The International Health Literacy Association (IHLA) held it first ever in-person event in Rotterdam – with global participation, is was a landmark event for both the community and the international endavours to bring data insights and collaborative research into the center of health planning, promotion, and policies.

The first Global Health Literacy Summit had been scheduled for Taiwan in 2021, but had to be held as online event; thus this event allowed partners and experts to finally connect directly after years of collaboration.

NWA participated in both discussions and events by also presenting work we’ve done in partnership with the European Health Futures Forum – EHFF.

NWA Lars Münter was invited to join the inaugural session of the EU Consortium for Cancer Prevention – the EU CCP. The EU CCP has been created to work as a stronger engagement engine for the efforts across EU to create better prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and overall mortality and wellbeing outcomes for cancer.

The EU CCP has been setup by the JA PreventNCD that is the largest Joint Action to date. In collaboration with JACARDI (Joint Action on cardiovascular disease) and WHO Europe.

Read more about the many initiatives and events in JA PreventNCD here.

Cool news – a new project to explore the use of Forgotten Fish

Forgotten fish are species underused by industrial fishing due to their small size or failure to reach a threshold for commercial trade, thus being underused in mass consumption and catering. Usually caught accidentally, they are discarded, contributing to waste and a lower respect for marine biodiversity (WWF, “The World’s Forgotten Fishes”, 2021).

Even if they are forgotten by industrial fishing, these could be an essential resource for artisanal fishing and environmental conservation since they can be caught in limited periods of the year. Due to the rapidity of their reproductive cycle, they are not at risk of extinction. However, the limited awareness and knowledge of forgotten fish lead to their underutilization and undervaluation in catering. Consequently, catering operators and VET centers are unfamiliar with these species and either do not use them or lack adequate synergies with artisanal fishing to make efficient and innovative use of them in catering.

The objectives of this project are:
A. Increase the knowledge and skills of catering operators in the use of forgotten fish.
B. Foster synergies between restaurateurs and artisanal fishermen in the use of forgotten fish.
C. Promote the use and promotion of forgotten fish in catering.

In this project we partner with Italian and Greek partners, in a consortium led by the amazing restaurant in Marstang Mad&Vin from Marstal, Ærø in Denmark – exploring practices from 2024-2026.

Mental health – stress management for first responders through augmented reality in disasters

As a new experience, we’ll be part of a French-led consortium to explore better pathways towards mental health in a very challenging workplace – disaster, accidents, and crisis. With 8 other partners from France, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Italy, and Spain, we’ll be able from 2024-2026 to not just explore and develop better practices, but also integrate new technology for relief, awareness, management, and possibly rehabilitation in the MentaStress project.

Our project will look nothing like the image of minions – but like them, we humans are simply trying to do our best in challenging circumstances.  We’ll be back with more asap.

NWA participated in the 15th edition of the ECW Conference (Energy, Creative Collaboration, and Wellbeing in Organisations) in Pasturo Italy in June 2024 – a gathering organised by the Il Nodo Group.

(see https://www.ilnodogroup.it/en/event/ecw-2024-group-relations-conference/)

The event was a very insightful experience into the Tavistock Method also in addition to a combination of sensory and engaging exercises in the beautiful landscape near Lake Como.

NWA learned a lot about diversity of cultural and organisational perceptions regarding group relations in the very global gathering of participants (hailing from China, Kazakhstan, Iran, UK, Denmark, Colombia, USA, Finland, Estonia, Russia, France, Australia, and Italy of course) – besides also sharing a lot of experiences across countries in terms of food, song, dance, and more.