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Research Unit UMR 912 SE4S (INSRM-IRD-Université de la Méditerranée) consists of three teams in social and economic sciences (SES) as well asocial epidemiology, focussing on applications in the field of : cancer (Team 1 CAN-BIOS); infectious diseases (Team 2 MATSS); and, aging (Team 3 DEVI-crs). Following previous research from unit UMR 379 INSERM/Université (1994-2007) as well as from the ex-unit UR002 of the IRD (2001-2007), SE4S tries to inspire a new dynamic in multidisciplinary research in areas of common interest regarding health (e.g. innovations in Pharmacogenomics and Oncology, antiviral therapies for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and health policies towards people living with chronic diseases or disabilities). These new developments especially focus on three specific areas:

First, the field of research has been extended to include the problems of public health and healthcare systems in Developing Countries (notably through the fusion of the ex-unit UR 002 “Actors and healthcare systems in Africa” within the framework of Team 2)

Second, the three teams work on common cross-sectional problems: a) analysis of the consequences of the structural tendency of “chronicisation” of disease risk under the combined effects of demographic aging, growing prevalence of chronic diseases and biomedical advances; b) problems in relations between developed and developing countries regarding health; c) the measurement of health inequalities and their associated social and economic determinants.

Finally, SE4S is a full participant in the current effort to renew interdisciplinarity within the social and economic sciences applied to health, by facilitating cross-fertilization of advanced quantitative and qualitative methodologies for data collection and data analysis.

Unit UMR 912 SE4S benefits at a local level from its special collaboration with the Regional Health Observatory (ORS-PACA), the French Institute for Public Economics (IDEP) as well as the Research Network for Cancer (Cancéropôle PACA). It also benefits from its integration into Unit IFR 134 SHESS-AM (“Human, Economic and Social Sciences for Health”- Aix-Marseille University, created in 2004 and renewed in 2008). Furthermore, the unit has a very extensive network of international collaboration (Universities; World Bank; The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; The World Health Organisation; UNAIDS, etc.). The goal of unit UMR 912 SE4S is to become one of the major international research centres in social and economic sciences applied to health.