Third edition of the ASSET best practice award for general practitioners

ASSET AIM

ASSET – Action Plan on SiS Related Issues in Epidemics and Total Pandemics is a 4-year FP7 EU co funded project which aims to:   

1. Forge a partnership with complementary perspectives, knowledge and experiences to address effectively scientific and societal challenges raised by pandemics and associated crisis management;
2. Explore and map SiS-related issues in global pandemics;
3. Define and test a participatory and inclusive strategy to succeed;   
4. Identify necessary resources to make sustainable the action after the project completion.

AIM OF THE AWARD

The ASSET project aims at awarding GPs or groups of GPs who have best included Science in Society (SiS) aspects in order to improve the quality of communication about epidemics and pandemics with their patients and with local communities.

More specifically:

The ASSET project will award health professionals working in the primary health sector (GPs or groups of GPs) who have implemented an activity or intervention to:

• improve the response of local communities or groups of people to deal with outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as influenza, measles, pertussis (whooping cough) etc;
• promote immunizations for groups of children or adults for the prevention of diseases such as influenza, measles, rubella, pertussis (whooping cough) etc;
• prevent the outbreak of infectious diseases among migrant/refugee populations;
• improve primary health care services to better respond to outbreaks of infectious diseases.

ASSET focuses on initiatives, concluded or on-going, implemented in the years 2015-2016 in any of the EU 28 Member States, the EEA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), Israel and Switzerland.

AWARD DESCRIPTION

Four (4) health professionals or groups of health professionals working in the primary health sector will be awarded 3,000€ each as an educational grant. This grant in collaboration with the ASSET consortium can be used for education related activities, such as:

• To attend a public health related European conference (such as ESCAIDE, EUPHA or relevant). In this case the award amount will cover for the winner’s registration, travel and accommodation expenses;   
• To spend 5-10 working days working in one of the ASSET partner organizations (pls refer to the ASSET website for more information - http://www.asset-scienceinsociety.eu/);
• Other educational activity/ies, related to public health preparedness and Science in Society (SiS), pending on appropriate description and justification and approval by the ASSET Award committee.

The award cannot:

• be used for the procurement of medical or electronic equipment, 
• be provided as cash reimbursement or bulk transfer to an individual’s or an association’s bank account without supporting documentation such as invoices of travel and accommodation expenses, registration expenses, etc.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Any European GP or group of GPs or other primary care health professionals can apply for the ASSET Award by filling in and submitting the online application form.

• Application deadline: August 31^st 2017.

In order to be valid, the complete Application Form (including all requested information) for each activity should be submitted within the foreseen deadline.

NOMINATION PROCESS

Any individual health professional or member of the public can nominate a GP or group of GPs or other primary health care professional working in any European Union Member State (EU MS), the EEA countries (Iceland and Norway), Israel and Switzerland by completing and submitting the on line ASSET AWARD nomination form.

Nominations should include contact details for the nominee, in order for the ASSET consortium to contact him/her directly to officially apply for the award.

• Nomination deadline: August 31^st 2017.