The 10th edition of the APH Annual Meeting will take place on Tuesday, November 24, and is dedicated to the theme 'Resilient Societies'. Together, we will explore how public health research can strengthen the resilience and adaptability of citizens and communities. Be part of the conversation and help shape a more resilient society through public health research!
The entire day will be dedicated to the theme 'Resilient Societies’. Featuring inspiring keynotes, midcareer pitches, poster presentations, research program theme sessions, and engaging opening and closing acts, it promises to be a day of new insights, inspiring discussions, and meaningful connections. Explore the full program below or register now!
Plenary morning session
(9:30-12:20 hrs)
Opening
We will open the day with a Spoken Word Performance by Justin Samgar, followed by a welcome and introduction by prof. dr. Cécile Boot.
Keynote 1 Karen van Oudenhoven-van der Zee
What binds us
In this Keynote Karen van Oudenhoven-van der Zee takes you on a journey through the foundations of a resilient society. Resilience of society depends on the resilience of individuals and communities. How do we promote resilience at the individual and community level? What does this imply for a fruitful relationship between citizens and the government?
Bio: Karen van Oudenhoven-van der Zee is the director of The Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP) and holds an endowed chair in societal resilience at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Prior to this, she was the Vice-Rector and Dean of Faculty of social sciences at the same university. She specializes in Personality Psychology and Work and Organizational Psychology and holds a PhD in Social and Health Psychology.
Keynote 2 Michel Dückers
Societal resilience: Anticipating crises and their public health impact from a health and social science perspective
Throughout our history, we have faced threats that at times had catastrophic consequences for societies. Even today, people’s physical and social living environments are under pressure—climate change, war and conflict, pollution, migration. Disasters with more or less clear human causes, both acute and long-term crises. How resilient and adaptable is society? What does this mean for affected citizens, particularly in terms of health impacts? What does it require from governments? What contribution can the health and social sciences make to understanding and addressing problems during health crises? These themes are the focus of the keynote by Michel Dückers, Professor of Crises, Safety and Health at the University of Groningen.
Bio: Michel Dückers is a social scientist affiliated with several knowledge institutes. He advises and supports national and local governments on issues of societal resilience and on how to prepare for and respond to disasters and crises. Michel is Professor of Crises, Safety and Health at the University of Groningen. This endowed chair was established by the university in collaboration with ARQ National Psychotrauma Centre, the Netherlands Institute for Public Safety, Nivel and the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). In this role, he contributes to theory development, research, education and knowledge dissemination on the consequences of threats and crises for people and society.
Midcareer pitches
Acting on planetary health: Building resilience in a changing world
- by dr. Fabiola Müller
The planetary crisis—climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution—threatens human health worldwide. Resilient societies need citizens equipped with the skills to understand this reality and the opportunity to act accordingly. Planetary health literacy—the ability to access, understand, appraise, and act on information about the health impacts of the planetary crisis—can therefore play a critical role in addressing the health challenges we face. Müller will draw on her research among adolescents and young adults to illustrate the challenges of navigating an overwhelming and unreliable information landscape, and what it takes to enable individuals to act, protecting both their own health and that of the planet.
Bio: Dr. Fabiola Müller is a senior researcher at the Department of Public & Occupational Health. Viewing the planetary crisis as fundamentally a health crisis, she studies how people perceive and respond to current and future health threats. Her goal is to translate these insights into communication strategies and interventions that support informed decision-making and behavior change. Committed to inclusivity, she strives for a just transition towards a sustainable future.
From stress to strength: The origins and consequences of adolescent resilience - by dr. Lianne de Vries
Stress is a part of life, but how people respond to and recover from it varies widely. In this talk, Lianne will present her research on resilience as a dynamic process that unfolds across different timescales: from daily stress responses to long-term trajectories of mental health and wellbeing. Focusing on adolescence, a sensitive period in which stress increases and mental health problems often first emerge, she examines how childhood factors shape adolescent resilience and how resilience develops into adulthood. Her research aims to identify personal, social, lifestyle, genetic, and environmental factors that contribute to recovery from stress and protect mental health over time.
Bio: Dr. Lianne de Vries is an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Psychology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Using data from the Netherlands Twin Register, she combines longitudinal cohort studies, twin and genetic designs, and ecological momentary assessment. She completed her PhD cum laude in 2023 and has since worked on studies of mental health and wellbeing. She recently received a Veni grant to investigate how daily-life dynamics, developmental trajectories, and genetic differences jointly shape resilience.
Growing old at home: Building resilience together
- by dr. Marjon van Rijn
As people live longer, many older adults experience increasing frailty, multimorbidity, and changing care needs. Building resilient communities is one of the major challenges for healthcare today. Marjon will present how the Academic Living Lab for Community Care Nursing North Holland (AWW-NH) connects research, education, and practice to develop, evaluate, and implement innovations in community-based prevention, acute care at home, and long-term care at home. Through this collaborative approach, AWW-NH aims to help people continue living the lives they value while creating sustainable impact for healthcare practice and education.
