Facilitating sustainability-oriented research in biomedical science and healthcare
Facilitating sustainability-oriented research in biomedical science and healthcare
Background
Sustainability had a very uneven consideration in health-related research. Some branches of this area have been firmly engaged with financial sustainability for several decades, most notably health policy and health economics. This aspect of sustainability is central in the politics of health and healthcare. Concerns with social sustainability also have a tradition, but mostly they have been on the fringes and not in the mainstream of research. However, a number of trends like humanistic medicine, patient-centred medicine, narrative medicine and slow medicine have reacted to what can be described as a de-humanisation of medical practices and healthcare systems. Growing problems of burnout among nurses, doctors and carers have raised similar issues of social sustainability. Finally, environmental sustainability was definitely a latecomer in health-related research, but is attracting increasing attention, not least by the World Health Organisation.
Main activity
The pilot supports a commitment to sustainability and promotes the integration of the various dimensions of sustainability in healthcare research and biomedical research. Working closely with several research projects, we aim to support young researchers in staying committed to sustainability and in identifying the most important barriers and challenges they are meeting. We will also promote an integrated approach that considers all dimensions of sustainability.
Our goals
So, our first goal is to act at the shopfloor level by encouraging and supporting young researchers who care about sustainability. Our second goal is to use the knowledge that we will gain in the process to promote organisational and policy changes.
We will try to advocate and champion at various levels the changes that are necessary to make sustainability research successful and rewarding.
What happened?
On the 3rd of Mai 2024 we ran an interactive workshop with PhD candidates working within sustainable healthcare and health.
The workshop aimed at:
- Getting to know each other and creating a small and supportive community of researchers within health and sustainability.
- Helping you reflect and become more aware of the many demands that a PhD in health and sustainability brings with it, preparing you to better deal with conflicting demands and tensions.
- Building a simple and user-friendly tool (a sustainability research journal) together, which could help you manage your commitments and advocate the necessary changes to make sustainable health research more rewarding and effective.