Partnerships for public health between regional governments and academic institutions – status quo in European regions

Abstract

Abstract The development of partnerships is described as an important tool for achieving goals in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Partnerships between regional governments and academic institutions could be important for solving public health issues, as they are often complex, and both academic and practice-related knowledge is necessary. Such partnerships at the regional level might be especially important as many sub-national regions in Europe have considerable responsibility and power in decision-making on important areas such as prevention, health promotion, and health care. The overall aim of this project was to provide more knowledge about public health partnerships between regional governments and academic institutions in different regions within WHO’s Region for Health Network (RHN). Through a mixed methods research design, we wanted to identify and describe good examples of existing partnerships, and to investigate enabling factors, challenges, and lessons learned. Information on ongoing partnerships were collected by sending an electronical questionnaire to contact persons of the 43 members regions in the RHN. Based on the mapping, four regions were selected for group interviews with different stakeholders within regional universities and regional government. There were 31 regions (72%) who answered the questionnaire, and group interviews were carried out in Østfold (Norway), Varna (Bulgaria), Utrecht (the Netherlands), and Saskatchewan (Canada). In this presentation the results from the survey will be presented; describing the occurrence of partnerships, how public health partnerships are formalized and organized, important enablers, hindrances, how collaborations are carried out in practice, perceived benefits and successes, and experienced challenges. Panelists: Klara Dokova Faculty of Public Health, Medical University of Varna, Varna, Bulgaria Contact: klaradokova@gmail.com Liesbeth van Holten Healthy urban living at Provincie Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands Contact: liesbeth.van.holten@provincie-utrecht.nl Cordell Neudorf College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada Contact: cory.neudorf@usask.ca Anni Skipstein Chief officer Public Health, Østfold county, Norway Contact: annis@ostfoldfk.no