European Human Exposome Network

The world’s largest network of projects studying the impact of environmental exposures on human health.

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Health and environment dynamics

The European Human Exposome Network (EHEN) was launched in Brussels in February 2020. It is made up of nine EU-funded research projects involving 126 research groups from 24 countries. Beta is a partner in one of the network’s projects, LongITools. It is exploring interactions between the environment, lifestyle, and health in influencing our risks of developing chronic cardiovascular and metabolic disease. Our role in the project is to lead on communications, dissemination, and the exploitation of the project’s results.

Translating research

Both the network and the individual projects within it, are tasked with translating their research findings into policy. Specific outputs include decision-making and evaluation tools for policymakers. They will enable the development of more coherent policies for improving both our health and the environment.

 

Beta experts are supporting communications for both the network and LongITools, with policymakers as one of the key target groups. This includes being responsible for developing the EHEN newsletters and participating in the Communications, Dissemination and Policy Working Group. During the 15-month period where we co-led this group, we organised, with the Eximious project, a stakeholder event which brought together environmental and health policy specialists with EHEN researchers to discuss policy in the context of exposome research.

 

In LongITools, Beta is leading on the development of the policy options arising from the project, one of the main outputs of the five-year research project.

Science connecting policy

As part of our strategy, we organised a workshop to raise awareness of the importance of the exposome in the context of policymaking.  The workshop was the start of our journey to connect science and policymaking and included a panel discussion to explore the challenges faced by policymakers and researchers. We explored how LongITools research can contribute to reducing chronic cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and how we can ensure that scientific results lead to effective policy decisions, with a positive impact on the health of European citizens and our environment.

The recording of the workshop, an EU Green Week Partner event, can be viewed on the LongITools YouTube channel.

Our journey has continued through a series of regular policy forums to ensure that there is effective, bi-directional dialogue and exchange of information between policymakers and researchers. Please visit the LongITools website policy page for more information about the forums including summaries and recordings of each event.

You can find out more about the European Human Exposome Network by visiting the network website www.humanexposome.eu.

* LongITools received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 874739.