Annual Report 2011, Berlin

ECER Berlin 2011 was the first conference that Network 8 (Research on Health Education) accepted submissions. We had about 34 papers during the conference, of which one was poster, one symposium, one round table and the rest paper presentations. All sessions went well; we did not have many cancellations or no–shows, at least not to the extent to be disturbing to the sessions. The attendance of the sessions was good; we had between 10 and 25 people in the sessions, less if there were parallel sessions, most at the symposium. The early morning sessions were less attended, and this should be taken into consideration in the planning of the next conference. There were good discussions and good feedback from the participants concerning the thematic areas in the sessions. We also had a Network meeting, which was scheduled as a session. There were 25 participants at the meeting. I presented the focus of the network, and the links with the SHE (Schools for Health) Network and research group. We also discussed that the focus should be broadened to include education for sustainable development as well, as there were a few papers on this topic within the programme, and sustainability is gaining increasing importance in the research in health promotion in schools currently in Europe and wider. It was agreed that this would be explored with the EERA office, and if possible, we can change the name of network 8 from: Research on Health Education to: Research on Health and Sustainability Education.  If this is approved, we will add a few key words in the Network descriptor, and modify the descriptor accordingly, so we can accept submissions on this wider focus for the conference in Cadiz next year. Other activities during the conference included a radio and video interview about the network focus and related research and funding challenges.