About us | Institut ISSPAM

The Aix-Marseille institute for public health sciences anchors its actions in a modern, digital and globalised world to contribute to clinical and public health decision-making, to the evaluation of population health policies, to enlighten decision-makers and to have an impact on public health policy decisions.

ISSPAM’s three priority areas of activity are:

characterising the health of populations and sources of vulnerability;
interactions between the healthcare system and the population;
health mediation actions and practices.

Through its three priority areas, ISSPAM aims to:

develop structuring projects that act as project incubators;
disseminate knowledge with implications for public health decision-making;
to bring together, at regional and national level, socio-economic and cultural players in public health in a research-action/training dynamic, and assert its thematic specificities at national and international level.

Research and training

ISSPAM’s research and training missions are characterised by a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach to public health sciences. The institute aims to harness the synergies and potential of the site’s strengths in various areas:

from health democracy and empowerment to community and population research;
social inequalities in health and public policy responses;
digital health and augmented humanity;
global health;
artificial intelligence for public health.

ISSPAM works closely with patient associations and committees, health agencies and the socio-cultural world. With a resolutely international outlook, it focuses on developing countries in the South, with priority given to the French-speaking world and the Mediterranean basin.

The ISSPAM institutes’ training programme draws on 3 partner faculties with around 300 students enrolled on DESU (post-master’s qualification), master’s programmes affiliated with our institute and 3 partner doctoral schools in our scope with around 50 PhD students.

The Institute offers a range of activities for the benefit of masters and doctoral students in the field: an annual summer school, incoming mobility grants for foreign students, face-to-face and distance learning courses for students abroad, 4th year thesis grants and funding for doctoral contracts. The institute also organises “Public Health Action Days” ("Journées Actions en Santé Publique" - JASP), a series of days for students, academics and socio-economic and cultural players to exchange ideas.

Partner faculties

Partner doctoral schools

Our ecosystem

The ISSPAM institute draws on research teams within 5 research units and 7 research teams. In this way, we are creating links between around 250 staff from Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, Inserm and IRD.