Summary: The principal aim of the European Network on Science, Religion and Health is to foster collaboration among researchers working at the intersection of science, religion and health in Europe. The network has three main lines of action. First, to stimulate communication and theoretical cross-fertilisation between researchers in order to advance the understanding of social and cultural narratives on science, religion/spirituality and health in Europe.
Second, to identify, systematise and disseminate existing research on this topic, and to create a directory of researchers doing research on the subject in Europe. The third line of work focuses on promoting training and mentoring activities for early-careers scholars working in this field in Europe.
The main outputs of the network will be the following ones. On the one hand, the creation of an online space, with a directory of researchers, a bibliographic repository and a news section. A Twitter account will also be created, updated every two weeks, and displayed in the webpage. The Network will also encourage cooperation and communication with other existing networks, associations and sites, and use social media to give visibility to the contents produced and to the activities. On the other hand, scientific exchange will be promoted by fostering a space of dialogue and exchange among scholars, which will lead to the publication of a special issue in a journal or an edited book offering an overview of the research carried out in Europe on religion, science and health. An online event will be organised to launch the publication And finally, the network will organise a summer school on Religion, science and Health aimed at early-careers scholars and the developing of a follow-up mentoring program for the early-career researchers participating in the summer school.
In terms of impact, our aim is to encourage dialogue, collaboration and exchange between researchers from different human and social disciplines doing research on religion/spirituality, science and health. We are particularly interested in fostering dialogue and cooperation between researchers conducting empirical research on the subject, and in fostering opportunities for interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration. We will especially work to include early-careers scholars in this dialogue, aimed at creating and fostering the conditions for future research collaboration in this area. Our long-term goal is to generate the emergence of new collaborative research initiatives in this field, and to foster cross-disciplinarity, and theoretical and empirical innovation. We believe that by creating a strong Europeanlevel network on this issue, this network will then also be able to develop international cooperation links, promote comparative research and expand its impact globally.
The Network will be launched together as a collaboration initiative amongscholars at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, l’École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) and the Univeristy of Leipzig. More members will be recruited further, and included into the Network.
