From bench to Brussels and back
Co-producing personalized medicine in the European Union
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24232129 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gerli Nimmerfeldt (0000-0002-8973-4910, Tallinn University), Erle Rikmann (0000-0002-3383-5173, Tallinn University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-20 |
| Publication date | 2026-10-12 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Critical Policy Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1946-0171 • E-ISSN: 1946-018X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/19460171.2026.2743233 |
| OpenAlex | W7221713539 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 60 |
Personalized medicine (PM) has emerged as both a major scientific endeavor and a strategic policy priority in the European Union (EU). Drawing on discourse theory and the science and technology studies concept of co-production, we use PM as a case of a co-produced scientific and policy project to examine not only how scientific advances shape policy agendas but also how EU political priorities, funding programs, and governance frameworks shape the scientific field. The study employs a qualitative comparative document analysis of scientific publications and EU policy documents published between 2000 and 2025. Scientific discourse and political narrative were analyzed separately before being compared to identify areas of convergence, divergence, and co-production. The analysis shows that scientific discourse evolved from genomics toward multi-omics, systems medicine, and AI-enabled, data-intensive research, consolidating into platform science organized around shared infrastructures, interoperable data ecosystems, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. In parallel, the EU’s political narrative evolved from promoting genomics-based healthcare innovation to positioning PM as a strategic instrument for digital transformation, competitiveness, and health-system reform. Our findings demonstrate the reciprocal co-production of science and policy in shaping PM as an institutionalized field.
data ecosystems · Digital transformation · discourse theory · European Union health policy · Health care reform · knowledge co-production · multi-omics · Personalized medicine · research funding · Science and Technology Studies · science-policy interface · scientific discourse · Biomedical Ethics and Regulation · Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration · Research, Science, and Academia
Personalized Medicine
The Postgenomic Condition
The Path to Personalized Medicine
Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold
Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids
Machine learning in medicine
Years of GWAS Discovery
High-performance medicine
The translational lag narrative in policy discourse in the United States and the European Union
Personalised medicine and the state
States of Knowledge
Contested futures
What is co-production? Conceptualising and understanding co-production of knowledge and policy across different theoretical perspectives
Co-production in global sustainability
The Drugs Don't Work
European Union and Health Policy
The Covid-19 crisis and the rise of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)
Discourse, framing and narrative
Political Narratives and Political Reality
Data as promise
The Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD)
Epistemic Cultures
Science at the Bar
| Highly cited | No |
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