Whilst European calls for research proposals have encouraged collaborative, interdisciplinary partnerships to investigate non-communicable and infectious diseases in the EU, the prevalence and impact of various diseases has seen little decrease. Public health challenges are further exacerbated by drug attrition rates remaining high. It has therefore never been more critical for the retrospective evaluation and analysis of past initiatives, to support innovative strategies for future research policy interventions.  

In a newly published paper, we present the results of our multiparty survey and online roundtable discussion in November 2023, which bought together representatives of European institutions, public health organizations, biobank, pharma, and research institutes. Discussion areas included identifying potential needs for consideration in the EU research and policy agenda, exploring strategies to enhance the translational impact of EU-funded research, and defining factors contributing to the persistent lack of reduction in disease prevalence and incidence.  

Read our paper here to learn about the survey findings, roundtable discussions, and the actionable recommendations for supporting scientific progress through interdisciplinary collaboration in the EU. These recommendations promise to enhance the translatability of public health and biomedical research outputs and their implementation into transformative policies.  

Our actionable proposals cover the scope of public health challenges and unmet biomedical research needs, prevention and early diagnosis, public awareness, education and training for healthcare professionals, health impacts of environmental pollution, clinical trial design, data quality and data sharing, innovative human-centric research, and multidisciplinary efforts. The more we learn together, the more we reflect on our shared knowledge base and the more we collaborate, the better off we’ll be.