Strengthening Engagement in Public Health Research
STEPS brings together civil society organisations, researchers and national ministries to improve public health research in Europe. It is a collaborative study undertaken with financial support from the European Commission 7th Framework Science in Society programme.
STEPS – Strengthening Engagement in Public Health Research
AIMS
STEPS brings together civil society organisations, researchers and national ministries to improve public health research in Europe. It is a collaborative study undertaken with financial support from the European Commission 7th Framework Science in Society programme.
STEPS will
• Engage civil society organizations, researchers and ministries in mapping public health research systems
• Hold national – level workshops in the 12 EU new member states,
• Develop a European perspective through the final conference
STEPS is a project to promote engagement of civil society organizations in public health research and improve quality of life for Europe’s citizens. National workshops will bring civil society organizations in the public-health researchers, institutes and national ministries, with a focus on the EU new member states. A European conference will share this learning across European civil society organizations and provide materials for further agenda – setting and international dissemination.
STEPS will also contribute to structuring priorities for public-health research in member states and the Seventh Framework Research Programme, and to developing the European research Area.
Background
Health science is a leading field of international rsearch. But while the laboratory and biomedicine sciences from two major pillars in the Health theme of the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Research programme, the third pillar field, on public-health research, embracing prevention, health promotion and health services research, receives far less attention. The European Union are actively developing civil society organizations (CSOs) and supporting them is an important democratic policy objective. STEPS seeks to engage these CSOs in debate nationally and at European level to contribute in improving the health and quality of life of Europe’s citizens.
Actions
Within the framework of STEPS a workshop was organised by RUBSI on the 29th of March 2010 which discussed the situation regarding Public Health Research in Cyprus and the involvement of Civil Society Organisations. The theme selected to be discussed as an important public health issue was "Altzheimer’s Disease, the Elderly and the Family: The case of Cyprus". Workshop participants were Civil Society Organisations, Researchers from Universities and Research Organisations(Cyprus University of Technology and the University of Nicosia), the National Focal Points for Research (Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation and the Ministry of Health) and Repesentative of the Parliamentary Committee of Health.
Last summer all participating countries submitted a report about the workshop. This fall the partners submitted their reports on the situation of Public Health Research at National Level describing the results from a questionnaire sent to research providers, as well as on the sources of Funding. Through this report a mapping of Public Health Research in new member states is being developed.
More information can be obtained from STEPS website: http://www.steps-ph.eu/
21st May. 2010