ASPHER reflections on 2025, holiday greetings, and celebrating 60 years in 2026
Another eventful year has passed – before the new year we’d like to send our greetings to members with highlights from 2025 while also looking ahead to what is in store for 2026!
Deans’ & Directors’ Retreat 2025 & 2026 / 1st European Congress on Education and Training in Public Health
The Annual Deans’ & Directors’ Retreat is always the high point of the ASPHER calendar and we were pleased to meet up with members this year in Berlin with tremendous thanks everyone who attended and participated, and to our wonderful hosts at the Berlin School of Public Health. The 2025 General Assembly witnessed the election of Prof Mary Codd, University College Dublin as future President of ASPHER. She will take the lead in July 2026, which coincides nicely with the Irish EU Presidency – we’ll be seeking for synergies! Alongside Mary, we welcomed two new Members of the Board: Prof Oleg Lozan, School of Public Health Management, Republic of Moldova, and Prof Judit Simon, Medical University of Vienna, Austria; and Prof Polychronis Kostoulas, University of Thessaly, Greece is back for a second term.
The Deans’ & Directors’ Retreat has been growing each year – listening to ASPHER members’ concerns, President Henrique Barros saw a unique opportunity under his Presidency Agenda and building on the momentum of ASPHER’s 60th Anniversary to fill a gap in the Europe-level discussions on strengthening the capacity and quality of public health education and training. ASPHER is thrilled to launch the 1st European Congress on Education and Training in Public Health in Milan from 15-18 July 2026.
Hosted by four Lombardy Region ASPHER Members, the Congress will incorporate the 2026 ASPHER Deans’ & Directors’ Retreat and celebrate ASPHER’s 60th Anniversary. The event will follow on the Milan Winter Olympics, in the heart of this green city on the Polytechnic of Milan campus – offering an authentic public health experience underscoring the field’s inherent multidisciplinarity, cross-sectorality, and interprofessionality! Registration and Call for Abstracts for Milan 2026 are already open at https://milan2026.aspher.org.
ASSETS 2025 & 2026
The Annual ASSETS Public Health Mentoring Summer School moved to Croatia in 2025, warmly hosted by former ASPHER Executive Board Member Mirjana Kujundžić Tiljak, Director – Andrija Štampar School of Public Health, University of Zagreb School of Medicine. We congratulate Mirjana on being re-elected for another term as Director and are grateful to Andrija Štampar SPH’s continuing commitment to engage with ASPHER’s next generation agenda as host of ASSETS 2026 – building on past experience and grow the format to make ASSETS more relevant and unforgettable than ever!
The opportunity for a select group of early career public health professionals to spend an intensive week with dedicated ASSETS faculty mentors and guests in Zagreb will be available during the week of 06 July 2026 — bridging the gap between EuroPubHealth+ programme graduation week in Rennes and the ASPHER Milan 2026 Congress. Stay posted for more!
Public Health Diplomacy Agenda for an Age of Populism
Teaming up with ASPPH our sister organisation in North America, ASPHER has launched an ambitious agenda in Public Health Diplomacy. The agenda builds on work initiated by Dean Ashish Joshi at University of Memphis with ASPHER Executive Board Member Ramune Kalediene, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, leading for ASPHER.
Following up on the initiative’s introduction during the Berlin D&D, ASPHER together with ASPPH held a series of events during this year’s European Health Forum Gastein in October, including a High-level Stakeholder Lunch Session, Young Forum Gastein Skills Building Session and a Conference Fishbowl Session (watch the recording here). This was the first time that schools of public health hosted a session at EHFG – showcasing how much we can accomplish when we join forces!
Prof Martin McKee, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was integral to the EHFG success as moderator of the main session and driver in contributing to the background Policy Brief that served to kick off the discussions during the EHFG events. The Brief is now published as An Agenda for Public Health Diplomacy in an Age of Populism offering a roadmap forward with nine ways to revitalise and future-proof public health diplomacy. A linked call for papers on the topic of Public Health Diplomacy in a Complex World is open in the journal Public Health Reviews – consider submitting your work! Watch that space and aspher.org for more to come!
In outcomes from EHFG, we will be working with ASPHER member schools to initiate Public Health Diplomacy living laboratories to build capacity in Europe. After taking part in the session, EUPHA and IANPHI are stepping up to be a part of this important initiative – with schools, institutes and national networks combining forces. It is great to bring the Public Health community together when we are operating in an increasingly divided world.
Setbacks for Public Health in 2025
We cannot send this message without acknowledging certain setbacks for Public Health in Europe and Globally in 2025. Dealing with these challenges has made the agenda on Public Health Diplomacy even more critical as we must make use of all channels to ensure that Public Health keeps a seat at the table with the World’s power brokers.
The most visible on a global scope were the decision of the United States to withdraw from the WHO and cuts to global programmes such as USAID. ASPHER responded with a briefing paper on WHO’s Role in a Changing World, and joint action with EUPHA and WHO Europe to organise a webinar and EPH Helsinki Roundtable on protecting public health through global cooperation and advocacy.
