The Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (HERA) department’s mission is to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to health emergencies.

HERA, created in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, will anticipate threats and potential health crises, through intelligence gathering and building the necessary response capacities.

When an emergency hits, HERA will ensure the development, production and distribution of medicines, vaccines and other medical countermeasures – such as gloves and masks – that were often lacking during the first phase of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

HERA is a key pillar of the European Health Union announced by President von der Leyen in her 2021 State of the Union address and will fill a gap in the EU's health emergency response and preparedness.

HERA was launched as a new European Commission Directorate-General on 16 September 2021.

The European Public Health Association, or EUPHA in short, is an umbrella organisation for public health associations and institutes in Europe. EUPHA was founded in 1992 by 15 members (12 countries)and is an international, multidisciplinary, scientific organisation, bringing together around 23’000 public health experts for professional exchange and collaboration throughout Europe. We encourage a multi-disciplinary approach to public health.

The Commission's Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL) is responsible for EU policy on employment, social affairs, skills, labour mobility and the related EU funding programmes. 

ECDC is an EU agency aimed at strengthening Europe's defences against infectious diseases. The core functions cover a wide spectrum of activities: surveillance, epidemic intelligence, response, scientific advice, microbiology, preparedness, public health training, international relations, health communication, and the scientific journal Eurosurveillance.

ECDC disease programmes cover antimicrobial resistance and healthcare-associated infections; emerging and vector-borne diseases; food- and waterborne diseases and zoonoses; HIV, sexually transmitted infections and viral hepatitis; influenza and other respiratory viruses; tuberculosis; and vaccine-preventable diseases.

In 2019, ECDC continues to contribute to health security, giving particular attention to the following areas:

• Tackle antimicrobial resistance
• Improve vaccine coverage in the EU
• Support the European Commission and the Member States in addressing the Sustainable Development Goals in the area of HIV, TB and hepatitis
• Further support the European Commission and the Member States in strengthening the preparedness for cross-border health threats
• Focus on strategic partnerships to create synergy and avoid duplication of work
• Further enhance ECDC’s operational performance and monitoring. 

As the European Commission's knowledge and science service, the JRC plays a central role in creating, managing and making sense of collective scientific knowledge for better EU policies.

Independent scientific evidence for EU policies

• As the European Commission's science and knowledge service, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) supports EU policies with independent scientific evidence throughout the whole policy cycle.
• We create, manage and make sense of knowledge and develop innovative tools and make them available to policy makers
• We anticipate emerging issues that need to be addressed at EU level and understand policy environments
• We collaborate with over a thousand organisations worldwide whose scientists have access to many JRC facilities through various collaboration agreements.
• Our work has a direct impact on the lives of citizens by contributing with its research outcomes to a healthy and safe environment, secure energy supplies, sustainable mobility and consumer health and safety.
• We draw on over 50 years of scientific experience and continually build our expertise in knowledge production and knowledge management. 
• We host specialist laboratories and unique research facilities and is home to thousands of scientists.

The JRC has six sites in five EU countries (Brussels, Geel, Ispra, Karlsruhe, Petten, Seville)

Health and Food Safety (SANTE) is the Commission's department responsible for EU policy on food safety and health and for monitoring the implementation of related laws.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation that works to build better policies for better lives. Our goal is to shape policies that foster prosperity, equality, opportunity and well-being for all. We draw on 60 years of experience and insights to better prepare the world of tomorrow.

Together with governments, policy makers and citizens, we work on establishing evidence-based international standards and finding solutions to a range of social, economic and environmental challenges. From improving economic performance and creating jobs to fostering strong education and fighting international tax evasion, we provide a unique forum and knowledge hub for data and analysis, exchange of experiences, best-practice sharing, and advice on public policies and international standard-setting.

The Observatory is a partnership that brings together different policy perspectives to identify what health systems and policies evidence Europe’s decision makers need. The Observatory then generates and shares the evidence in print, in ‘person’ and online – acting as a knowledge broker and bridging the gap between academia and practice. The Observatory has four core functions:

• Country monitoring: providing analytic and evaluative descriptions of country health systems and systematically monitoring developments;
• Analysis: exploring how health systems ‘work’ through secondary and comparative research, multi-disciplinary studies and policy briefs on key and emerging challenges;
• Performance assessment: supporting the development and interpretation of indicators for practical policy use and to help improve performance;
• Knowledge brokering: making Observatory evidence visible and useful to its target audiences by unpacking and sharing it in a range of formats.

For the partnership period 2019-23, the Observatory has four analytic priorities that reflect Europe’s health systems challenges:

• Economics of health and health systems;
• Governance for better public health;
• Organizational models, skill mix and financing for effective integrated care;
• Implementing organizational and technological innovation.

Mandate: Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union.

Mission: Eutostat's mission is to provide high quality statistics and data on Europe.

Values:

• Show respect for our staff, partners and users
• Strive for excellence in everything we do
• Drive innovation in official statistics
• Promote service orientation
• Uphold professional independence