Our missions

As part of our overall objective to develop, structure and promote public health research, our missions are to:

• Develop and facilitate interactions between public decision-makers, institutions involved in public health research and surveillance, researchers, and other public health players
• Help facilitate and coordinate research communities in the field of public health
• Prepare and manage calls for proposals
• Increase the visibility of public health research findings and make them accessible to a wide audience
• Promote stakeholder involvement in research approaches, particularly participatory research

Develop and facilitate interactions between public decision-makers, institutions involved in public health research and surveillance, researchers, and other public health players

This mission is about contributing to the production of scientific knowledge that will serve as a basis for decision-making, improve public policies – especially regarding efficacy, cost-effectiveness and relevance, and fulfil the needs expressed or passed on by our members and partners.
Our roles are to:

• facilitate, using various methods and procedures, the formalisation of research questions based on the needs expressed by our members
• study and implement the most appropriate methods for developing research
• promote interactions between research players and those interested in their findings

This involves:

• preparing and implementing calls for proposals
• following up the projects we fund and disseminating their findings
• preparing and facilitating working groups, seminars and conferences in specific fields
• providing funding for initiatives to build networks of researchers and other stakeholders
• providing funding for events to bring together researchers and other stakeholders

Help facilitate and coordinate research communities in the field of public health

This mission is about taking an interdisciplinary approach within the framework of our joint scientific programmes, and involves:

• identifying research communities at regional, national or international level (particularly through bibliometric studies and reviews)
• organising and facilitating meetings and interactions between researchers regarding research subjects, methods and shared challenges
• promoting research interdisciplinarity
• financially supporting the organisation of scientific events that fall within our remit
• supporting the development of researcher networks at regional, national or international level, particularly through calls for proposals

Prepare and manage calls for proposals

This mission is about helping to finance public health research by funding studies selected through calls for proposals, and involves:

• scheduling calls for proposals within the framework of joint research support programmes
• preparing the documentation for the calls for proposals in conjunction with the funding parties (members and partners), researchers, and other stakeholders
• managing the calls for proposals: receipt of applications, selection process, reviews, etc.
• handling the follow-up of the funded projects and structuring actions

We select projects in accordance with our by-laws and at the suggestion of the ad hoc Scientific Evaluation Committees set up for each call for proposals. The composition and functioning of these committees are also set out in our by-laws (to be published soon).

Increase the visibility of public health research findings and make them accessible to a wide audience

This mission involves:

• disseminating, in accessible form, the findings of the research to the parties having funded it and more broadly to the players concerned, with the researchers’ agreement
• at the request of our members, developing and disseminating, in accessible form, states of knowledge relating to specific themes
• at the request of our members, developing and disseminating, in accessible form, reviews and impact assessments of the research we fund
• preparing up-to-date inventories of studies or research with public health relevance, and ensuring their availability in the simplest and most open way – such as via a Web portal
• developing interactions between researchers, funding parties and stakeholders centred around the findings of the research we fund
• organising events to promote and disseminate the research findings to a wide audience
• conducting intelligence on public health research events and calls for proposals and disseminating this information widely through our website and weekly newsletter
• disseminating scientifically validated public health information to a lay readership through our quarterly journal Public Health Issues

Promote stakeholder involvement in research approaches, particularly participatory research

This mission is about implementing:

• actions to involve the stakeholders in preparing the documentation of the calls for proposals
• funding for participatory research initiatives through calls for proposals
• actions to raise awareness of participatory research tools and provide methodological support (including experience-sharing between our members)