ASPHER Secretariat hopes that you have had a good start to 2022! We are facing the year head on with an ambitious ASPHER work plan that we are pleased to share with you. We invite all members to contact the secretariat if you wish to express interest in any area.

There are several exciting opportunities for members to get involved, such as our plans with Department of Public and One Health, Thessaly University to submit an Erasmus+ application for a proposed project harmonization for the future of Public Health Education in Europe; or the integration of diversity into public health curriculum. We always invite you to get involved with ASPHER working groups and COVID-19 Task Force. If there is something we are missing, we welcome you to co-develop or propose a new working group! There are also upcoming opportunities through partner events such as European and Global Public Health weeks. We encourage you to make 2022 a year to engage, the more ASPHER members take part the better our agenda can serve all of you!

We are happy to start the year with two new provisional members coming on board. Please welcome the Research and Innovation Center for Public Health and Health Services Research at Paracelsus Medical University, Austria; and International Academy of Public Health (IAPH), Amman, Jordan (associate member). We look forward to learning more about their programmes when they present at the ASPHER General Assembly.

ASPHER is also welcoming new interns Dr. Costase Ndayishimiye and Desmond Aji who are both based at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Meanwhile Tara Chen is joining us as a new ASPHER Fellow to assist and take on some responsibilities from Rana Orhan on the Climate and Health education initiatives. And we have a cadre of Associate Fellows to assist in several ASPHER agenda items including: Lisa Wandschneider, Bielefeld University for Diversity and Public Health Education agenda; Keren Dopelt, Ben Gurion University of the Negev focused on Social Accountability of Schools of Public Health; and Rok Hrzic, Maastricht University is advancing on Simulation Models in Health Policy Decision-Making, digital health and big data. Be sure to keep an eye out for reporting on their work in future newsletters!

We have been advancing with enhancements of ASPHER policies towards members including a new awards and distinctions policy – more will come on that when we call for nominations! ASPHER will of course continue to maintain our prestigious Andrija Štampar award – don’t miss the 2021 Andrija Štampar medal ceremony on Tuesday 22 March for Dr. Michael J. Ryan.

Another signature ASPHER event is our annual Young Researchers’ Forum. Last year it was hosted for the first time at one of our Member events as part of the Krakow SPH Jubilee conference. We are excited to continue this format, with the Young Researchers' Forum joining the 15th International Scientific Conference: Digitalisation and Education in Health Sciences hosted by Angela Boškin, Faculty of Health Care in Bled, Slovenia on Thursday 9 June. We will be calling for abstracts soon – stay posted!

Public Health Workforce professionalization is an ongoing mission for ASPHER and currently on top of the agenda with the launch of the WHO-ASPHER Professionalization Roadmap. Many of you joined us for the launch webinar on 8 February, but in case you missed it, the recording is available here. We will be taking the Roadmap and professionalization forward with WHO EURO, while also working hard with IANPHI and other partners to promote developments at the global level.

Speaking about ASPHER’s global involvement, we have an exciting piece of news that ASPHER has been confirmed as a co-organiser of the 17th World Congress on Public Health (WCPH) scheduled for Rome in 2023; together with WFPHA and SItI/Italian Public Health Society. This is a tremendous opportunity for the Association and our members. We will involve the Global Network for Academic Public Health in the event and work to set up a sustainable formula for future WCPHs to co-organization with regional SPHs associations. We are proud to have ASPHER set the historical precedent of SPH involvement on this global stage! 

We are also pleased to present a wide range of Member and Partner news in this edition of the newsletter. Don’t miss the opportunity to see what is going on and be sure to send your news for future newsletters and the ASPHER blog.

Finally, we must acknowledge that this is a moment of great tension with possible turbulent times for some in Europe. We hope everyone will stay safe and that ASPHER and our members may act for a better, healthier and peaceful tomorrow.

ASPHER Secretariat

Download the January-February 2022 ASPHER Newsletter here.