Bio: Dr. Marjon van Rijn is an assistant professor at Amsterdam UMC, at the department of medicine for older people and endowed professor (lector) in Quality of Care for Older People at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. With a background in nursing, her research focuses on improving the quality of care for older adults in a healthcare system where care is increasingly delivered at home. She leads the Academic Living Lab for Community Care Nursing North Holland (AWW-NH).
Walking lunch break
(12:00-12:55 hrs)
During the walking lunch break you can network with fellow APH researchers.
APH Poster presentations
(12:55-13:50 hrs)
PhD candidates, junior researchers and postdocs are invited to present a poster of their research project at the Annual Meeting. Visit the poster presentations and get to know APH's research projects better! Engage with colleagues, ask questions, and exchange perspectives.
Parallel theme sessions
(14:00-15:30 hrs)
After lunch and the poster presentations, parallel theme sessions will be held hosted by the APH research programs.
(1) Community care networks – Lived experiences (Dutch session)
Organized by Aging & Later Life
We are planning a session around ‘community care networks’, which consists of people who live within a neighborhood and who are willing to help one another with small practical tasks. This enables older persons to age in place. We invited several speakers, not only the inventor of the community care networks, but also people involved in setting up or coordinating a community care network and people who make use of it. In addition, researchers studying (in)formal care for older adults, ethics, and ageing in place will be invited. The panel will first share their experience with community care networks, after which some dilemma’s will be presented to also actively involve the audience to join the discussion. Our session fits the overall theme of resilient societies, as community care networks are an example to help people live independently for longer, imposed by Dutch government reforms.
Please note: This session will be held in Dutch.
(2) Caring for healthcare providers: Quality of care and work resilience in times of crisis
Organized by Quality of Care
How can healthcare systems maintain quality of care without overburdening healthcare professionals during times of crisis? This interactive parallel session explores the relationship between workforce wellbeing, care quality, and resilient healthcare systems. Participants will work in small groups on a realistic crisis scenario involving staff shortages, increased demand, and external pressure. Through decision-making rounds, scenario updates, and guided reflection, they will examine the trade-offs between patient care, workforce capacity, and support for healthcare providers. The session combines simulation, theoretical reflection, and plenary discussion to identify recurring dilemmas, systemic barriers, and practical conditions that enable healthcare organizations to remain resilient while caring for those who provide care.
(3) Resilience and mental health in contexts of conflict and displacement
Organized by Global Health
This session explores how to strengthen the resilience of people living in conflict-affected settings and people on the move. What mental health and care strategies can support and maintain wellbeing in the face of radical uncertainty, loss, trauma and displacement? Drawing on public health, psychology, anthropology and transdisciplinary research, the speakers present research from the Netherlands, Greece, Colombia, Yemen and Egypt to examine how care practices can foster resilience in the context of conflict and displacement.
Presentations address resilience as a relational and political process, shaped by the quality and accessibility of care. They explore participatory action research with refugees and asylum seekers; trauma, coping and pathways towards violence or peacefull behavior among conflict-affected populations; mental health and psychosocial support practices developed by trans activists in Colombia; and efforts to strengthen care quality in fragile health systems. Together, they consider how mental-health and resilience can move beyond individual recovery to foster trust, recognition, agency and sustainable community wellbeing.
Speakers are Jamilah Sherally (PhD candidate, VU Amsterdam), Stefanie Freel (PhD candidate, Amsterdam UMC), Laura Martinez (PhD candidate, VU Amsterdam) and Abdul Mullahzada (PhD candidate, VU Amsterdam).
(4) Multilevel perspectives on resilience: From cohort insights to interventions
Organized by Mental Health & Amsterdam Cohort Hub
What makes people resilient, and how can resilience be strengthened? Longitudinal cohort studies help us understand how resilience develops and where interventions may help. Together with the APH Mental Health program, Amsterdam Cohort Hub (ACH) explores these questions at three interconnected levels.
- Micro level: wearables, physical activity, and mental health. ACH director Eco de Geus examines what real-life measurements can reveal about the relationship between physical activity, stress, and mental health.
- Meso level: resilience in daily and social contexts. Podcast host Marcos Ross Adelman interviews Veni grant recipient Lianne de Vries about her research within Stress in Action and the role of people’s everyday environments.
- Macro level: urban mental health and environmental factors. Adam Finnemann considers urban mental health and complex systems, identifying where change may have the greatest impact.
The session concludes with an interactive discussion hosted by Marcos Ross Adelman. Starting from these cohort findings, speakers and participants will explore ways to strengthen resilience at the individual, social and societal levels.