On the European level, Health NGO’s received a major blow when the European Commission suspended operating grants funding for civil society organisations holding Framework Partnership Agreements (FPAs) under the EU4Health Work Programme 2025–2026. Cuts of the operating grant funds were confirmed in July with release of the 2025 Work Programme. ASPHER is amongst the organisations affected, having secured an FPA under the call and a formal complaint has been filed to the European Ombudsman.
Despite this, ASPHER has remained resilient having established an operational format which is not overly dependent on European Operating Funds. Through leadership from the Presidency to the operation level, ASPHER has built a strategy over the past years to prioritise a diversity of funding opportunities. This is thanks first and foremost to the indispensable contributions and engagement of our Members. You are ASPHER’s foundation!
ASPHER 60th Anniversary in 2026!
ASPHER will be turning 60 next year and we will be celebrating to showcase everything that schools of public health contribute to the health of Europe and the World! We are working on digitalising ASPHER historical archives, here is a teaser for a look back at the early years of the Association.
Despite the challenges discussed above, ASPHER is resolute to boost organisational development and member communication as we build momentum towards the ASPHER 1st European Congress on Education and Training in Public Health! – see our previous message for more details including registration and call for abstracts. A key element will be the ASPHER 2030 Strategy, which we expect to adopt at the General Assembly in Milan. The Strategy will be grounded in feedback and evidence from the ASPHER member consultation conducted earlier this year — if by chance you missed responding to the consultation reach out to the Secretariat so we can still collect your input.
Under Prof Henrique Barros’s Presidency Agenda, we will be asking Members for reflections on the history of Public Health in their countries and the part that schools of public health played in it. We’ll make this into a special anniversary book publication. We hope you will take the opportunity to showcase your local context – contact the Secretariat to participate!
In 2026, we will be working to make the most of our strengthened partnerships. We continue to collaborate with WHO Europe on public health workforce professionalisation under the MoU signed in 2024. Public Mental Health is high on the WHO priorities – let us know if you want to get involved! ASPHER always works closely with EUPHA on multiple fronts, the collaboration was formalised with the signing of an MoU during the Berlin D&D. Look for more exciting developments on this when we are back in January. Meanwhile, strong efforts continue at APHEA with the Agency’s revitalised leadership, opening up new possibilities for synergies and benefits to meet evolving education and training needs in public health. It is truly exciting to see APHEA steadily realizing its potential from global through regional to local relevance with system thinking and collaborative approaches!
Increasing attention is given to the area of Migration and Public Health in line with the current Presidency priorities, the initiation of the new Migration Task Force and talks to formalise our partnership with IOM through an MoU. ASPHER’s Climate and Health agenda is going strong as recently communicated, with ongoing partnerships with ECHO and GCCHE. Under our current contract with the European Environment Agency, ASPHER is charged with analysing capacity building needs on climate change and health for local decision makers – please reach out to us if you have direct contacts in your cities and regions.
And on the global level we are going strong through committed work together with ASPHER’s sister public health schools’ organisations under GNAPH! We look forward to celebrating 60 years of ASPHER with them when we head to the 18th World Congress on Public Health in South Africa in September under the GNAPH banner!
Let’s get inspired to make 2026 better than ever as we celebrate 60 years of ASPHER together, building on our past for a brighter and healthier future!
Member and Partner Opportunities
Riegelman GNAPH Fellowship: (Deadline 9 January 2026) GNAPH is seeking a part-time, early-career professional to function as a Riegelman GNAPH Fellow for one year to help shape and advance GNAPH’s plan of action. This fully remote, paid position offers an opportunity to work with academic public health experts across regions to advance a unique and multifaceted agenda.
Call for European Climate and Health Community of Practice (CoP) Facilitation Lead and faculty member participants: GNAPH and the GCCHE are teaming up to develop CoPs in Climate Change and Health Education for the Regional Public Health Schools' Associations. ASPHER is calling for applicants for a CoP Facilitation lead for Europe and expressions of interest from faculty and teaching staff from ASPHER institutions wishing to take part in the European CoP. Contact us to register your interest.
4th Annual RE-AIM Public Health IDEAS Hackathon: ASPHER Associate Member, the University of Memphis School of Public Health, has developed the RE-AIM Public Health IDEAS Hackathon series to sensitize youth to address public health challenges of the 21st century. The hackathon is open to all high school and public health students around the world. Learn more and register free here.
ASPHER working groups and task forces expand member engagement with and contributions to the ASPHER agenda and it is expected they will continue to make an impact going forward. Contact the Secretariat for more information and to join in!
Members, let us know what you are up to! Please be in touch with any activities or events where ASPHER could give a boost – let’s join together to make our 60 years shine! Reach out to lore.leighton@aspher.org to get engaged in ASPHER activities and to share your news for 2026 through ASPHER Channels!
This season is a good moment to pause and reflect on the strength of our community. Thank you to all ASPHER Members and Partners for your ongoing engagement, collaboration and dedication to public health education and practice. Season's greetings, and best wishes for the year ahead.
All the best, ASPHER Secretariat
