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Strengthening the public health evidence ecosystem

Infectious disease prevention and control decisions can significantly impact individuals, populations and society. To ensure that public health policies and interventions are sound, decisions must be based on the best available evidence, be scientifically credible, operational, and relevant to the context they are applied to. 

While public health agencies are not always the ultimate policy and decision-makers, they play a vital role in enabling informed, timely and effective decisions supported by scientific-based evidence. 

'The best available evidence is a cornerstone of public health scientific advice, especially now, as the world faces an unprecedented surge in mis- and disinformation. A strong public health evidence ecosystem, integrating multiple streams and types of evidence, is essential for supporting transparent and sound public health decision-making, and for strengthening trust in science and science-based public health institutions across Europe.' - Piotr Kramarz, ECDC Chief Scientist

ECDC plays a crucial role in the public health evidence ecosystem by 

  • coordinating and collaborating with Member States and other partners
  • contributing to evidence generation through robust surveillance and applied research and analysis and to evidence synthesis by critically and systematically combining and interpreting findings from different evidence sources
  • translating this evidence into clear guidance, risk assessments and public health recommendations
  • presenting and communicating findings and recommendations in a way that resonates with decision-makers and the public, ensuring clarity, relevance and accessibility. 

The public health evidence ecosystem

Evidence ecosystem chart

  • Evidence-informed decision making
  • Policy decisions
  • Policy implementation
  • Practice implementation
  • Decisions regarding investments in infrastructure, resource allocation, training
  • Research funding decisions

  • Surveillance: indicator-based, event-based, molecular surveillance
  • Quantitative and qualitative research
  • Epidemiological studies, research during outbreaks
  • Surveys, demographics, statistics, registries, eHealth records
  • Monitoring & evaluation of interventions and programmes
  • Capacity/capabilities assessments

  • Evidence reviews: systematic, rapid, living, scoping reviews, evidence gap maps, qualitative reviews
  • Modelling
  • Burden of disease estimates

  • Risk assessments
  • Public health guidelines and recommendations
  • Health system recommendations
  • Operational guides and tools

  • Evidence briefs
  • Policy briefs
  • Media briefs, press conferences
  • Fact sheets, Q&As
  • Stakeholder and community engagement
  • Presentations, publications
  • Visuals, infographics
  • Interviews, podcasts, social media, storytelling

Evidence-based Public Health initiative

ECDC’s Evidence-Based Public Health (EBPH) initiative aims to strengthen the systematic use of evidence in public health decision-making. 

An independent Methodological Advisory Group supports the initiative, being composed of external experts, including methodologists and infectious disease and public health experts. Its tasks include 

  • offering strategic advice to ECDC
  • identifying priority areas
  • helping raise awareness through public health networks
  • ensuring that ECDC’s EBPH initiative meets the needs of the agency and national stakeholders.

The initiative develops user-friendly methodological guidance and tools to support ECDC staff and other public health professionals in applying evidence-based methods and approaches. These materials are developed by a group of four institutions: the Ludwigs- Maximilians- University of Munich, Cochrane Germany, Cochrane Austria and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The key priority areas for 2025 are the following:

  • Integration of different evidence types and streams
  • Elicitation and integration of expert knowledge
  • Rapid and ultra-rapid evidence-based public health advice

Name  Affiliation 
Koen Blot

Head of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, Sciensano (National Public Health Institute), Belgium

ECDC Advisory Forum member
 Céline Dumas  Scientific and International Affairs Division, Santé publique France
Mario Fafangel Head of Regional Office (Nova Gorica) and Public Health Advisor at the Director’s Office, National Institute of Public Health Slovenia (NIJZ)
Chantelle Garritty  Prevention Guidelines Division, Public Health Agency of Canada & School of Epidemiology and Public Health (SEPH), Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa (adjunct professor)
Ágnes Hajdu

Consultant, National Center for Public Health and Pharmacy, Department of Communicable Disease Epidemiology and Infection Control, Budapest, Hungary

ECDC Advisory Forum alternate
Otto Helve

Director of the Department of Public Health, Finnish Institute for health and welfare

ECDC Advisory Forum member
Henk Hilderink Principal Expert Public Health Foresight, Centre for Public health, Healthcare and Society, Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM)  
Priya Jakhmola Lead Health Scientist, Guidelines Unit/Office of Scientific Evidence and Recommendations/CDC Office of Science, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Tanja Küchenmüller Unit Head, Evidence to Policy and Impact, Research for Health Department, Science Division, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
Zachary Munn Professor, Director Health Evidence Synthesis Recommendations and Impact (HESRI), Director Adelaide GRADE Centre, University of Adelaide, Australia
Promise Nduku  Director: Evidence synthesis and Learning lab at Elevate Evidence Hub, Johannesburg, South Africa
Keith Ian Quintyne

 Consultant in Public Health Medicine sí Health Protection

Lead in Evidence Based Medicine, Research & Quality Improvement

HSE Public Health: National Health Protection Office, Dublin, Ireland
Ana Paula Rodrigues  Coordinator of the Epidemiologic Surveillance and Public Health Observation, Department of Epidemiology of the National Institute of Health Doctor Ricardo Jorge, Portugal
Frank Sandmann Team Lead, Vaccination/VPD Modelling, Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Berlin, Germany
Sotirios Tsiodras

Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at National &

Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, Chair of National

Committee of Public Health experts, Greece
Tari Turner

Professor, Director, Australian Living Evidence Collaboration,

Cochrane Australia, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine,

Monash University, Australia
Rens van de Schoot

Professor of collaborative Methods in AI and Data Science at Utrecht

University in the Netherlands, Methodology and Statistics
Karin Wilbe Ramsay

Project Manager HTA, SBU – The Swedish Agency for Health

Technology Assessment and Assessment of Social Services

 

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Page last updated 7 Nov 2025