WHO Collaborating Centre for Evidence-based Public Health

WHO Collaborating Centres are designated by the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) in various areas. The Centres are institutions, such as national public authorities, research institutes or parts of universities, that support WHO in the implementation of its programmes and tasks.

The Chair of Public Health and Health Services Research was first designated as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Evidence-based Public Health in 2020. Head of the Centre is Prof. Eva Rehfuess. The designation was confirmed in 2024 for a further three years. In the first designation period during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chair produced several systematic reviews on the effects and side effects of international travel measures and school measures, which attracted worldwide attention.

The focus of the WHO-Collaborating Centre for Evidence-based Public Health is on:

• offer technical, in particular methodological support for the WHO in the development of guidelines,
• train those involved in the guideline process on how to use the WHO INTEGRATE framework and logic models,
• provide best-practice examples for the application of the WHO-INTEGRATE framework and collect user feedback on its application.

More about WHO Collaborating Centers here: https://www.who.int/europe/about-us/partnerships/partners/collaborating-centres