(5) Who do you trust? Navigating health misinformation in a digital society
Organized by Digital Health
As healthcare and our society become increasingly digital, questions around trust, resilience, accessibility and responsible data use become ever more important. This session explores how health misinformation develops, spreads, and can be addressed from clinical, patient, technological, and ethical perspectives. How can patients assess publicly available health and wellness information, particularly on social media? How can healthcare professionals and researchers communicate reliable information effectively, while recognizing the mechanisms and commercial incentives that drive misinformation? Following an introduction to Amsterdam Medtech, Leonie Hulstein, founder of “Dokters Vandaag”, will deliver the keynote. During the subsequent dialogue session, panelists with various backgrounds (patient, Amsterdam UMC social ambassador, AuthentiMark PhD) together with the audience will examine practical approaches, including responsible social-media engagement and technological methods for verifying digital content.
(6) Strengthening the voice of public health researchers
Organized by Health Behaviors & Chronic Diseases
In this HBCD parallel session, we will explore how we, as public health researchers, can use our knowledge to create societal impact in a complex playing field in which different actors have diverse interests, perspectives, resources and opportunities to exert influence. Scientific knowledge is only one of the many sources of information shaping public understanding. Companies, civil society organisations and (social) media also influence which information reaches people and how societal issues are framed. Consider, for example, debates surrounding e-bikes, vapes, GLP-1 drugs and unhealthy food marketing: the different views expressed about these topics often reflect not only different sources of information, but also different underlying interests.
PhD candidate at Erasmus MC and misinformation fact-checker Coen Dros, will share how he initiated Coenfirmation Bias, the responses he receives to his public communications, and how these responses differ between actors who support or oppose his messages. A second presentation will examine lobbying and framing as important aspects of the commercial determinants of health. HBCD members will then briefly reflect on their own experiences of communicating research findings in contexts where other actors express opposing views or interests. We will conclude with a joint discussion about how public health researchers can strengthen their voice and contribute effectively and responsibly to public debate.
(7) Improvisation techniques for resilient researchers
Organized by Societal Participation & Health & Personalized medicine
The Social Participation & Health and Personalized Medicine programs together will facilitate a workshop focusing on how to stay resilient as a researcher in unpredictable situations. Great presenters know it's not about memorizing every word or controlling every moment. You can't. It’s about connecting with your audience, communicating your ideas clearly and being ready to adapt in real time. Through practical, interactive exercises, participants will learn to tell stronger stories, embrace the unexpected and stay effective when plans - and the script - go out the window.
Boom Chicago is invited to lead this activity and will be using their signature improvisation-based activities - and their belief that humor makes business better, to help researchers become more confident, engaging and resilient presenters. Focus will be on developing three essential skills:
- How to create and tell a compelling story
- How to think on your feet when things don’t go according to plan
- How to respond confidently to unexpected questions
(8) A different methodology: Experiencing and learning about creative participatory methods
Organized by Methodology
Participatory and creative methodologies are gaining momentum. But how can we study, for example, resilience with the people who need support most? And how can we do so creatively? In this session, we invite participants to experience the atmosphere and value of creative participatory research approaches. The session consists of two parts. First, we offer a brief introduction to what the arts can add to methodologies commonly used in public health research, including an example from a study involving mothers in Amsterdam. In the second part, we engage the audience in an exercise. We present ideas for applying arts-based methods (such as drawing, filmmaking, podcasting, and theatre) in a future mixed-methods research project. You will leave with a better understanding of whether and how creative participatory methodologies can be integrated into your own practice. Speakers are Barbara Groot-Sluijsmans, Meredith Overman, Leonie Klaufus, Fleur van Acht.
Plenary closing
(15:50-16:35 hrs)
Booster grant award & Poster award ceremony
The plenary closing session will begin with the APH Resilient Society Booster grant 2026 award ceremony, where proposals from APH researchers aimed at strengthening the resilience of society within the field of public health will be selected by lottery. This will be followed by the announcement of the winners of the APH Poster award 2026.
The session will conclude with an entertaining closing performance. Afterwards, we invite you to stay for drinks and appetizers until around 18:00 hrs.
It promises to be a day of new insights, inspiring discussions, and meaningful connections. Be part of the conversation and help shape a more resilient society through public health research!
APH Poster presentations
Submission procedure
Submit an abstract before Monday October 12 (11:00 hrs) by completing this form. All submitted abstracts will be reviewed by the program leaders on scientific and methodological quality, scientific and societal relevance, innovative character and suitability to APH (both overall and to your research program). Only one abstract can be submitted per person, and your abstract must include data to be presented.
The deadline for submission is October 12, 2026 (11:00 hrs).
Ultimately October 29 you will be informed whether your abstract is accepted and you can present a poster during the poster sessions. The best posters compete for the APH Poster Award 2026! The award comes with a money prize in vouchers:
- Winner: € 500
- Second place: € 300
- Third place: € 200
APH Resilient Societies Booster grant
APH invites researchers to apply for the Resilient Societies Booster grants 2026, with a maximum value of €5.000. With this APH Booster grant, we aim to stimulate research that strengthens the resilience of society within the field of public health. To compete for this booster grant, you have to submit an eligible booster plan and attend the APH Annual Meeting on November 24. At the end of the Annual Meeting, 6 winners will be selected during the plenary closing ceremony based on random selection. More about the APH Resilient Societies Booster grant 2026 can be found on this page.