About Young Health Council

The Young Health Council is a network of young scientists that points out new developments which are relevant for policy. The network discusses these with young policy officials and current members of the Health Council of the Netherlands.

Why

In completing its tasks, the Health Council of the Netherlands makes grateful use of its network consisting of about 200 prominent scientists from the vast field of public health. Nevertheless, young scientists are few and far between in this network, which represents a missed opportunity. The perspective of young scientists is valuable; they have personal knowledge of day-to-day practices in the field and are on the lookout for new developments. The Health Council of the Netherlands aims to give a voice to young scientists via the Young Health Council so that they can be heard by policymakers and current members of the Health Council of the Netherlands.

Who?

The Young Health Council network consists of enthusiastic young scientists who are interested in translating scientific developments into policy options across scientific disciplines. To become a member you are required to have a PhD degree and to be at an early stage of your scientific career (no longer than ten years after you obtained your PhD). Some knowledge of Dutch is a practical necessity. Young policy makers of the Ministry of Health may also join the network to facilitate translation to policy relevance.

The Young Health Council network mainly operates virtually, via social media. To create a physical link with the Health Council of the Netherlands, the Council installed a Young Health Council Committee. This Committee is made up of ten successful young scientists and a policy maker from the Ministry of Health. Together with staff members of the Health Council, the Committee oversees the larger network.

What?

The network’s members discuss scientific developments that are relevant for policy across scientific disciplines. Various social media are used for this, and members are also free to contact each other in other ways. The project will run as a pilot until the summer of 2012. If the pilot is successful, the network will continue as a platform for discussion, knowledge exchange and the generation of new ideas. This is the primary objective of the Young Health Council.

The second objective of the pilot is to deliver a tangible product: in other words, to identify a number of scientific developments that are relevant for policy. To achieve this, the Committee will select and elaborate on three broad themes for discussion on the social media platforms. Based on these discussions, the Committee will select a number of specific topics of interest. Before making its final decision, the Committee will discuss these topics with the Standing Committees of the Health Council. Finally, the Young Health Council Committee will present the selected topics to the network and publish them in a written report to the Health Council and the Ministry of Health.

Interested?

The Young Health Council committee of ten excellent young scientists has recently been composed out of over eighty nominated candidates. For a list of committee members, click here. The committee will be officially installed on September 14th. From that moment on, the social network will be set up. Are you interested, or would you like to be kept up to date? Check our website regularly, follow us on Twitter (@jongGR) or keep up with us on Facebook (jongGR). Via LinkedIn you can now register for the virtual address book. If you meet the requirements for membership, you can register for the closed Facebook discussion group from September.