[Cooperation between science and practice in public health services: a systematic mapping from 2015 to 2024]

Collaboration between science and practice in the public health service (PHS) holds the potential to translate scientific findings into practice and to incorporate practice-oriented questions back into research. Existing collaborations can provide valuable insights into structural conditions. However, no systematic mapping has been conducted in Germany to date. The aim of this study was therefore to systematically identify and analyze science-practice collaborations within the German PHS.

In a structured screening process, various data sources from 2015 to 2024 were systematically searched: (i) Google™, (ii) conference abstract volumes, (iii) scientific databases, (iv) databases for grey literature, supplemented by (v) an online survey, (vi) snowballing, and (vii) input from the "EvidenzOGD" project consortium network. Identified collaborations were categorized according to structural characteristics and analyzed descriptively using frequency analyses stratified by subgroups.

A total of 611 science-practice collaborations in the PHS were identified, most of them through conference contributions. The number of collaborations increased over the study period. Many focused on classical fields of PHS activities and were mainly implemented at the municipal level. Coordination was almost evenly distributed between academic institutions and PHS institutions, while implementation was predominantly located in western federal states.

This mapping of science-practice collaborations provides a comprehensive overview of a complex and multifaceted landscape of collaboration. It offers a foundation for further in-depth analyses regarding facilitating and hindering factors of collaboration, for example, as well as a better understanding of thematic and geographical clustering.