Rotterdam Centre of Health Promotion: A mix of Science, Politics, and Money

The Rotterdam Centre of Health Promotion (RCHP) is a collaboration between Erasmus University and the Rotterdam municipality, with the end goal of improving public health in Rotterdam. The approach is to utilize social research, in order to help law makers design interventions that will deter citizens from taking or forming unhealthy habits. The RCHP, therefore, conducts research that will be later used to guide these interventions, while also providing a stimulating environment for the PhD student researchers. Caroline Giezeman is the director of the Rotterdam Centre of Health Promotion, and has the responsibility to make the RSCHP viable. By doing so, she needs to keep in mind communication and interests between RCHP and the municipality. This means having to translate academic results into practical lessons for outside parties, balancing the RCHP's autonomy and its dependence on the municipality, and preventing failout between the RCHP and third parties, should the RCHP fail to immediately produce meaningful results. With the RCHP just beginning, it is critical that Mrs. Giezeman thinks of these types of potential dilemmas.