Policy sessions at the annual meetings of the German Society for Epidemiology
Dr Fabienne Pradella is a postdoctoral researcher at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the Heidelberg Institute for Global Health. Her research is at the interface of epidemiology and economics and is dedicated to the conditions for a healthy life for all - from pregnancy to old age. Her current projects focus the effects of environmental influences during pregnancy on the health of offspring and the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases in later life.
Ms Pradella, at which events have you organized policy sessions?
We organized our sessions on the UN Sustainable Development Goals at the annual meetings of the German Society for Epidemiology, which take place every year with around 250 - 300 participants. The annual meetings take place in a different city each year and we have invited two to three local decision-makers to discuss a specific topic with us.
How did the idea of inviting decision-makers to a scientific event come about? What topics did your session deal with?
Which decision-makers did you invite? Did you have any previous contact with them?
How can we imagine your policy session?
Science and practice have different cognitive logics. Technical terms are also often used in science and practice that are not known in the other "world". How did the communication between researchers and decision-makers work in your sessions? Was it always clear to the participants what was meant?
Did the exchange with decision-makers give you impetus for your own research?
Was the planning and implementation of the policy sessions more time-consuming than holding a regular scientific session?
Which tips would you give researchers who are thinking about organizing policy sessions at scientific conferences?
The questions were asked by Tome Sandevski. He heads the policy engagement unit at Goethe-University Frankfurt, where he coordinates the joint policy engagement projects of the Rhine-Main-Universities Goethe-University Frankfurt, Technical University Darmstadt and Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz.