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CERGE-EI Is Part of New Platform for Biomedical and Economic Research

22 January, 2024

Following up on lessons learnt during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, a new joint working platform combining natural and social sciences in the biomedical field aims to improve cooperation between experts from different disciplines.

"Economics contributes to the joint project by recognizing that providing the right incentives to everyone involved in the health care system is as important as developing new drugs, for example," said CERGE-EI Director Marek Kapička.

The Platform for Biomedical and Economic Research was formally launched on 18 January 2024 in Prague with the signing of a memorandum of cooperation between CERGE-EI, the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (ÚOCHB) of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and the Faculty of Economics and Administration of Masaryk University (ECON MUNI).

From left to right: Jan Konvalinka (ÚOCHB), Jiří Špalek (ECON MUNI), Marek Kapička (CERGE-EI)

The platform will promote activities involving scientific cooperation, and communication to both the professional and the lay public. The scope of activities that will be organized in the coming years under the auspices of all three involved institutions include support analyses, expert seminars, round tables, and lectures by foreign experts in the fields of, for example, virology, microbiology, biostatistics, health economics, behavioral economics, sociology, and epidemiology. Selected topics that the platform collaborators will address include antibiotic resistance, socioeconomic determinants of health and organization of care, vaccination-related health literacy, and more.

"During COVID-19, CERGE-EI was very active in communicating social science research in health economics to the general public. We are excited to continue our involvement as part of this platform," added Marek Kapička.

The coordinator of the platform is Dr. Jakub Hlávka, Head of Health Economics, Policy and Innovation Institute (HEPII) at Masaryk University, who will collaborate with Professors Jan Konvalinka (ÚOCHB) and Štěpán Jurajda (CERGE-EI) on the strategic management of the platform.

Photo by Tomáš Belloň / ÚOCHB