EuroHealthNet is a not-for-profit network of organisations, agencies and statutory bodies working to promote health and equity by addressing the factors that determine health directly and indirectly. EuroHealthNet comprises 36 mainly national agencies in 29 European countries.
EuroHealthNet aims to contribute to a healthier Europe with greater equity in health between and within European countries. Methods for achieving this include networking and co-operation among relevant and publicly accountable national, regional and local public health and health promotion agencies in EU member states. There are four priority areas to its work: research projects, development of policy, communications, and networking. EuroHealthNet has extensive experience coordinating EU projects, particularly in the area of health inequalities.
Previous projects include Health and Social Inclusion for DG EMPL (2003-2006), Closing the Gap (2004-2007) and DETERMINE for DG SANCO (2007-2010), and GRADIENT for DG RESEARCH (2009-2012). EuroHealthNet currently manages The Equity Channel, a communications platformto ‘link people together’ to act on the social determinants of health for health equity. In addition, EuroHealthNet receives PROGRESS (DG EMPL) funding and aims at strengthening and reinforcing the EU’s social inclusion and protection policies.
EuroHealthNet is the project co-ordinator for DRIVERS, and is also responsible for Advocacy, Communications and Dissemination.
Staff members involved:
Caroline COSTONGS: Deputy Director of EuroHealthNet since 1999. She has been working in public health for 20 years, especially in the field of health inequalities, public health related policies in the EU, evaluation methods in health policy and promotion of physical activity. Caroline co-ordinated several EU-wide projects on health inequalities, healthy ageing, capacity building and on social inclusion and health. She holds a Master Degree in Public Health Sciences from the University of Maastricht, Netherlands. Before EuroHealthNet, Caroline worked at NOC*NSF (Netherlands Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation), at Liverpool John Moores University (Institute for Health) and at the Ministry of Education in a Latin American country.
Claudia MARINETTI: As Research and Knowledge coordinator at EuroHealthNet, Claudia Marinetti’s role is to link with research-related European initiatives concerning health, health inequities and their social determinants, and to feed research into the organization’s work. Claudia is responsible for the coordination of DRIVERS. The coordination of this project entails working with the project management team, the project officer and project participants to shape, steer, contribute to, bring together and disseminate DRIVERS outcomes. It also involves research activities, the organisation of DRIVERS related events, as well as project administration and consortium management.
Claudia´s background is in Social Psychology, with an MSc in Organizational and Social Psychology (University of Padua, Italy), and a PhD in Social and Applied Psychology (University of Oxford, UK). Prior to joining EuroHealthNet, she has conducted and coordinated research on inequality issues linked to prejudice and discrimination, socio-economic status, and conflict. She has been involved in several cross-cultural projects and in work on issues related to immigration and low socio-economical backgrounds, including education outcomes and resources accessibility.
Linden FARRER: As Projects and Policy Officer, Linden liaises between research, policy and communications, helping translate research findings into communications messages and advocacy policies. He has previous experience working in the UK and Brussels on European Social Fund, Youth in Action, PROGRESS, and 7th Framework Programme projects concentrating on equal opportunities, employability, disadvantage and health. Immediately prior to joining EuroHealthNet he was responsible for dissemination and communications of the FAMILYPLATFORM social platform research project, which synthesised existing knowledge, forecasted future conditions, and developed a research agenda for the European Union on families and family policy.
Bruno VILELA: Bruno works as a Research and Knowledge Junior Policy Officer and he is currently involved in the DRIVERS for Health Equity, Equity Action and Crossing Bridges projects. He has a degree in Political Science and International Relations from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Before joining EuroHealthNet he worked on the research and communication project ‘Reporting on the European Social Funds Interventions’ for DG Employment. He has also worked in the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs assisting diplomats in the Department of International Organisations.
