BETTER RESEARCH FOR BETTER HEALTH
Feedbackon the vision for health and biomedical research from the SPH
Executive summary
Scientific Panel for Health
January 17, 2017
The European Commission's Scientific Panel for Health (SPH, is a science-led expert group that has been tasked with helping to achieve better health and wellbeing for all inhabitants of the European Union.
As a first step, a Vision paper was developed, providing an overview of challenges and opportunities, and of the strengths of Europe. Five major themes were addressed in the Vision paper: cross-border collaborations; multi-stakeholder research; alignment of the regulatory framework; novel and disruptive technologies; and a comprehensive policy for health research. This document was sent out to 41research, professional, industry, and funding organizations at the national and EU levelsfor consultation and discussion. The stakeholders were asked to reflect on the recommendations and the way forward as described in the Vision paper. This process was guided by a limited number of questions.
Overall, respondents were very positive about the content of the Vision paper and considered that the ideas represented good progress in the strategy development process. Respondents also expressed their support of further development of the ideas to offer a more explicit debate and a guiding framework, including a pipeline of activities.
Responses contained diverse suggestions thatarerelevant at a range of geographical scales, hierarchical levels, and stages of policy and program implementation, reflecting the broad spectrum of the respondents in terms of their position and role in the health research system.
Respondents pointed out several synergies of the concepts outlined in the Vision paper with wider frameworks and programs. It wasemphasizedthat simplification is key to generate overall and relevant policies (as oppose to sectoral, topical or disciplinary policies) and that most of the arguments used (funding, open science, open innovation, interdisciplinarity, ethics, education, etc.) are also relevant for other grand societal challenges (energy, climate change, environment, food, etc).
There was broad support for the formation of a European Health Research Council or similar platform, which was considered as a mechanism to a broad, long-term, and better-coordinated consensual voice within Europe built from different perspectives, setting research priorities,and implementing a research and development plan for the European Union.Respondents emphasized that such a platform would aim to simplify and align processes, as oppose toadding an additional layer of complexity and bureaucracy.
Responses were obtained from the following organizations /individuals:Alliance For Biomedical Research in Europe
Alliance Nationale pour les sciences de la vie et de la santé (aviesan)
Anne Inger Helmen Borge (EC SC1 AG member)
DanmarksGrundforskningsfonden/ Danish National Research Foundation
DG SANTE
EARTO Working Group Emerging Technologies for Healthcare- European Association of Research and Technology Organisations
EIT Health e.V. (European Institute of Innovation & Technology)
EuroHealthNet
European Academy of Neurology (EAN) (responded as member organisation of the Biomed Alliance)
European Cancer Organisation (ECCO)
European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN)
European Hematology Association (EHA)
European MolecularBiologyOrganisation (EMBO)
European Patient Forum (EPF)
European Respiratory Society (ERS)
Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen (FWO), Research Foundation Flanders
FWF Wissenschaftsfond – Austrian Science Fund
Global Health Advocates (GHA)
InnovativeMedicinesInitiative (IMI)
Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain
JDRF, Olivier Arnaud
League of European Research Universities (LERU) and UNICA - Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe. University of Helsinki.
League of European Research Universities (LERU). Secretary General, Kurt Deketelaere
League of European Research Universities (LERU). UMPC Sorbonne.
League of European Research Universities (LERU). University of Cambridge.
League of European Research Universities (LERU). University of Heidelberg.
Malta Council for Science & Technology
National Science Center, Scientific Council, Poland
Paulo Lisboa (EC SC1 AG member)
Research Council of Norway
Science Europe
UNICA - Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe. HSE Russia
UNICA - Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe. Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
UNICA- Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe. Charles University Prague First faculty of medicine
UNICA- Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe. Charles University Prague Rectorate
UNICA- Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe. Comenius University Bratislava.
UNICA- Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe. Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine Uni Luxembourg.
UNICA- Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe. Rome Tor Vergata.
UNICA- Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe. University of Iceland.
UNICA- Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe. Vilnius University Lithuania
WHO Regional Office for Europe
ZonMw (The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development)
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