The Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) is the key independent European organisation dedicated to improving and protecting the public health by strengthening education and training of public health professionals for both practice and research.

The main functions of the Association are:

To support the professionalisation of the public health workforce in Europe, whilst respecting the diversity of national and regional contexts in which each school of public health operates, and thus:

To sustain capacity building in public health, so that it balances with national and European population health challenges and threats, and is supported by best standards of public health education and training, scientific research, and practice.

The general objectives of ASPHER are:

To sustain, in theory and practice, member schools in achieving their missions of education, training, scientific research and service;

To develop models for public health education and training at all academic and professional levels, and the interaction of education and training with population health, health systems and services;

To promote structured processes of sharing evidence-based public health models of innovation and good practice;

To build coalitions with other programmes and public health organisations whose mission is to improve public health, specifically in an effort to put forth high standards in and strengthen public health education and training and to improve the quality of the public health workforce in Europe and its competitiveness globally.

ASPHER is a membership organisation of institutions, spread across EU and wider across WHO European Region, which are collectively concerned with the education and training, and professionalism, of those entering and working within the public health workforce. It promotes activities which foster exchange of information and best practices amongst its members in an effort to achieve high standards of public health education and training across Europe.