Hub 3 - Health

Introduction

Hub 3 - the CIVIS Hub on Health (HH) - was established in September 2020 and deals with educational programmes (webinars, workshops, summer schools, miniprogrammes, blended intensive programmes, multiple and joint degrees, etc) related to all aspects of health and not only to the medical sciences. The Hub is Coordinated by a Council composed of 26 members (two academics per CIVIS member university, with two students and two stakeholders). In 2021 the Council decided to create 18 teams of up to 5 academics per university to deal in a very concrete and effective way with all activities. Each team focuses on a specific health domain, with the list including a number of inter-related disciplines. The recent inclusion of the University of Lausanne as Co-Leader of Hub 3 alongside Sapienza Università di Roma significantly strengthened our work on disciplines related to social sciences and humanities in all teams. In the second phase of CIVIS (2022-2026), Hub 3 is making a strong effort to develop multiple and joint degrees.

Activities

In the first phase of CIVIS (2019-2022), Hub 3 successfully implemented many activities, including about 30 webinars, 10 workshops, 20 summer schools, and 10 miniprogrammes. The aforementioned structure of a coordinating Council with 18 subject-specific teams means that a total of several hundred academics are involved in building the Hub. This has proved to be a very effective approach to develop educational programmes, but also research activities in different health fields such as neuroscience, biochemistry, psychology and health economics. In the new phase of CIVIS, these teams are strongly encouraged to establish multiple and joint degrees following the CIVIS guidelines under development. With this in mind, an important in-person meeting of the Hub 3 Council took place at the CIVIS days in Tübingen in May 2023.

Leadership

The Co-Chairs of the Health Hub are:

They hold regular Council and team meetings providing information and encouraging the implementation of educational activities. The teams, which are coordinated by 1-2 facilitators from all CIVIS universities, are also invited to meet separately to discuss in more detail among themselves.

Get involved and learn more

Hub 3, with its original structure of 18 teams, already involves several hundred academics in its activities. However, all teams are always open to welcoming other academics affiliated to CIVIS member universities who are motivated and interested to contribute to our educational activities.

The two major activities in which Hub 3 members are currently engaged are the creation of Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs) and the development of joint degrees. The European Union has published an interesting report about the pathway to multiple and joint degrees.