RICHE – Research Inventory, Indicators, Gaps and Roadmaps for Child Health in Europe - an EU FP7 project

Background There is a substantial amount of research in child health published each year in the European Union. Much of this work is paid for from public funds, or from charitable donations. This work covers many areas, but it is fragmented, and a great deal of it, especially the material not published in the indexed scientific literature, is hard to find, and harder to access. Response The EU, as one of the major funders of child health research, has funded a project, the Research Inventory of Child Health in Europe (RICHE), to prepare a roadmap for the future of child health research in Europe. Using a life course perspective, the project sought to identify the research done, define the gaps in the research, and make recommendations for future research funding priorities. Content RICHE is an FP7 funded project (contract no. 242181) tasked with preparing roadmaps for the future of child health research across Europe. Using a life-course perspective, the project has designed, and carried out, an open, transparent, and justifiable process to make recommendations for future research funding. We acknowledge that such recommendations are value judgements, and our aim was to present carefully justified value judgements. The project, which had 25 partners, in 19 countries, was organised into six workpackages – WP1 an inventory of child health research, including funded projects, reports, funders, and people; WP2 on ways of measuring child health, and indicators for child health; WP3 on gaps in child health research; WP4 on the roadmaps for future research; WP5 maintains a platform at http://childhealthresearch.eu/ ; WP6 was responsible for project management. Results The project has finished, and launched a report on 'Roadmaps for the Future of Child Health Research in Europe'. A key recommendation is the establishment of a European Child Health Observatory, with a focus on participation by children and young people. The work of implementing these proposals to improve the health of European children can begin.