AUTHOR=Pistollato Francesca , Burkhart Gregor , Deceuninck Pierre , Bernasconi Camilla , Di Virgilio Sergio , Emili Luca , Fauvel Anne-Charlotte , Ferreira Bastos Luisa , Gastaldello Annalisa , Gerardi Chiara , Habermann Jens K. , Hanes Ioan , Kyriakopoulou Christina , Lanka Uma , Lauriola Paolo , Laverty Hugh , Maisonneuve Benoit G. C. , Mennecozzi Milena , Pappalardo Francesco , Pastorino Roberta , Radvilaite Vilma , Roggen Erwin L. , Constantino Helder TITLE=What public health challenges and unmet medical needs would benefit from interdisciplinary collaboration in the EU? A survey and multi-stakeholder debate JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health VOLUME=12 YEAR=2024 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1417684 DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2024.1417684 ISSN=2296-2565 ABSTRACT=

In the past decade, significant European calls for research proposals have supported translational collaborative research on non-communicable and infectious diseases within the biomedical life sciences by bringing together interdisciplinary and multinational consortia. This research has advanced our understanding of disease pathophysiology, marking considerable scientific progress. Yet, it is crucial to retrospectively evaluate these efforts’ societal impact. Research proposals should be thoughtfully designed to ensure that the research findings can be effectively translated into actionable policies. In addition, the choice of scientific methods plays a pivotal role in shaping the societal impact of research discoveries. Understanding the factors responsible for current unmet public health issues and medical needs is crucial for crafting innovative strategies for research policy interventions. A multistakeholder survey and a roundtable helped identify potential needs for consideration in the EU research and policy agenda. Based on survey findings, mental health disorders, metabolic syndrome, cancer, antimicrobial resistance, environmental pollution, and cardiovascular diseases were considered the public health challenges deserving prioritisation. In addition, early diagnosis, primary prevention, the impact of environmental pollution on disease onset and personalised medicine approaches were the most selected unmet medical needs. Survey findings enabled the formulation of some research-policies interventions (RPIs), which were further discussed during a multistakeholder online roundtable. The discussion underscored recent EU-level activities aligned with the survey-derived RPIs and facilitated an exchange of perspectives on public health and biomedical research topics ripe for interdisciplinary collaboration and warranting attention within the EU’s research and policy agenda. Actionable recommendations aimed at facilitating the translation of knowledge into transformative, science-based policies are also provided.