ASPHER Secretariat hopes everyone in our Membership is well. This newsletter will find its way to you at a time when many European countries and beyond face various forms of lockdown to contain successive waves of COVID-19.

The November edition of the ASPHER newsletter features our COVID-19 country report from the Medical University of Vienna, Austria as well as specific news from Members in Denmark and the United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 Task Force has released their policy report on contact tracing apps and how countries are putting them to use. The second phase of the Task Force school reopening survey is also underway at this time as they look to capture the changing dynamics of the epidemic and how it impacts the teaching and best practices at our Member schools. Please be sure to contribute to the survey and let the Secretariat know if you wish to join in the Task Force.

This month’s This Is Public Health (TIPH) European Campaign Feature highlights the initiative of the Faculty of Public Health Kaunas, Lithuania to reach out to high school (gymnasium) students. The TIPH Campaign is now going Global and all ASPHER Members are eligible to apply for a 2021 award. We hope you have found inspiration from the 2019-2020 Campaigns and encourage you to send a proposal to the Global Network for Academic Public Health.

The newsletter includes two surveys from Members/Partners on International Online Collaboration Competencies and Best Practices in Advanced Public Health Training that are particularly relevant to our membership. We ask that you kindly assist with your participation. There are several webinars announced as well both past (recorded) and upcoming from Members and Partners. We hope you will find these beneficial and enriching for you and your students.

We’d also like to inform you about some special opportunities: ECDC currently has job vacancies they asked ASPHER to share with our network. Students should take note that the EuroPubHealth+ Masters intake for 2021 is now open. And for something a little bit out of the ordinary, consider showing off your creativity with a submission to the Culture, Health and Wellbeing International Conference 2021.

In recent European developments, ASPHER applauds the European Commission initiative to build a strong European Health Union, ‘in which all EU countries prepare and respond together to health crises, medical supplies are available, affordable and innovative, and countries work together to improve prevention, treatment and aftercare for diseases.’ However we must continue to remain vigilant and remind and lobby the Commission to maintain appropriate funding for the research that goes into keeping Europe and the Planet Healthy. To this end, ASPHER has lent its endorsement to the Rescue Horizon Europe Campaign.

The ASPHER 2025 strategy has a role to play in responding to the training and research needs for the European Agenda and the Executive Board met this month to advance on the transition from the 2020 to the 2025 programme as we enter the crucial period for devising the Association’s 2021 work plan. We are also pleased to announce that the Board granted Provisional Membership to two new schools. You will learn more about them at the 2021 General Assembly, but in the meantime we congratulate the Institute of Public Health and Professional Health of Karaganda Medical University, Kazakhstan and the School of Public Health, Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences on joining the Association. We rely on our current Members to make them welcome.

Finally, we are very pleased to announce that an ASPHER led consortium has been awarded funding for an ERASMUS+ Capacity Building project in the Field of Higher Education. The ‘SEEEPHI’ proposal will bring European education expertise in public health to Israel to enhance their public health workforce. ASPHER sees this as a great opportunity to pilot an initiative to build the professionalisation of the public health workforce in a particular country/region and will be looking for possibilities to repeat the work elsewhere.

Best wishes from the ASPHER Secretariat,
Robert Otok and Lore Leighton

Please don’t forget to share your news, publications and announcements with lore.leighton@aspher.org to be included in the next regular issue of the Newsletter and on the ASPHER website activity log. We are now publishing more regular monthly newsletter reports which will better ensure timely release of your announcements to the ASPHER Membership! Finally, we always appreciate any comments and/or suggestions for improvements for us to consider for the newsletter - let us know!