment and validation of patient-reported measures of health, health outcomes and satisfaction; methods development research to support the use and evaluation of complex interventions in health research.

Table 8 - Calls or programmes on cancer (Public health research / Disease control / Non-communicable chronic diseases) opened in 2010, by country, code of call, commissioning agency and objectives.

Disease control / Non-communicable chronic diseases / Cancer
Country / code	Commissioning agency	Name of the program/call	Overall objective of the program/call
France	Research on interventions to reduce cancer related health inequalities	Institut National du Cancer (INCA) / National Cancer Institute	To take into account health inequalities to ensure more equity and efficiency in all measures related to the response to cancer
France	Ligue nationale contre le cancer / League against cancer	Call for proposals Adolescents and Cancer	Research projects for improving knowledge of cancer among adolescents and young adults aged 12 to 25 (currently being treated or having been treated) and strengthening the quality of therapeutic, psychological and social care.
France	Ligue nationale contre le cancer / League against cancer	Research in human and social sciences	Determination of anthropological, socio economic, socio cultural and geographic factors that condition the conditions of living of people affected by cancer. Stresses multidisciplinary approaches and international comparisons.
France	Ligue nationale contre le cancer / League against cancer	Cancer Epidemiology Research	Research projects on cancer epidemiology
France	National Cancer Institute (INCA)	Call for projects in public health – Cancer prevention and screening policies supporting early diagnosis and prevention of cancers	To support research and actions in public health focused on: • promotion or evaluation of actions aiming at making cancer risks prevention better for general population or specific publics • Design, experimental implementation and evaluation of cancer early detection actions for general populations or specific audiences To promote implementation of balanced, reproducible, pooled, innovative actions and/or studies for the prevention, screening and early detection of cancers

Table 8 - Calls or programmes on cancer (Public health research / Disease control / Non-communicable chronic diseases) opened in 2010, by country, code of call, commissioning agency and objectives (continuation)

Disease control / Non-communicable chronic diseases / Cancer
Country / code	Commissioning agency	Name of the program/call	Overall objective of the program/call
France	Cancer National Institute (INCA)	Call for free research projects in human and social sciences, epidemiology and public health about cancer (within the Cancer National Plan 2009-2013)	• To allow the emergence of original and scientifically excellent projects in different fields of social and human sciences, epidemiology and public health applied to cancers • To increase and strengthen multidisciplinary scientific research grouping together teams, fields and technological means around an issue or a specific objective
United Kingdom	Cancer Research UK	NAEDI (National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative) Research Call	Research on early detection of cancer with focus on: Targeting higher risk populations; Research focusing on public awareness and reasons for late presentation; Research focusing on health services; Methodology for, and evaluation of, early detection and awareness research

Table 9 - Calls or programmes on mental health (Public health research / Disease control / Non-communicable chronic diseases) opened in 2010, by country, code of call, commissioning agency and objectives.

Disease control / Non-communicable chronic diseases / Mental health
Country	Commissioning agency	Name of the program/call	Overall objective of the program/call
France	Foundation Plan Alzheimer	Call for proposals 2010: Social supports	To develop research projects dealing with new services or structures created within the Alzheimer Plan
Germany	Federal Ministry of education and research (BMBF)	Research on behavioural disorders associated with violence, neglect, mistreatment and abuse in childhood and adolescence	To support research collaborations on behavioural disturbances associated with violence, neglect, mistreatment and abuse in childhood and youth
Netherlands	The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development	Program Prevention 4 Prevention of psychological disorders (anxiety, depression) and to promote mental health	Research program on the promotion of mental health The second call of this program only prioritizes research on: The promotion of mental resilience; Promotion of accessibility of effective interventions; Priority has universal and selective prevention.

Table 10 - Calls or programmes on non-specified and other non-communicable chronic diseases (Public health research / Disease control / Non-communicable chronic diseases) opened in 2010, by country, code of call, commissioning agency and objectives

Disease control /Non-communicable chronic diseases / Non-specified and other non-communicable chronic diseases
Country	Commissioning agency	Name of the program/call	Overall objective of the program/call
Denmark	Danish Council for Strategic Research	Strategic research in individuals, disease and society/ Health and Prevention	To contribute to the prevention of chronic diseases and their symptoms and – through treatment and rehabilitation – to preserve quality of life and functional ability for people with chronic disease and thereby also to reduce public healthcare expenditure.
France	Agence de la biomedecine / Biomedicine Agency	Network of epidemiology and information in nephrology (REIN)	Research projects in epidemiology, economics and care management regarding renal failure
France	Association vaincre la mucovicidose / Association Fight cystic fibrosis	Call for research projects 2011	To finance projects of basic and clinical research about cystic fibrosis (includes epidemiological studies)
France	Fondation coeur et artères / Heart and Arteries Foundation	Call for proposals 2010	To strengthen the development of research on cardio vascular diseases and metabolic disorders that encourage their development: diabetes, obesity, dyslipidaemia, hypertension
Germany	Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)	Competence Network Diabetes mellitus	Applications are available on the following topics: - Aetiology and pathogenesis research - Prevention, diagnosis and treatment including clinical research studies - Health services research, epidemiological research, health economics research.
Germany	Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)	Competence Network Obesity	obesity - Aetiology and pathogenesis research - Prevention, diagnosis and treatment including clinical research studies - Health services research, epidemiological research, health economics research.