From Science to Policy: Improving Speed and Effectiveness in Health Emergencies

This policy brief addresses the urgent need to institutionalize permanent mechanisms for intermediating between scientific evidence and policy decision-making in the Spanish autonomous communities during health emergencies. Although Spain established the National Office for Scientific Advice (ONAC) in 2024, the autonomous communities—which manage key competencies such as healthcare and civil protection—lack equivalent long-term structures. All this occurs in a context of high probability of new pandemics (almost 50% chance of one occurring with at least one million deaths in the next ten years, according to The Lancet) and following the lessons learned during COVID-19, when the absence of stable channels led to fragmented and suboptimal responses, particularly in regions such as Catalonia, one of the most affected in Europe.

Executive Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that the ability to quickly translate scientific evidence into policy decisions can save thousands of lives. However, the absence of permanent knowledge broker structures between the scientific community and policymakers resulted in slow, fragmented, and poorly coordinated responses in many regions of Spain. This policy brief, prepared by the ISGlobal P3R3 Platform with the support of the “la Caixa” Foundation, proposes a systemic change: the creation of regional scientific advisory offices in the autonomous communities, inspired by successful international models.

The document analyzes experiences from countries such as the United Kingdom (with its Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, SAGE), Germany, Canada, and New Zealand, which demonstrated during COVID-19 and other crises the effectiveness of formal science-policy dialogue mechanisms. These systems not only improved immediate responses but also recovery and preparedness for future threats. In Spain, although the ONAC represents an important national advancement, the decentralization of health competencies requires replicating these mechanisms in the autonomous communities.

The analysis identifies Catalonia as a priority case study. The COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Committee in Catalonia noted in 2022 that the region was one of the most affected in Europe, with high excess mortality, partly due to the lack of formal scientific-technical advisory spaces at the beginning of the pandemic. Although ad hoc bodies were created, such as the PROCICAT Technical Committee or the Multidisciplinary Collaborative Group, these mechanisms were improvised and did not remain active after the emergency.

The central proposal of the document is clear: establish focal points or scientific advisory offices in each autonomous community, with an explicit mandate, adequate resources, and rigorous methodologies such as the GRADE approach to synthesize evidence. These structures should not duplicate efforts but complement the ONAC and intersectoral platforms such as P3R3, which serve as spaces for knowledge synthesis and translation. The goal is to ensure that when the next crisis arrives, trusted channels, relationships, and protocols are already in place, avoiding the improvisation that cost lives during the pandemic.

The document emphasizes that building these capacities does not require complex structures or massive investments. Often, it is enough to designate and empower well-positioned professionals within administrations, with training and a mandate to act as a link with scientific networks. The key is to act now, "in times of peace", before urgency forces decisions without the best available information.

Key Points

• Autonomous communities lack continuous structures to translate scientific evidence into policy decisions, despite managing key competencies such as healthcare during emergencies.
• COVID-19 demonstrated that the absence of knowledge intermediaries results in fragmented responses, loss of trust, and suboptimal outcomes that cost lives.
• Successful international models show that formal scientific advisory mechanisms work during crises as well as in recovery phases.
• Catalonia, one of the European regions most affected by the pandemic, is the case study highlighting the urgency of institutionalizing these channels in Spain.
• The proposal is to create regional scientific advisory offices with a clear and structured mandate, rigorous methodologies, and complementarity with the national ONAC and platforms such as P3R3.
• The time to act is now: build trust, relationships, and protocols “in times of peace” to be ready when the next health emergency arrives.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE FULL DOCUMENT, in Spanish (2 MB)