Results

It is estimated that around 20% of the burden of disease in industrialized countries can be attributed to environmental factors (EU Environment and Health Strategy 2004). Europe’s citizens are concerned about the potential impact of the environment on their health and expect policy makers to act. In a survey carried out in 2002 (Flash Eurobarometer EB123), 89% stated that they were worried about the potential impact of the environment on their health. Reducing uncertainties about the links between environment and health (E&H) and taking action through protection and prevention measures is therefore necessary. However, for these to be effective in the long-term, cooperation must be improved and research driven by a common set of priorities. ERA-ENVHEALTH, co-funded by the European Commission under FP7 “Coordination Actions”, enhances European coordination of environment and health research programming to support effective policy making.

 

 

The ERA-ENVHEALTH project allows the implementation of a network between managers of research programmes. In order to establish sustainable collaboration, an integrated step-by-step approach has been implemented.The objectives are to bring together the environment and health research financers and programmers to establish a lasting collaboration between the various organisations by sharing information on research activities and expertise, studying their results and methods, defining priorities for research themes and opportunities for cooperation and organising joint activities and transnational calls for research projects.

 

 

In addition to the need for better coordination across Europe, the World Health Organisation (European region) and the European Commission have expressed the need for better use of Environment and Health research results to support policy development and to better anticipate issues affecting the public. ERA-ENVHEALTH is a contribution to the European Environment and Health Action Plan 2004-2010, promoting the better use of research results to support policy development. Furthermore, the information generated by the project is a valuable resource for stakeholders who would like to improve public participation in environment and health policy.

The ERA-ENVHEALTH project started in September 2008 with 16 environment and health research programme managers from 10 countries. The search for new partners has started. Better collaboration means avoiding duplication of financial and scientific effort, shared understanding of priority issues, greater access to information and experts, better use of resources to provide answers to common problems and developing common approaches.

The originality of ERA-ENVHEALTH is that a first call for proposals was launched at the start of the project to experiment joint funding and fully assess its implementation.

 

 

The necessary tools and structures for efficient management of the project have been created and put in place. A quality manual was prepared which provides all the tools and templates for the project reports, ensuring improved quality and harmonisation of the quality of the deliverables. The project’s governance arrangements ensuring a successful outcome of this coordination action, particularly in view of the diversity of programmes and institutional arrangements with regards to Environment and Health research, have been established and work well. The project follow up indicators have also been defined and reviewed for the first year of the project, showing that the project is progressing in line with its objectives. For this first reporting period, the consortium can be satisfied of the work achieved and the communication between the beneficiaries is extremely efficient. All partners are motivated to work on the ERA-ENVHEALTH project as estimated, and even more, showing their high implication and enthusiasm for the project. 

 

 

After a year, ERA-ENVHEALTH has developed a shared vision and improved exchange of knowledge and expertise between countries through access to data at European level (website, expert and research programme databases). A common framework for describing and assessing the Environment and Health research programmes and projects was developed on the basis of a questionnaire. This questionnaire was then adapted to an online “Environment and Health Research Database”: an information management tool to structure and facilitate access, analysis and exchange of information on Environment and Health research programmes and projects in Europe. It has been completed by all ERA-ENVHEALTH partners as well as other relevant programme managers in EU Member States to provide a widespread overview of the activities in this field. The aim is to make available information about the current and past funding programmes, thus providing good visibility of Environment and Health research in Europe. The Environment and Health Research Database currently contains information from 13 countries on 41 organisations, 51 programmes and 463 projects which will be analysed for the final overview of research programmes.The draft overview of programmes was prepared to provide a survey of national programmes owned or managed by the ERA-ENVHEALTH partners. A wider scope will be achieved in the final report as the second phase of the information requests will be extended to non ERA-ENVHEALTH partners, thus aiming to provide an overview and description of the Environment and Health research landscape in the EU.

