Co-creating Systematic Public Health in a Collaborative Learning Network

Municipalities have a statutory obligation to engage in systematic public health work, yet many struggle to ensure continuity due to constrained resources, geographical distances, high staff turnover, limited positions dedicated to public health, and increasing demands related to preparedness. Despite these pressures, municipalities have a responsibility to act. The necessary knowledge, tools, and experience are available, the challenge, however, lies in mobilizing and applying them in a strategic and collaborative manner. This presentation explores the experiences of a regional learning network established to strengthen local public health by fostering collaboration across municipalities. The network aims to be an accessible low threshold arena for sharing experiences, receiving regular professional input, supporting implementation of statutory public health tasks, and ensuring continuity in municipal public health activities.
The learning collaborative is organized by Trøndelag county together with the Research and Development institutions in the region, targeting municipal employees and others with an interest in municipal public health. The network was established February 2025 as an extension of the collaboration and partnership in the National Programme for Public Health Work in Municipalities (2017–2027) in Trøndelag county. This to reinforce networking and collaboration between the research community, municipalities and the county.
The format is hybrid, with regular digital gatherings and a semiannual physical workshop with alternating location, making the network accessible to all municipalities in the region. By bringing together practitioners, researchers and experts in the region, the network seeks to support competence and capacity building. The network enables professional input and inspiration based on both experience and research knowledge to support a more systematic and sustainable way of working with public health at municipality level.
The study presented is part of a mixed methods evaluation to be conducted in spring 2026. The quantitative component consists of a survey distributed to all registered network participants, examining expectations, perceived relevance, and experience. The qualitative component includes focus group interviews with participants from municipalities and research partners, exploring how involvement in the network influences their ability and motivation to work systematically with public health in their local context.
The conference presentation will share preliminary findings. These findings will highlight participants’ experiences with the establishment of the learning network, how they perceive its value, and how participation may contribute to strengthening long term, knowledge based public health w