Salute & sanità

Horizon 2020: the Turkish challenge

Cristina Da Rold1 commento

Reblogged from Science on the Net

Political relations between Europe and Turkey have never been easy and even in scientific research, often over the parts, the inclusion of the Turkish Government into international dynamics represented a special case. One example of this particularity is the fact that the final agreement that allows Turkey to be among the beneficiaries of Horizon 2020 was only signed in June. “Turkey is a much valued partner. Its dynamic business environment is a perfect test bed for the development of innovative products and services – making cooperation a win-win for researchers and enterprises on both sides,” wrote the UE press release.

But what is exactly the Turkey’s potential within a project like Horizon 2020?  Actually, Turkey has been associated to EU research framework programmes since 2003 and, under the last European programme between 2007 and 2013, more than one thousand participations from Turkish public and private institutions in some 950 projects received almost €200 million in EU funding.

However, its current level of investment in R&D is less than 1 percent of GDP, below the EU average that is of 2 percent and the target it has set itself for 2023.

The element that attracted the European attention were probably the Turkish small and medium-sized enterprises. In an economic landscape as difficult as that of the last few years, they have been one of the hangers in the country, as well as in the whole European community, which for years invested its capital in Turkey.

Therefore, it seems that, once again, the field on which the game is played is the economic one and it is not a coincidence that today there are those who talk about the BRICS + T, thus including Turkey in the group of economically emerging countries, along with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

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Health in Europe. Improvement through cooperation

Cristina Da RoldLascia un commento

Reblogged from Science on the Net

Talking about the European Region does not mean speaking of a homogeneous situation, also from the point of view of health. To realize how complex and articulated the European scenario is, just think that in Ukraine, Romania, Moldova and Turkey twice as many children die before the age of five if the figures are compared with so-called industrialized countries. Not to mention the infectious diseases, the use of alcohol and tobacco, which reflect a Europe still deeply layered and with several countries still extremely dependent on their history.

The issue is not trivial because if it is true that Europe wants to brand itself as a unique community and pursue common objectives, it is necessary to take the issue of health policies very seriously. Health is in fact a major resource and asset for societies, because good health benefits all sectors, including economic growth.

This is the viewpoint of the World Health Organization that in September 2012 has launched Health 2020, the new European policy framework for health and well-being, involving the 53 Members States of the WHO European Region. The philosophy of Health 2020 is very clear: its aim is not to make national and local health systems even but to make them evenly better. This is at once a challenge and a turning point. A challenge that basically translates into two points: first, the need to improve health for all and reduce the health divide and, moreover, the need to strengthen leadership and participatory governance for health. 

Specifically, Health 2020 is based on four priority areas: investing in health through a life-course approach and empowering people; tackling the most important challenges of noncommunicable and communicable diseases; strengthening people-centred health systems and, finally, creating resilient communities and environments.

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Andrea Raimondi: quando hacker non è sinonimo di computer

Cristina Da RoldLascia un commento

Reblogged from PJ Magazine

Essere hacker civici oggi è molto di più che saper usare un linguaggio di programmazione, è partecipazione tecnologica. PJ Magazine ha incontrato Andrea Raimondi, giovane filosofo e civic hacker, intervenuto a State of the Net.

Andrea Raimondi si definisce un hacker civico, ma ci tiene a specificare che non passa le sue ore chino davanti al pc a lavorare sui codici. «Hacking non è un codice – spiega Raimondi –significa promuovere un’idea di futuro. Come? Semplicemente partecipando facendosi aiutare dalla tecnologia.»
Una voce singolare quella di Raimondi, romano e dottorando in filosofia della scienza presso l’Università di Nottingham, che ha raccontato ai microfoni di Pj Magazine la sua storia:

Andrea, da dove nasce questa tua esigenza di partecipazione e come si è sviluppata?

Diciamo che la mia esigenza di partecipazione è piuttosto intrinseca, ce l’ho da sempre. Mi sono sempre sentito vicino ai problemi degli altri e ho sempre sentito il bisogno – per dirla grossolanamente – di dare una mano.
In realtà l’idea di migliorare la realtà che ci circonda partecipando è un’idea vecchia come il mondo, quello che invece caratterizza la nostra epoca sono il tramite che utilizziamo per veicolare la nostra presenza, e in questo senso la rete e più in generale le nuove tecnologia hanno fatto sempre più la differenza negli ultimi anni. Io nasco come filosofo, ma fare questo di professione, per esempio attraverso un dottorato, è una dimensione che tende molto spesso a fagocitare le energie convogliandole verso uno studio da una parte settoriale, dall’altra non molto partecipativo. Mi sono dunque dato da fare in primo luogo dando il mio contributo alla creazione del portale Open Data INPS, e poi attraverso la rete italiana che si interessa di dati aperti, primi fra tutti gli attivisti di Spaghetti Open Data.

Reblogged from PJ Magazine