A major research grant is awarded to a sustainability research project that Erasmus School of Economics has a significant role in. This was revealed in the latest round of the NWO Dutch Research Agenda programme Research along Routes by Consortia (NWA-ORC).
Strategies to create circular hospitals
The project is entitled Evidence-based Strategies to create Circular Hospitals: Applying the 10-Rs framework to healthcare (ESCH-R). An Erasmus MC coordinated consortium of researchers will receive a total of € 5.3 million. The project’s aim is to accelerate the adoption of circular interventions in hospitals and thereby lower the ecological footprint of healthcare.
As part of the interdisciplinary research team, Dr Sophie van der Zee and Prof. Pilar Garcia-Gomez of Erasmus School of Economics will receive funding for a PhD candidate; Dr Wilco van den Heuvel and Prof. Albert Wagelmans will spend the budget allocated on a Postdoc researcher. (in the picture from left to right: Sophie van der Zee, Pilar Garcia-Gomez, Wilco van den Heuvel and Albert Wagelmans).
Circular interventions in hospitals to lower the ecological footprint of healthcare
The healthcare sector accounts for seven per cent of the CO2 footprint of the Netherlands. In response, the Dutch government has called for more environmentally sustainable healthcare. The project ESCH-R addresses this challenge with its mission to accelerate the adoption of circular interventions in hospitals and thereby lower the ecological footprint of healthcare. The consortium’s research question is: How can hospitals move away from single use medical consumables to make the transition towards circularity? An interdisciplinary team will develop circular, safe and scalable strategies. In the long-run, the ESCH-R project will contribute to a sustainable and resilient health system.
Sophie van der Zee is excited: ‘Pilar Garcia-Gomez and I will be working on promoting behavioural change amongst hospital employees. Through interviews and questionnaires, we want to understand what factors hinder and promote sustainable behaviour amongst different types of hospital employees. Based on these insights, we will develop and test intervention studies in hospitals to facilitate more sustainable behaviour.’ Operations Research experts Albert Wagelmans and Wilco van den Heuvel of the Econometric Institute will identify on how a transition towards circular hospitals could and should take place over time in a sustainable and feasible manner.
- More information
Picture: From Left To Right: Sophie van der Zee, Pilar Garcia-Gomez, Wilco van den Heuvel and Albert Wagelmans
This recently published paper describes how the intensive care of Erasmus MC has improved its sustainability by changing three environmental hotspots: gloves, gowns and CRRT bags and their packaging.
For more information, please contact Ronald de Groot, Media & Public Relations Officer at Erasmus School of Economics: rdegroot@ese.eur.nl, mobile phone: +31 6 53 641 846.
