About INGER

Building a sound evidence basis for gender-sensitive prevention and environmental health protection

The aim of the collaborative research project INGER is to develop innovative methods for gender-sensitive data collection and data analyses in population-based studies on environmental health to be able to analyse the health impacts of sex/gender and to build a sound basis for gender-sensitive prevention and environmental health protection.

The starting point of the collaborative research project is that gender with its diverse biological and social aspects is up to now not adequately integrated in biomedical research and practice of environmental health. Within INGER, the current state how sex/gender is included in environmental health research will be determined in a first step. Building on this, new questionnaire modules for improving data collection in population-based studies to comprehensively assess sex/gender dimensions according to gender theoretical concepts will be developed and tested. Newly collected and already available data from population-based studies will be used to identify methodological approaches of multivariable data analyses which are adequate to quantify sex/gender impacts on environmental exposures and health outcomes. An evidence basis to detect susceptible population groups and minimize health risks from environmental exposures is to be created. Implications for practice of gender-sensitive environmental health protection and prevention as well as for further research will be derived.

INGER includes the research and application fields of environmental epidemiology, environmental toxicology and public health research on environment and health for a successful implementation of these project objectives.

Leading institutions of these research fields work together in INGER:

• University of Bremen, Institute of Public Health and Nursing Reseach, Department of Social Epidemiology (Prof. Dr. Gabriele Bolte, Dr. Lisa Dandolo, Christina Hartig, Sophie Horstmann)
  - Coordination of the collaborative research project -
• Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Institute of Epidemiology, research unit "Environmental Risks", Neuherberg (Dr. Alexandra Schneider, Dr. Ute Kraus);
• German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt), Section II 1.2 Toxicology; Health-related Environmental Monitoring, Berlin (Dr. Marike Kolossa-Gehring, Dr. Małgorzata Dębiak, Katrin Groth)
• Humboldt-University of Berlin, Institute of History, professorship of Gender & Science, Berlin (Prof. Dr. Kerstin Palm, Dr. Katharina Jacke)

The collaborative research project INGER is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with a project period 2017 - 2021.