About the CReSP

The Centre for Public Health Research was funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS) during the expansion of the centre program in 2019. The CReSP is the result of a partnership between the Université de Montréal and the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, an integrated university health and social services centre. The centre is also the first and only major research infrastructure in Quebec entirely dedicated to public health and functioning within the context of advantageous structural connections with an establishment responsible for population’s health, the CCSMTL. 

The CReSP promotes collaboration between research and practice environments through its close ties to Montréal’s regional public health department (DRSP), its partnerships with the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ), the Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS), the Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), as well as with community members and community organizations. 

The centre offers a unique research and training environment. The researchers at the CReSP cover all disciplines related to public health and conduct research at local, regional, national and international scales. The centre has over 70 research members as well as experts from partner organizations. They come from six faculties of the Université de Montréal and Polytechnique Montréal. 

Our vision

The CReSP’s vision is to provide Québec society with a research centre that optimizes knowledge in order to meet population health challenges of the 21st century. The aspired research approach is firmly rooted in interdisciplinary collaboration, practical application, and translational approaches. 

Integrated knowledge translation consists of favouring and maintaining frequent and reciprocal exchanges between research and practice. The close links with the field of practice, made possible through the affiliation with the CCSMTL, allows the centre to create special connections with its partners. By choosing this approach, the CReSP aims to become a reference in terms of research, practice and decision making in public health. 

Our mission

The CReSP’s mission is to generate relevant cutting-edge knowledge to provide insight into population and animal health challenges, their environments and interactions. It supports evidence-based public health initiatives to promote health and reduce the burden of illness.

This research centre promotes collaboration between research and practice due to its close ties to local, provincial, and federal public health partners, as well as its knowledge brokerage strategy.

Its innovative and multisectoral vision of public health, based on the “One Health” approach, provides the means to assess the influence of behavioural, sociodemographic, environmental, agricultural, economic and political determinants on human, animal and environmental health, across national borders.

Research themes

In order to facilitate the integration of expert members, align the CReSP's activities with partners’ priorities and to increase the accessibility of the CReSP's research expertise to the broader public, the centre’s scientific programming is currently structured around six key themes:

Theme 1 : Urban health, communities and territories 
Focuses on the exploitation and use of resources, the development of living environments and decision-making that takes into account the needs of individuals, neglected populations, and the interface between human, animal and ecosystem health. 

Theme 2 : Resilience and transformation of healthcare systems and services
Focuses on health care and social service systems as determinants of health and public health. 

Theme 3 : Risks and prevention
Focuses on understanding and modeling the effect of the social and physical environments in which populations live in order to maximize health at the human-animal-environment interface. 

Theme 4 : Alter-global health
Focuses on the interfaces between global changes and structural dynamics (international and national) on the one hand, and local environmental and socio-health consequences and interventions on the other.

Theme 5 : Work and health
Focuses on preventing the onset of occupational diseases and on promoting safe, healthy work environments from a sustainable health perspective. 

Theme 6 : Equity and health 
Focuses on structural determinants, i.e. systemic processes that determine inequities in access to power and resources.