 

The information gathered in this way will also be used to identify and prioritise key strategic issues in Environment and Health for joint activities and trans-national research funding. Current issues within programmes and emerging issues will be identified and prioritisation criteria will be developed and applied to these issues in order to produce a prioritised set of work areas for joint activities and funding in ERA-ENVHEALTH. An initial trial of the knowledge management software on a selection of the Environment and Health projects in the research database has been carried out. It demonstrated the usefulness of this knowledge management approach to analyse the information in the research database for complementarities and clusters. Horizon scanning has also been undertaken of emerging issues and it is then intended to combine it with the analysis of current projects to identify emerging issues where there are gaps in Environment and Health research in Europe. This provides an up-to-date, comprehensive analysis of Environment and Health research in Europe and areas where transnational research can bring added value. For the future work in the project, it is therefore important to develop prioritisation criteria for Environment and Health issues across the ERA-ENVHEALTH partners and apply them within the project to maximise the potential for joint funding of common strategic issues across member states in Europe.

 

An Expert Database was developed and is also online. Its purpose is to identify and select relevant scientific experts in Environment and Health. Currently, the expert database contains information on 36 registered experts, initially selected in 4 major areas: climate change, children’s health, socio-economic aspects and indoor air. Later on, the areas of expertise were extended to increase the number of specialties covered by the Expert database. The sames areas/topics of the “Environment and Health Research Database” were adopted..

 

 

A first transnational joint call, funded by three partners (NERC – UK, ANSES (formerly Afsset) – France, and VROM – Netherlands), was successfully launched. Its remit: “Health vulnerability resulting from future climate change impacts on soil-water ecosystems, land use and water resources at regional scale” was based on an area of common interest, one of four topics previously identified as important by all partners and specified further during a meeting with scientists and stakeholders involved in this area of research. The evaluation and selection process implemented was successful, robust and transparent and will be useful for future calls. The selection process not only evaluated the scientific excellence but also discussed and took into account the added-value for the financers. This was an extremely efficient procedure making it more relevant to policy and maximising the impact of the funding. Funding and implementing a joint programme of trans-national research projects involves agreeing and establishing a common strategy, a joint work programme and call process, a common trans-national evaluation system and a common plan for dissemination of research outputs. This first call is a practical experience and provides a good case study for trans-national collaborative working in funding research. It gives a strong framework for future trans-national calls and provides excellent learning ground for the ERA-ENVHEALTH consortium and the preparation of further transnational calls. It certainly highlighted issues that can arise when jointly funding research. It will therefore be evaluated in order to identify strengths and weaknesses of the ERA-ENVHEALTH 1st call process, measure performance and efficiency and help suggest solutions that would improve the management of the calls.

 

 

A specific work package addresses the dissemination and communication strategy of the project. It ensures participation of the various stakeholders in the implementation of the project and ensures they have access to the results. The project aims to bring in new contributors through effective promotion of the project objectives, progress and results. Common actions will be undertaken to disseminate research results. The project logo was designed by high school students in Sweden adding an educational dimension to the project's identity. A project leaflet and project posters have been created, distributed and presented in various events. A project information exchange platform and collaborative workspace CIRCA (Communication & Information Resource Centre Administrator) has been created for the partners and provides the tools to disseminate the project results and all project templates ensuring improved quality and harmonisation of the quality of the deliverables.

 

The project website (www.era-envhealth.eu) was created thereby providing a visual identity and opening the project to other communities, as well as providing up-to-date information on the project progress and achievements. Also, through the link to the databases, the website will foster exchange, within the ERA, at the national and regional level with regards to research programme planning and funding.

Finally, the project's External Advisory Committee has been set up with 8 members selected to take into consideration a balanced composition between scientists, stakeholders and policy makers and to ensure active participation of the various stakeholders in the project and widespread dissemination of the project and its results. Also, further to the enthusiasm shown by contacted persons or persons that have seen the project website, its leaflet or presentations, it has also been decided to create an External Interest Group who will be kept updated regularly.

ERA-ENVHEALTH is bringing dynamism to E&H research in Europe by promoting collaboration and fostering innovative ideas and increase its visibility as a key area. With the development of new programmes and changes to existing ones, the consortium expects an increase in the diversity of disciplines involved in research and in multinational projects.

 

 

For more information, contact the scientific representative of the coordinator:

Adrienne PITTMAN

Chef de projets scientifiques / Project coordinator

ANSES

French agency for food, environmental and occupational health safety

Tel: +33 1 56 29 19 30

E-mail: adrienne.pittman@anses.fr