"It is estimated that around 20% of the burden of disease in industrialized countries can be attributed to environmental factors, and the magnitude of the problem is perceived by the majority of Europeans. The assessment of health impacts is based mostly on scarce exposure data and limited information on the relationship between exposure and health. There is, therefore, a need to strengthen research in this area and to develop methods and tools which will improve the comparability of data. Member States have developed skills and expertise using different mechanisms to fund environment and health research. The scientific boundaries created by the remits of different funding organisations have frequently acted as a disincentive to collaborative working. Although aims are towards relevance and efficiency, the results remain dispersed and not of actual support for policy-making. Therefore, results of the studies in ERA-ENVHEALTH will lead to the proposal of a coherent set of proposed priorities, implementation of joint activities, and common calls. ERA-ENVHEALTH, by bringing together 16 participants from 10 countries, will contribute to establish collaboration among the different funding organisations of environmental and public health research communities."